Mississippi to Merge Workforce Efforts

Gov. Haley Barbour has announced a plan to centralize workforce training programs in hopes of maximizing hundreds of millions of federal dollars and raising the skill level of Mississippi's workers.

The move, Barbour hopes, will lure businesses to the state that have wanted to locate here but feared the state's workers were not skilled enough.

Under his plan, the state Workforce Development Council, which oversees state workforce money, and the state Workforce Investment Board, which handles federal money, would be merged.

Workforce training boards would have incentives to contract the operation of the WIN Job Centers, or "One-Stop Centers," with schools. The reorganization would give the community and junior colleges a stronger role in job training.

The Mississippi Employment Security Commission would be placed under the governor. The creation of a Department of Employment Security would yield $2.1 million in savings a year, and allow the governor greater coordination of federal work-force training programs.

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