What’s the most important ingredient in a company’s success? Any CEO will tell you it’s their workforce. The availability, talent, energy and commitment of a company’s workers means the difference between success and failure.
Georgia has continued to produce an abundance of workers.
Highly educated graduates of our universities and technical colleges form a deep pool of skilled talent for managerial, professional and technical positions. Our research universities serve as training grounds for current and future employees of firms like NCR and GE Energy.
We also own the nation’s star workforce-training program, Georgia Quick Start. It offers customized assistance to qualified new and expanding manufacturers, free of charge.
For more than 40 years, companies including Kia and, most recently, Caterpillar, have cited Quick Start as the tipping point in decisions to create jobs.
A part of the Technical College System of Georgia, Quick Start has assisted more than 6,000 projects and prepared more than three-quarters of a million trainees for manufacturers.
Georgia is fortunate to possess the ready workforce desired by companies, notably manufacturers. While gathering input for the Georgia Competitiveness Initiative, Gov. Nathan Deal’s program to guide the state’s economic development strategy, 10 of the state’s 12 regions said they consider the continued development of Georgia’s workforce a top priority.
Ensuring Georgia’s workforce of the future prompted Deal to institute Go Build Georgia. Building on its previous success with certifying people and communities all over the state as “work ready,” the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development has mounted a broad push through this public-private program. The goal is to ensure the state has enough workers trained to fill not only the 16,500 skilled craft trade career opportunities estimated to open up during the next year, but also the 82,000 jobs projected by 2016.
These jobs are in fields prized not just by manufacturers, but by industries that build and maintain our corporate communities. Construction laborers, maintenance and repair workers, machinists, truck drivers, electricians and welders are intrinsic to the health of Georgia’s economy.
Go Build Georgia, in partnership with the state’s technical college system, is installing the educational pathway needed to develop this labor force sector.
The program will link potential students to business stakeholders, secondary counselors, educators and post-secondary education options.
The Georgia Competitiveness Initiative is a blueprint for action. Go Build Georgia is its bold first step to address the workforce shortage of our communities. And it gives residents a streamlined path to careers.
Chris Cummiskey is commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
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