Due to the high employment demand, many of Kauai 's businesses are searching for skilled workers. The Chamber believes that one solution to this problem is increased Federal funding support for skills up-grade training via the Workforce Investment Act Program (WIA). If elected, what type of Federal legislation and/or amount of budget funding would you sponsor and actively support to provide immediate workforce training assistance on a statewide level?

Better Training for Better Jobs
By: Mike Gabbard

I have devoted more than 20 years to education as a teacher, administrator and coach, so I will be a strong voice in Congress not only for remedial education of our workers but of our students K-12 so we don't have this problem to begin with. Of the 535 members of Congress, only 35 have a background in education. The rest, like my opponent, are lawyers. I will help focus Congress' attention on improving our schools. And, I will fight to divert more of the federal $5.15 billion WIA budget to Hawaii .

In 1980, I obtained a Masters Degree from Oregon State University in Adult Education with emphasis on Community College Administration. My experience over the course of two decades in education has been both with children and adults. Just as we must improve education for our children, we must also help educate adults who for one reason or another were not adequately educated as children and, as a result, have difficulty finding or keeping a job.

A 2001 study by the National Association of Manufacturers showed that nearly one-third of companies surveyed reported rejecting applications due to a lack of adequate reading and writing ability, and one fifth reported rejecting applicants due to inadequate skills in arithmetic. More than two-thirds reported rejecting applicants because of a lack of "basic employability skills," such as reliable attendance and punctuality. More importantly, less than eight percent of manufacturing employers cited the lack of a degree or of vocational training as a reason for rejecting applicants.

I suspect that a similar case can be made for the unemployment situation among Kauai 's businesses and throughout the rest of our state. If this is the case, vocational training offered by programs under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) addresses a relatively minor concern for employers-one that bars relatively few workers from employment.

Therefore, vocational training is not what is lacking: What is lacking is the kind of basic knowledge associated with a high school degree. Immediate workforce training assistance needs to focus on remedial reading, writing, and arithmetic skills-which could be provided under current and new provisions that could be designed within the structure of the WIA.

From a vocational standpoint, it is noteworthy that two-thirds of America 's economic growth in the 1990s resulted from the introduction of new technologies. Fully 60% of the new, better-paying jobs opening up today require skills held by only one-third of America 's workforce. Not enough workers are being trained quickly enough to take advantage of many of the new jobs that are being created. This is so in Hawaii -particularly in the better-paying high technology sectors-and we need to close the gap.

Yet, remarkably, even though the law requires it, many job training programs do not assess what skills are in demand for jobs in the worker's area. Workers are simply moved through the system with little regard for whether they will have a realistic chance at a job when they complete training. Instead, our state government should partner with businesses and industry to develop job training programs for skills in sectors of the local economy that are most likely to grow-and for which tax incentives could be offered to spur employers' participation. These partnerships should be flexible enough to meet specific needs of each county whether they are in the high technology, construction, service, or other sectors.