InFocus featuring Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Lauren Jones

From the 22 News Plus studio, [Music] this is 22 News in Focus with Patrick Barry. Hello everyone and welcome to this edition of In Focus. We're live in the 22 News Plus studios here at uh channel 22. I'm in this in this room today and I've got a very interesting guest with me. I'm always very fortunate to have a member of our state government join us right here in the 22 News Plus studios. Today we are joined across the desk by Lauren Jones. She is the Massachusetts Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development. Lauren, thank you so very much for joining me. Greatly appreciate your time. I know you're busy. So the the I know nothing about what your department does, so I'm going to toss that out there as my first question. What do you do? Well, I wish I came with a fun icebreaker, but be happy to dive right in. Um, as Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development on behalf of Governor Healey and Lieutenant Governor Driscoll, our Secretary focuses on building talent. Um, especially in line with what employers and industry is looking for. We also focus on promoting safety within the workplace and ensuring the rights of workers as we do so. Um, and then also delivering good customer service for benefit programs that support workers. um and all while doing so making sure that we're driving greater equity, affordability, and competitiveness as a key set of values that the governor um and lieutenant governor lead by. So the first element of that workforce side of it. So how do you how do you make sure that Massachusetts has a skilled workforce and that our companies here are fully employed? Yeah. So, in order to build an and attract talent to meet the needs of employers, rule number one is making sure that we're working and talking with employers and at the state level, a really effective way that we do so is in partnership with workforce partners in every single region of the state. So, here in Pioneer Valley, um we team up with the Mass Hire Regional Workforce Board, um covering Hampton County and also Franklin, Hampshire, and they help to convene employers who serve on their board, but also local academic partners like Springfield Tech um where I will be visiting um as we continue throughout the region. Um and then also making sure that we have vocational schools, other high schools who are building our talent in um the K- through2 system and then also those that are really thinking about what and way and how we can train for individuals whether it's training providers or other partners within the workforce landscape with those partners that you're working with. Is it a is it a financial partnership? So, is there money from that comes from the state budget to those, you know, those local organizations here, or is it more of a a a a like a physical partnership where you and your office and your and your staff are working with the employer employers and the educators to build the bridges. Yeah, it's it's both. So, we want to make sure that we're constantly fostering a really good workforce ecosystem. And that takes building that collaboration, making sure that we are working in tandem together and not in competition. And as a result, that collaborative spirit across academia, workforce partners, employers, we can then pursue greater grant opportunities um and they team up with the state as well as other local partners to access benefits. So there are state investments that we receive through the state budget. Um and we administer those programs on the workforce side primarily through Commonwealth Corporation who helps to administer programs to support upskilling um existing workers as well as training the unemployed and undermployed um along with providing youth opportunities uh to gain work-based learning um outside of the classroom. What are some of the hurdles that you see? You mentioned upskilling and retraining. Are those some of the hurdles that you're seeing with people finding good jobs is that they're just not trained properly? Well, we know that there are employers that are looking for talent and sometimes there is a skills gap. And so to help close that skills gap, we know certainly that partnership, that collaboration I just spoke of is essential kind of behind the scenes and helping to foster um closing that skills gap includes the Helio Driscoll administration's workforce skills cabinet. So I mentioned bringing together academia, employers, our workforce partners. Similarly, at the state level, I work very closely with uh the secretary of education, secretary of economic development, the secretary of health and human services through this workforce skills cabinet because we know that there are investments under labor and workforce development that can help grow our talent, close the skills gap, but we know it's also essential as we prepare the earliest and youngest learners from early childhood education all the way through higher ed. um as well as teaming up with employers by sector um and making sure that we are meeting people where they are, but also talking with employers to understand what their skills are or the skills of their their talent will be today. But also as we look ahead recognizing that the workplace and workforce skills are constantly evolving and we need to adapt and be nimble to provide the training that employers looking for now but also for the future. You mentioned higher education. Is that always a two-year or four-year college? Or could higher education be um you know, somebody a student who graduates from a technical high school maybe with a plumbing or carpentry degree and then they go to a sort of an apprenticeship training program. Would is that what you would consider like a higher education as well? Yeah. So, we team up with higher education in a few different ways. most um common is certainly the two or fouryear um pathway programs that many um individuals with a two or four year degree hold here in Massachusetts. But we know that college is not for everybody. So we also try to promote a skills-based learning um uh environment. Recognizing people's skills, ability, and knowledge can also equip them to do a job and providing some equal playing field to do so. And that's where a registered apprenticeship program may come into play or other career pathway programs that we invest in. And in doing so, oftent times our partners in higher education like Holio Community College, for example, could be a partner um in doing so. Earlier this summer, I visited uh Holio Community College in their downtown area where they were training uh certified nurse assistants, CNAs, and they were doing so in partnership with Bayate Health among other employers. And so that was a perfect example. It's outside the traditional classroom. It's attracting this untapped talent um individuals who may not have gone through community college previously but are looking to gain the industry recognized credentials to pursue a career right here in Massachusetts. Fantastic. We are up on our first commercial break. We're here with Lauren Lauren Jones, the Massachusetts Secretary of Labor in Workforce Development. We'll be right back after this. This is 22 News in Focus with Patrick Barry. [Music] This is 22 News in Focus with Patrick Barry. [Music] Welcome back to In Focus. I am your host Patrick Barry. Across the desk from me this morning is Lauren Jones. She is the uh Secretary Massachusetts Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development. So Lauren, thank you so very much for coming to join me today. Greatly appreciate it. Uh when we ended the first segment, we were talking a little bit about uh higher education. Over the course of the last I I know you you probably know the dates, maybe the last couple of years. Community college here in Massachusetts has become free. Is a couple of qualifiers. Is it free for all? Is it free for certain income levels? Number one. And number two, from your role, does that help the workforce in the Bay State? The governor's strategy of investing in free community college is 100% a workforce strategy. Uh when Governor Healey came into office in January 2023, one of the first proposals that she led with was proposing to the legislature free community college. At the time, it started with focusing on adults 25 years or older without a degree or without industry recognized credentials to help accelerate the pipeline of skilled talent that we know we can build here in Massachusetts. With the support of the legislature, we implemented that in 2023 and the following year expanded that program to be for high school graduates here in Massachusetts. And it works certainly in recognizing other investments uh through federal relief programs like PEL and trying to draw down those dollars first and then be able to supplement that with a program through the free community college initiative. Um we have 15 community colleges across Massachusetts in every single region of the state which demonstrates that there is a massive areas where we can help teach and learn and educate uh a wide number of individuals that may not have been able to pursue college for a number of different reasons may have started but didn't complete and yet this is an opportunity to bring them into the fold through this initiative. And when we think about why this is a workforce strategy, it ties back to what we were talking about at the top of of the program, recognizing that there are skills gaps, but also recognizing that there are different pathways to help advance someone's skills and connecting them to what industry is looking for. So, in in your travels, are the community colleges filling the skills gap or more of the knowledge gap? you know, because I I look at community colleges not teaching necessarily the trade, but you know, maybe it's a CNA program where they're teaching the skills, but I'd like to hear your side of it. Yeah, I think they're doing both. They we want to make sure that people are gaining the skills, knowledge, and ability. And by doing so, I think that certainly helps to close the skills gaps that we know exist here in Massachusetts, but that we can also fill. Our community colleges offer this really amazing window into opportunity in each of our regions here in Massachusetts and they work very closely with our workforce partners. I think we really want to make sure that as we grow um enrollment which we are seeing in every single community college, we're also connecting that growth and that opportunity to what employers are seeing in the region. That's why our mass higher regional workforce scores and career centers play such a key role. They help to promote free community college within the career centers to job seekers and others that are trying to figure out their path. We really want to encourage that continued partnership so that more people enroll in community college. They also know what's on the other side. What's the opportunities whether you're in healthcare in this region, manufacturing, IT, and recognizing that there's a demand that we want to make sure we're preparing the future talent to be prepared for. Is this where your office plays that that partnership role where you're helping the community colleges across the state find those industry business partners to work with? You know, and we can use Holy Community, Berkshire Community, Greenfield or STICK. I guess those are the four in our in our region to help those four community colleges properly train the workforce that's unique to the this area. So, you know, I have to imagine, you know, with the with the the um precision manufacturing industry up and down the the Pioneer Valley, a little bit different than the eastern end of the state. Exactly. We know that in every single region there are unique assets as well as needs by industry and employers. And this goes back to the regional workforce teams that we were talking about. every single region uh brings together workforce partners and in doing so yes it helps to uh collaborate and pursuing grant opportunities but also helps to bring all the players