PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - The so-called skills gap is a “serious and growing problem” that must be addressed as part of a push to improve the sagging Rhode Island economy, the state Senate president said Monday.
Speaking at the Senate’s annual economic summit, President Teresa Paiva Weed said the lack of qualified workers hurts the economy and hinders efforts to lower an unemployment rate that has been among the highest in the U.S. for years.
Rhode Island’s January jobless rate was 9.2 percent. Its average 2013 unemployment rate of 9.5 percent was the second highest in the country, behind Nevada.
“The skills gap is a serious and growing problem that we need to address with decisive action,” Paiva Weed said at the Providence campus of the Community College of Rhode Island.
She cited Senate leaders’ “Rhode to Work” legislative plan, which calls for, among other things, more investment in job training programs and adult education, more internships and apprenticeships and better coordination of existing workforce training programs.
“We are working to remove roadblocks as workers seek to better their skills,” she said.
In a keynote address, U.S. Education Department Assistant Secretary Brenda Dann-Messier, who served for a decade as head of the Providence-based adult education agency Dorcas Place, called the Senate plan a “great beginning.”
She said it acknowledges the value of high-quality career and technical education and aligning efforts on that front with economic development priorities. She also said the plan rightly highlights the importance of adult education.
“The individual and economic benefits of taking action are clear: adults with higher skills are more often employed and have higher wages - all things that promote a growing middle class, a robust economy and a competitive edge in the international marketplace.”
She said “Rhode to Work” lays out a “thoughtful, progressive vision” that will help move Rhode Island “to the forefront of states that are taking creative, aggressive action to expand opportunity to all.”
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