The Assembly Higher Education Committee on Monday advanced legislation, supported by NJBIA, that would codify the work of the New Jersey Pathways to Career Opportunities initiative and strengthen the operations and impact of the community college system.
“NJBIA is proud to partner with our state’s community colleges, an important piece of our higher education and workforce development training ecosystem,” NJBIA Vice President of Government Affairs Althea D. Ford said in her testimony to the committee. “This unified approach has led to significant investment, partnership and results.”
The four-bill package released by the committee includes:
- A-5211- (Miller/Freiman) Establishes New Jersey Pathways to Career Opportunities Initiative Act.
- A-5183 – (Drulis/Verrelli) Directs the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development to develop and maintain an industry-valued credential list.
- A-5182 – (Carter/Murphy) Modernizes responsibilities of the New Jersey Council of County Colleges.
- A-5213 – (Venezia/Atkins) Establishes the “New Economy Opportunity Skills System Pilot Program” to strengthen alignment and collaboration between local workforce development boards and community colleges.
“As partners with NJCCC on the New Jersey Pathways to Career Opportunities Initiative, NJBIA has witnessed firsthand the intentional planning, development and deployment of successful and innovative workforce development strategies,” Ford told the committee.
Projects supported by this initiative have inspired new collaborations, such as NJ BioFutures, a strategic private-public partnership addressing critical workforce concerns in the pharmaceutical and biomanufacturing industries, she said. The NJ Workplace Literacy and Basic Skills Training Program, which has provided ESL, communications skills, computer skills, and management acumen training to over 230,000 employees since its inception in 2007, underscores that the community college system, with NJCCC at the helm, has a proven track record of fostering positive relationships with job creators and industry, Ford said.
A-5211 codifies this initiative and underscores New Jersey commitment to advancing proven strategies that equip the workforce with the skills needed for success. The development and maintenance of a list of industry-valued credentials under A-5183, would keep the state-connected with job creators to understand their credentialing needs and establishes an objective metric to demonstrate how the state is currently meeting industry training needs.
“This list can also inform how the State can strategically invest in future education and training programs,” Ford said. “We also support A-5182 to codify expanded responsibilities of the NJ Council to ensure collaboration across the county college system and A-5213 to establish a pilot program to streamline the work of the county college system and workforce development boards and maximize workforce development investments.”
Aaron Fichtner, Ph.D., president of the New Jersey Council of County Colleges (NJCCC) said in a statement after the committee meeting that during these times of rapid economic, technological and social changes, the work of the state’s community colleges is more important that ever because they connect New Jerseyans to “affordable, high-quality academic and workforce training opportunities every year.”
“We are thrilled that the Assembly Higher Education Committee passed bills that will strengthen collaboration across our institutions and with critical employer, workforce development, and social services partners,” Fichtner said.
Assemblywoman Linda Carter (D-22), chair of the Higher Education Committee, said the state must do all it can to ensure tudents are well prepared to enter the workforce.
“Creating opportunities for New Jersey students and ensuring that our businesses have qualified workers will strengthen New Jersey’s economy,” Carter said. “NJ Pathways already has a track record of success at achieving those goals.”
