Business leaders who’ve cited a lack of skilled talent as one of the biggest impediments to growing in Colorado could soon get help from an advancing bill that seeks to make it easier for them and students to navigate the state’s siloed workforce-development programs.
House members this week approved House Bill 1317 on a bipartisan 51-12 vote, setting the stage for it to begin its journey through the Senate next week. The bill would create a commission to consolidate the state’s workforce-training and higher-education initiatives into a single, new department, offering a front door and one-stop navigation to learners and employers hoping to take advantage of state programs.
While a government-reorganization measure may not sound like the type of reform that will make it easier for companies to find qualified workers, consider that some 110 programs now are spread across 20 agencies in seven departments that don’t always talk together. Employers who’ve shown interest in launching apprenticeship programs or contributing to curricula on career-focused classes have expressed frustration that they don’t know where to go to do so, sometimes postponing expansions or looking to other states for growth.
HB 1317, which got unanimous approval from the House Education Committee on March 25, would set up a 27-member commission to study which programs should meld into the new agency, which would replace and expand the Department of Higher Education. The bill outlines some obvious choices, from the Colorado Workforce Development Council to initiatives coming from last year’s regional talent summits, but it also permits wider consideration of programs aimed at helping the needy with temporary assistance.
“An economic interest” in this bill
Rep. Rick Taggart, a Grand Junction Republican who is sponsoring the bill with Democratic House Speaker Julie McCluskie of Dillon, said the state needs a unified strategy around its education and workforce-training aims that only this kind of plan can offer. Right now, the state’s 4,500 aid-eligible workforce-training programs and 10,000 degree options are virtually unnavigable to the average learner, particularly those whose parents did not seek higher-education degrees, he opined.
The bill sets up the commission to make final recommendations to whoever replaces term-limited Gov. Jared Polis next year so that the new department can be functional by July 2028. And the members of the commission that will make that recommendation, who will be appointed by Polis and legislative leaders, come from the fields of education, business, labor and government, giving the group a holistic approach to the state’s needs.
“Colorado has a huge economic interest in making sure we ready the future workforce to be well educated and well skilled and trained for jobs,” McCluskie told the House on April 17.
The issue right now isn’t just the overwhelming number of programs to train that workforce and the lack of communication between them but the need to ensure those programs are providing the skills employers need. Studies show only one-third of certificates and degrees offered by schools or training programs have value as the half-life of certifications is just 2.5 years in an ecosystem where new technologies require acquisition of new skills, CDHE Executive Director JB Holston told the education committee.
Business leaders: This would enable more workforce training partnerships
Putting all the workforce-focused programs under one roof would take a major step toward ending the decades-old fallacy that students must choose either to go into a workforce trade or onto a four-year college after high school, said Randy Johnson, executive director of Emily Griffith Technical College. Allowing them to explore potential pathways that could start with career training and entry-level certifications and evolve through stackable credentials into a later bachelor’s or master’s degree could show learners the many ways to step into careers and then reskill if needed, he said.
Just as importantly, offering one place for businesses to see how they could partner with educators and trainers of all levels to help students get the skills they need will allow employers to get involved more easily, said David Scott, an executive with Encore Electric and board president of the Independent Electrical Contractors Rocky Mountain. That would make the system easier to navigate with fewer required meetings and could produce more apprenticeships and other work-based learning opportunities that both state and business leaders want to see, he said.
Encore Electric executive David Scott testifies on March 25 for House Bill 1317.
“Businesses want to be strong partners in building Colorado’s workforce. But programs are scattered across agencies, and it can be confusing for employers and future apprentices,” Scott told the education committee. “Companies across industries depend on strong partnerships across education.”
Expanding outreach of training programs soon to be key
The biggest concern expressed by observers was that sponsors hadn’t cast a wide enough net in terms of which groups need to be at the table to ensure the new department would have all the programs it needs and be able to work with other state agencies.
Several local leaders said the state must listen to local workforce boards who can explain the different needs of different parts of the state. Charles Brennan, director of income and housing policy for the Colorado Center on Law & Policy, said the new department must work closely with programs like Medicaid to ensure that when public-benefit recipients are required to be seeking jobs by next year they can have access to plethora of available training programs.
To try to meet those concerns, McCluskie amended the bill to add one more member of the advisory commission — a county commissioner with experience in workforce issues — and require that groups from teaching faculty members to workforce-development-center leaders are solicited by the commission for their input. Another amendment directs the commission to consider the connections between workforce-development systems and human-services programs like those offering public-insurance or food-assistance benefits.
Is outcome of workforce commission already decided?
Rep. Tammy Story, D-Evergreen, questioned several times if the considerations being given to the commission make its outcomes preordained and render the whole study process unnecessary. But Taggart, who formerly owned and operated an international sporting-goods company, said legislators must provide structure and some direction for the group to help it reach its conclusions in just six months of work.
“If you don’t establish a vision up front of where they can go, committees flounder,” Taggart said, recalling the experiences of setting up task forces to examine ways his business could expand. “This bill establishes a vision. It establishes a platform … But it doesn’t go so far as to say, ‘This is the way it has to be.’”
While 11 Republicans and one Democrat voted against HB 1317 on Tuesday, it’s not clear why. No legislator offered a reason to oppose the bill in committees or during floor debate.
HB 1317 isn’t the only workforce-focused education bill advancing through the Legislature. HB 1078, which would expand the ability of four-year colleges to offer concurrent-enrollment courses also passed the House Tuesday by a similar 53-10 margin.
Classes to accelerate college degrees
Concurrent-enrollment courses, which allow students to receive high-school and college credits simultaneously, are becoming more popular and are seen as a gateway to a bachelor’s degree for students who might have thought such a goal to be too expensive. Data shows about 70% of students who take such courses in high school receive bachelor’s degrees — a rate well above that of the general population, noted Karen Marrongelle, provost at the University of Colorado Denver.
But while community colleges now can offer concurrent-enrollment courses off-campus at places like high schools, four-year colleges cannot. They can offer dual-enrollment courses, but unlike concurrent-enrollment courses, they are not required to transfer to any public college in the state.
HB 1078, sponsored by Democratic Reps. Eliza Hamrick of Centennial and Lesley Smith of Boulder, allows four-year schools the same ability to offer these courses as community colleges, provided they meet all the requirements of the courses already being offered. That means universities can charge no more than the per-credit rate demanded by community colleges, must allow the course credit to be transferable to any state institution and must require that teachers have the same qualifications.
The change will allow more students to accelerate the pace of their college degrees and reduce the cost of enrollment, said Jennifer Sobanet, chancellor for the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs. It particularly could help students from rural and underserved areas who have difficulty traveling to college campuses for the courses, she said.
“It allows four-year colleges to serve students where they are,” Sobanet told the House Education Committee during a Feb. 25 hearing.
HB 1078 is scheduled to get its first Senate hearing Wednesday in the Senate Education Committee.