MOORHEAD - Mississippi must focus more on workforce training, and the most effective way to do that is through the state's community colleges, Gov. Haley Barbour said Thursday.
"The most important place for workforce development in Mississippi is the community college. Whether it's on the campus, at the Capps Center or on the premises of the employers, our community colleges are enormous engines of job creation and economic growth," Barbour said.
Barbour was the keynote speaker at Mississippi Delta Community College's Career-Technical and Health Sciences Summit held at the school's Yeates Fine Arts Building.
The governor, who is running for re-election this November, said creating jobs has been a priority for his administration, starting with the establishment of the state Department of Employment Security.
"Reforms should be judged by results, and the results are pretty spectacular," he said.
In the first year after the department was established, 35,000 jobs were created. In the second year, another 56,000 jobs were added. In the first nine months of the third year, the department placed 58,000 more people in jobs, Barbour said.
"The U.S. Labor Department reports that there are 1,158,000 Mississippians employed. That's almost a peak in this state's history," he said. "There's no question in my mind that this year we will have more people working in Mississippi than in the history of our state."
"More importantly, they're making more money than they've ever made before," Barbour said.
He said, according to federal statistics, personal income in Mississippi is up by more than 16 percent.
He expects that to continue, and community colleges can help make that happen, he said.
"We've got to improve the quality of our workforce, to continue to train and retrain and retrain and retrain. It is way past time for Mississippi to embrace lifelong learning," Barbour said.
He said, under the leadership of former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, state funding for the state 15 community colleges decreased.
"Funding for our community colleges was reduced 16 percent. I don't mean it went up slower than was expected. The year I came into office, the community colleges were getting 16 percent less than when Kirk Fordice went out of office," Barbour said.
Barbour noted that 89 percent of the state's K-12 students attend public school. "This is our workforce. This is our future."
Starting this fall, the state's K-12 funding will increase by $530 million, but "we haven't done it by shortchanging higher education," Barbour said.
Under the plan, funding for four-year colleges and universities increased by 32 percent and funding for community colleges grew by 52 percent.
"We have doubled what the state spends on workforce development and job training. This coming year, it will be more than double," he said.
"Why? We want to have an economy in Mississippi where our children and grandchildren are going to have a chance to be economically successful and have sustainable jobs that will last the rest of their lives and their children's lives. We've got to take lifelong learning seriously," Barbour said.
In a world economy, companies have three choices, he said.
They can innovate, emigrate or evaporate.
"If you're not going forward in a global marketplace, you're going backwards," Barbour said.
Workforce training makes the difference, he said.
"You don't get more productive by asking your employees to work harder; you've got to help them work smarter," he said. "Our workforce must be able to understand and deploy technology. Our workforce can do that. They can't do it unless they have the right kind of skills training."
