Secretary Bump delivers chamber keynote address
By Mary Shane Contributing Writer

Westborough - Massachusetts Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Suzanne M. Bump was the keynote speaker at the Corridor Nine Chamber of Commerce's "Membership Breakfast Honoring Local Educators" Nov. 15 at the Courtyard by Marriott.

Bump congratulated the Chamber on its partnership with schools. Such partnerships are important to implementing Gov. Deval Patrick's "cradle to career" initiative at the local level, she said.

The "cradle to career" goal is to "dramatically expand the concept of public education in Massachusetts," Bump said. She emphasized the need to "start getting kids excited about science, technology, math and engineering in grade school."

The Patrick administration wants to ensure that all students have the opportunity to excel academically and that teachers have the tools they need to help them, she said.

Closing the skills gap is the utmost priority in the administration, Bump said. The long-term Readiness Project is a 10-year plan to improve public education from pre-school through higher education and extending to workforce development. The big question is "how can we get to the best level the most rapidly," she said.

Finding the right person for a job is not an easy task according to Bump. Businesses are "desperate" to fill 96,000 jobs across the commonwealth; there are 145,000 looking for work.

"More often than not, we simply don't have a group of unemployed persons with the right skills to fill those jobs," Bump said. "Massachusetts is playing catch-up. We're in serious competition with other states and countries."

There are 16 regional workforce investment boards, critical to driving local training.

"While looking at the bigger picture, there are a number of things going on with Work Force Development," Bump said. "The Career Day event once a year highlights linkages between job seekers and employers (and) provides us with a statewide venue to let people know about the resources available to them in their hunt for a job. Career centers are just as focused on the demand side as the supply side."

Bump talked about Work Force Training grants ranging from $5,000 to more than $1 million.

"We [have] money for fellowships to turn out the PhDs, lab techs and researchers," she said. The grants "can help with ESL to learn manufacturing techniques. It's the only way we're going to get anything done."

Bump encouraged the audience to visit the Labor and Workforce Development's Web keynote address

site. The site provides information about connecting employers to qualified job seekers, the Workforce Training Fund and regional and statewide labor market information.

"Use it," she said. "It's there for you."