Report finalized on improving work force

After eight months of work, a report outlining plans to develop a more competitive work force will be delivered to the governor on Thursday.

Gayle McKeachnie, who headed up numerous collaboration meetings between public education, higher education and business representatives, has finalized the report called "The 21st Century Workforce Initiative."

"We are all trying to prepare people for the work force but we're not coordinated. Why not cooperate?" McKeachnie said. He is the former lieutenant governor of Utah and is now serving as Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s director of rural and legislative affairs.

Christine Kearl, the governor's education director, said months of work have brought "a groundbreaking alliance that will bring all these entities together and help address the work-force demands in Utah."

From here, Huntsman will review ideas outlined in the report and potentially make recommendations. The document is to be made public when the governor releases it.

Issues in the report include teaching, school leadership, dropouts, early childhood education, training the work force out of school, governance, financing and management systems.

McKeachnie said one goal is for the different work-force entities to stop overlapping as well as operating under different visions.

An example of something that needs to change is that about half of the high school graduates who enroll in college need some type of remediation, McKeachnie said.

"Maybe we ought to do it right the first time," he said. "Let's talk to each other and have the same goals and the same standards."

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