House OKs job training bill

• By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: May 8, 2008 - Page: 8A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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The House easily approved Gov. Bobby Jindal’s job training package Wednesday.

The endorsement, on a 102-0 vote, came a day after the Senate overwhelmingly backed the proposal, giving the governor a seemingly assured victory on what he calls the most important piece of his legislative agenda.

The 87-page House Bill 1104 would increase the labor department’s duties to include overseeing job training programs now scattered across state agencies. The labor department would get a new name, becoming the Louisiana Workforce Commission.

Regional centers would maintain “help wanted” listings as well as a slate of services that may be vital to obtaining employment such as literacy, child care, food stamp and housing programs.

“This is not going to be an easy process by any stretch of the imagination,” said state Rep. Avon Honey, who handled the bill on the House floor. “We do have a good starting point.”

Honey, D-Baton Rouge, said the legislation would help state officials better train criminal offenders for jobs.

Of the roughly 16,000 offenders who are released every year, only 1,500 are ready for the work force, he said.

“So our job is in front of us,” Honey said.

Louisiana needs to help the uneducated and the undereducated, as well as the elderly who have worked themselves out of the work force, he said.

Paramedics should become nurses, Honey said.

The unemployed should no longer be thought of as hopeless, he said.

The technical college system will be the base for the changes, Honey said.

The governor wants the state’s community and technical college system to focus on training for jobs that are in demand.