STAND. COM. REP. NO. 796

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 608

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 608, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EDUCATION,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to establish a statewide internet-based interactive, searchable database for workforce training.

 

     The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, the Department of Education, and the Hawaii P-20 Initiative submitted comments in support of the bill.

 

     Your Committee finds that while information about training opportunities for Hawaii's workforce is currently available, it is greatly compartmentalized, dispersed, and incomplete.

 

     Your Committee finds that the web-based database proposed by this measure will use simple and available technology to help resolve these issues.  In addition, the database will provide an effective means of aligning training opportunities with skill-sets and competencies most needed by employers.

 

     Your Committee has amended the bill to:

 

     (1)  Require the database to be in service by January 1, 2009, rather than prior to the 2008 regular session of the Legislature;

 

     (2)  Require status reports to the Legislature not later than twenty days before the convening of the regular sessions of 2008 and 2009; and

 

     (3)  Include an appropriation for fiscal year 2008-2009 and change the appropriation to an unspecified amount to facilitate further discussion on the measure.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 608, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 608, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair