Oklahoma City Regional Meeting Kicks Off Workforce Tour

Governor Fallin, business leaders talk about addressing skills gap, other employment issues

Oklahoma City (August 25, 2015) – The State Chamber of Oklahoma today hosted the first of nine regional meetings featuring Governor Mary Fallin to talk with business leaders and the education community about problems they face finding skilled workers. The meetings are a partnership between the State Chamber, the Oklahoma Educated Workforce Initiative (OEWI) and Governor Fallin’s Oklahoma Works program.

“In order for Oklahoma’s economy to continue its growth, companies need to be able to find employees with skills that match the job openings that they have,” said State Chamber President & CEO Fred Morgan. “We want to thank Governor Fallin for taking the time to reach out to the business community and start the conversation about how to address the state’s current and future workforce needs. We look forward to even more engagement by business leaders in the meetings to come.”

During the meeting at Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City’s Student Center, Governor Fallin told attendees about the skills gap the state is facing where 54-percent of the current workforce has education beyond high school while 77-percent of the jobs in ten years will require education beyond high school. “If we don’t close that skills gap we will have Oklahomans who are underemployed and jobs could leave Oklahoma for lack of workers and we might have trouble finding companies to come to Oklahoma and bring investment because they can’t find the workforce.” Fallin says it’s estimated there are 72,000 jobs available in the state right now and the key is to match people with the skills to fill those positions.

Nathaniel Harding, president of Harding and Shelton Exploration in Oklahoma City, also spoke as the Key Economic Network Business Champion for the region chosen by Governor Fallin. He challenged his fellow members of the business community, “As business owners who want to see a prosperous state, I encourage us to get involved in public education.” He says something as simple as providing internship opportunities can give students valuable experience in how a workplace operates and what would be expected of them.

The meeting also included brainstorming sessions about what skills employers are looking for from current and future employees and what more can be done to make sure young people are prepared for success in the workforce. There are eight more regional meetings scheduled around the state through the end of October:

For more information go to www.okstatechamber.com/events.

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