DAYTON, Ohio – Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel on Thursday continued his series of community conversations on the development of Ohio’s Workforce Playbook.
Education and business leaders from Dayton and the surrounding areas joined Tressel at Wright State University for a roundtable discussion on the region’s workforce strengths and its needs.
“As a state, we have come up with so many opportunities for businesses to move into Ohio or expand in Ohio, and that means we are going to have a lot of in-demand jobs that need filled,” Tressel said. “Gov. [Mike] DeWine is passionate about making sure we are ready to take advantage of this opportunity. So we are going around the state to places like Wright State to see all the good work that’s being done to train our workforce of the future and to encourage these students to stay right here in Ohio as they launch their careers.”
At his State of the State address last month, DeWine announced that Tressel would lead the administration’s effort to create Ohio’s Workforce Playbook, an initiative to develop regional strategies to meet job and talent needs.
Ohio has added more than 81,000 private sector jobs in the past six years, and at least 15,000 additional jobs are coming to the state through projects that are currently in development.
By examining the needs and circumstances of various regions in the state, Ohio’s Workforce Playbook will develop a plan to retain existing talent in the state, recruit new talent and rally the existing workforce to greater productivity.
After Thursday’s roundtable discussion, Tressel joined Wright State President Susan Edwards for a tour of the university’s Microelectronics Fabrication Teaching & Research Lab and its Additive Manufacturing Lab. They also stopped by the university’s Neuroscience Engineering Collaborative Building, visiting the 3T MRI Lab.
“As a top economic driver for the region, 87% of Wright State graduates live and work in the area,” Edwards said. “We were thrilled to have the opportunity to introduce Lt. Gov. Tressel to our programs, classrooms and labs, where innovation and cutting-edge technologies are being utilized and advanced each and every day. We look forward to working together to proactively address the workforce needs of the region and state, and to ensure that Wright State students are ready Day One as they begin their careers.”
During the tour, Tressel met with students who are training for their future careers at Wright State. One group of students discussed their work as part of an ongoing contest at the nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base to develop technologies to make jet engines more efficient.
Much of the equipment students were training on were provided by the state through the Ohio Department of Higher Education’s Rapids and Super Rapids grant programs. The grants support universities, community colleges and career technical centers in purchasing state-of-the-art equipment for students to use in education and training programs tailored to regional workforce needs.
“The grants we’ve been able to give out under the governor’s administration are a great first step to equip students with the tools they need to train for their future. But we still have more work to do,” Tressel said. “It’s going to take continued conversations and collaboration between the state, institutions like Wright State and local leaders to ensure our workforce of tomorrow is ready to take the next step of filling the numerous career opportunities we’re building in the Miami Valley and all across Ohio.”
Tressel’s visit to Wright State marked his second regional workforce roundtable. He kicked off the conversation about Ohio’s Workforce Playbook two weeks ago with a visit to Cleveland State University.
Pictured at top: Wright State University President Susan Edwards and Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel.