Sec. Slater Describes Ambitious Workforce Development Work Ahead for Youngkin Administration
Virginia Labor Secretary Bryan Slater on June 14th described the ambitious tasks the Youngkin Administration has prioritized to improve the workforce development ecosystem in the Commonwealth. Sec. Slater was speaking at the Chamber’s Annual Capital Region Workforce Summit at Virginia Tech’s Northern Virginia Campus in Falls Church.
Sec. Slater listed the vast ecosystem in the Commonwealth including “over 250 training providers [and] over 1500 training programs,” and recognized that even with so many training and development opportunities “ … we’re still 200,000 jobs short of where we were before the pandemic.
“What we really need to do is optimize our workforce training and maximize our potential,” Sec. Slater said. “We are not reaching the people we need to reach to the maximum extent possible. We need an action plan to fulfill the purpose. This should include: forming and implementing a strategic plan, streamlining and optimizing what we do, strengthen our public-private partnerships, break down silos, [and] collaborate rather than compete with each other.”
