Report to the governor : Texas skills development program : smart jobs strategies : an industry-driven skill standards and certifications system is one of the key strategies that will assist Texas in building a world-class work force
Abstract
"Texas Skills Development Program: Report to the Governor" lays out recommendations to
Governor Ann Richards for building a world-class Texas work force by creating an industrydriven
skill standards and certification system. The program has been tagged "the long-term
engine" of the Governor' s Smart Jobs Plan. This report, guided and presented by the Texas
Skills Development Panel, was prepared by the Texas Department of Commerce, Work
Force Development Division.
The approach and recommendations represent a year-long research initiative that involved
the advice and contribution of the many potential "customers" of the Texas Skills Development
Program. Employees of businesses across Texas participated in focus group experiments.
Their contributions sparked the fire that placed us on the fast track toward addressing
"core skills" and "higher-order" "transferable" skills as a means to address occupationaltechnical
skill requirements. The Panel wholeheartedly agreed with the focus groups. Panel
members advised us that "if Texas' schools and training institutions can ensure basic and
workplace skills, plus broad occupational-technical skills, Texas' businesses can train
workers to individual company tool sets." This critical reality switched on the engine of the
Texas Skills Development Program and placed it squarely in the middle of Texas' education
reform agenda.