Ohio has 90 workforce development and training programs across 13 state agencies, and Gov. John Kasich says that’s a problem.

“Nobody has addressed this thing – we’ve swept the problem under the rug. And it’s got to be fixed.”

Kasich was at the first meeting of his executive workforce board today, which is made up of 25 leaders in business, education and government. The board decided to try to make the system more efficient with a three-pronged approach: forecast the business community’s needs, streamline delivery services of these programs, and put in place performance measurements for how well the system works. Some board members seemed concerned about how to make those changes. And Kasich admits that there is some skepticism within the business community about these programs and how they could be organized into one entity. 
”This was an orientation for them as well –they didn’t know any of these things. When you sit there and look at all these government programs and all these entities, your eyes glaze over till you realize if we can straighten it out there’s a lot of help for people.”

For instance, Kasich says there’s lots of training money that these companies don’t know exists. The governor says there’s no timeline for when the board should complete its work, saying it’s an ongoing situation.