together to know what are the unique needs in every single region we have blueprints that help to showcase that here in this region we know that includes healthcare we know that also includes manufacturing we want to make sure that we have a sense of what's on the ground like in those industries and making sure that as we open more doors whether it's through community college or other career pathway programs. It's connected to what industry is looking for, not only for today, but what we're foreseeing in the future and continuing to adapt and stay nimble to be able to train that future talent and the talent that's coming through our community college is going to be that future talent that we need. Let's switch gears a little bit. Same kind of topic, but you have the you're working to train those who to get jobs, but we have a a a group of people who are unemployed. How does your department and your staff help those people who are unemployed um seek the services they need, you know, file claims or whatnot? Yeah. So, we certainly want to make sure that those who are um impacted, they're separated from work, unemployed, have access to a number of resources. Um first, we do have our Department of Unemployment Assistance that helps individuals um file claims and ensure that they, if they're eligible, are able to receive unemployment insurance benefits. At the same time, we want to make sure that we are engaging with those impacted individuals so that they know of the career services that are also available so we can hopefully quickly get them re-employed. And that connects to our mass hire career centers. Um, someone may be looking for career coaching, resume writing, understanding who's hiring, and what kind of skills they're looking for and hopefully being able to enroll them in a job training program or to help apply for a job that we know is open. So more than just helping them complete their unemployment application and their weekly uh submission, it's getting them out of that habit and into a a a program that will make them more employable. Yeah. When we think about it, we think about it from unemployment to reemployment. And that's why one side of the coin is certainly delivering um customer service to support our unemployment insurance benefits, but the other side of the coin is the reemployment services that we deploy through our mass higher career centers. And that's why we want to make sure we continue to build out the partnerships with industry, academia, and others because those types of services are even more enhanced when we have great partners to deliver employment opportunities. It sounds as if these programs are fairly new or or are they older programs that you've inherited in your new role? Well, I mean, some programs are long-standing programs like unemployment insurance, which is provided across all states um in the United States. Um, we also have new programs that we're continuing to scale up. We've seen some early success in recent years and under the Helra School Administration, we're really beefing up investments like registered apprenticeship for example. Um, probably around 2018, we started to see a trend in the United States where registered apprenticeship was very much a proven model for carpenters, electricians, plumbers and trying to expand that model to healthcare manufacturing. And then under the Heel Driscoll administration, we really have doubled down on increasing that to other industries. Um, continuing with manufacturing, continuing with healthcare, but opening up for early childhood education, financial services. And in fact, just in September, uh, our team that leads this work, our division of apprentice standards, received a $5 million USD grant to deploy solely focused on expanding registered apprenticeship in regions across the state for early childhood education, which is woefully lacking. Yeah, we need to make sure that we are building the educator pipeline and then as we do, we're then able to stand up more quality um uh early childhood services, which is so incredible as we think about the resources that a worker may need. Um they need quality childare services if they're thinking about going back into the labor market or being able to think about a stable job opportunity. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because there are certain areas of the state that have been deemed childh child care deserts, which there are there's nothing because there's there, and correct me if I'm wrong, there aren't a lot of people offering child care. So, to your point, if I don't have child care, I can't get a job. Uh what how is your department and your staff working to to fill that gap? Yeah. So, Governor Healey uh recognized this as a need very early on in her administration, which is why she stood up a whole of government approach to tackle child care. Um, and so I have the honor of actually co-chairing an initiative stood up by the governor alongside our secretary of education and secretary of economic development, Secretary Tutweiler and Secretary Paley, where we are working with all parts of the governor's cabinet. So from transportation to housing to our respective secretariates and thinking about how we can together break down government silos with a focus on building out greater affordable highquality child care. So from a workforce perspective that's building the talent pipeline but it's also thinking about how are we engaging with employers across different industries. We know that child care is not just a need for 9 to5. It could be a seven to seven shift Monday through Sunday. And so making sure that we are recognizing what that need is, what that looks like in every region and trying to make sure that we're standing up more resources, whether that's through family uh service uh providers or independent private entities and working closely with Commissioner Kershaw, who's been doing this great work for some time and really helping to bring us all together in a way that has this shared mission. And there's about 30 recommendations that we uh have been trying to dive into throughout this past year and we'll be giving more updates as we move into a new year focused on this work. Fantastic. We are up on our second commercial break. We're here with Secretary Jones from the Massachusetts Labor and Workforce Development. We'll be right back after this. This is 22 News in Focus with Patrick Barry. [Music] This is 22 News in Focus with Patrick Barry. [Music] Welcome back everyone to this edition of In Focus. I'm joined across the desk by Secretary Lauren Jones from the Massachusetts Labor and Workforce Development uh office. Thank you very much for joining me. I appreciate it. Uh you are spending some time in Western Mass. You're out here periodically. Uh what brings you to Western Mass this time around? So, we're excited to announce um an investment in workforce development. I talked a lot about the, you know, the importance of closing our skills gap. One way that we do this is through our workforce competitiveness trust fund, a grant program called workforce success grants. And we're making an investment um of $7.4 4 million thanks to support with the state legislature uh to deploy grant funding to 16 different regional partners that will help train over 1150 um job seekers unemployed and underemployed individuals and through this we're teaming up also with roughly 70 employers that are spread across the state team up again with those regional partners that I've lifted up I think a couple times in today's conversation and so by being able to extend this investment We know it's so critical to have these partnerships and this is a perfect example to demonstrate how we're helping to train and that's in areas from healthcare manufacturing IT and stick right you know this region is going to be a recipient of these grants that will help to um not only train individuals in IT um as part of certainly their specialty um making sure they're also embedding English as a second language for job seekers so that's not a barrier for them as they look to pursue careers in tech and doing so where we know employers are actually looking for these skills especially right now um among employers like Bay State Health um some of the local public school districts for around network and u administrators and IT specialists. So these are roles expressed by local employers. These are the roles we need to fill. Yeah. So, so the Springfield Technical Community College will get the the funding to create classrooms and and and staff members to to teach these skills so that they the jobs are filled in the and they'll help to attract job seekers to come into this. We'll obviously have our mass hires helping to promote as well. Um we've got some proven examples in the region uh since January 2023 coming in as the administration. We've been here before. Um, I know there are some great examples like Tech Foundry and Snap Chef that are in the Springfield area that have received grants. Folio Community College has also received grants to help support exactly this kind of model. There are a there are countless types of jobs that are available here in Massachusetts. One little tidbit of information I learned about you is uh you get out on the road and you visit visit various uh companies and businesses across the Bay State and work for a day doing various things. Tell me about that. So, we thought it would be creative to launch a series. Who's we? Um, I have to give credit I have to give credit to my my digital uh communications director who's a genius and figuring out how to use our social media to really help tell a story. And we know that workforce development is really incredibly important. Um, employers are looking for talent. We're looking to make sure to connect employers to talent. And in order to do this in a creative way, we thought, let's do an on the job series. So, I get to go on the job and I learn what it takes to be a welder, an early childhood educator, um operating with a CDL license, and being a truck uh logistics uh person. Um I have helped to work with our fishing game department to uh take stock of our our trout at the start of the season. It's been pretty wide ranging, but pretty awesome at the same time. But I have to imagine that opens your eyes more than just sitting on Beacon Hill talking to because you get that inside view of this is what it takes. You know, even though you're doing it for a day, you you get a a much clearer picture of the skills needed and and the requirements that these employers need from the from the workforce. And we and I I appreciate that. I think it hopefully helps to put together a short reel, right, that we can put on social media. And someone may be, you know, scrolling through and see, wait a minute, I want to learn a little bit more about what it takes to secure a CDL license here. We know we need more um truckers here in Massachusetts. Let's see a little bit more behind the hood on what that what looks like. And we have training providers that are deploying exactly the kind of skills that we need to to build that uh pipeline as well. All right, we're going to switch sides now and you're going to run this show. Okay. I got the job. It's 22. But it it it is interesting. I I like that you do that because, you know, most people in state government wouldn't do what you're doing. They wouldn't get out from behind their desk and go and see what the average business takes. You you you'll go talk to the colleges. You'll go talk to the employers say, "We need people with a you know, we need more truck drivers, but what does that mean?" You've done it, you know. Well, and I look forward to learning more. Um we're always open for ideas to do the next on the job series. Don't say that too loud. I'm going to pull you over on this side of the desk. Secretary Secretary Jones, I cannot thank you enough for giving me some of your time today. It's a fascinating inside look at the labor and workforce department of uh of our state government. So, thank you so much. Thank you for the opportunity. Good seeing you. Thank you. This is 22 News in Focus with Patrick Barry. [Music]