STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2452

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2527

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2527 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Establish the Hawaii employment advancement right now (EARN Hawaii) program to administer grants to strategic industry partnerships for job skills training;

 

     (2)  Require the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to:

 

          (A)  Develop and implement a state employment advancement strategy and a uniform and easily accessible statewide "Train Hawaii" website to promote available training programs, including those under the EARN Hawaii program;

 

          (B)  Submit an annual report to the Legislature regarding the EARN Hawaii program; and

 

          (C)  Convene a working group of stakeholders to advise on the initial development and implementation of the EARN Hawaii program; and

 

     (3)  Appropriate funds for the EARN Hawaii program.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and one individual.

 

     Your Committee finds that a strategy is needed to help businesses cultivate the skilled workforce necessary for competition and to ensure Hawaii employers have the talent they need to compete and grow.  By establishing the EARN Hawaii program, this measure addresses the demands of businesses by focusing on the workforce needs of a specific industry sector over a sustained period; addresses the needs of workers by creating formal career paths to good jobs, reducing employment barriers, and sustaining or increasing middle class jobs; and encourages mobility for Hawaii's hard-to-serve populations through career readiness training.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2527 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

 

 

 

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair