Some judge governors by the way they attack economics. Poverty and crime are connected to how the State’s economics is doing. Governor Kate Brown is launching Future Ready Oregon to provide skill and job training to students and adults. This is helping to close the gap between the skills that Oregon’s workers have and the skills that Oregon’s growing businesses need.
The program, titled “Future Ready Oregon,” aims to prioritize key populations disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and existing disparities in Oregon’s workforce. They include Oregonians of color, women, low-income individuals, rural communities, veterans and those who are incarcerated or formerly incarcerated. Three specific sectors would benefit from the program: Health care, manufacturing and construction.
According to Brown, the state’s Racial Justice Council, chaired by Marin Arreola, president of Advanced Economic Solutions, Inc., and Patsy Richards, director at Long-Term CareWorks and a senior staff member at RISE Partnerships took the leading role in developing this legislation.
Many of the state’s programs have been designed around getting young adults and teenagers into the workforce. Brown’s plan maintains that goal but combines it with new focus on helping Oregonians who are ready for a career change as well. To add, the design of this proposal will allow employers to work with schools and training systems and community groups to reimagine how the state delivers those services so that they can be more effective.
Furthermore, putting health care, manufacturing and construction as high importance of the program helps to meet the workforce shortage in the three sectors where it is most pronounced. Those three sectors, are also critical to the state’s economy and provide great opportunity for high wage jobs attainable in a relatively short amount of time.
