Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - November 13, 1998
Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

Technology workforce training funding proposed

KIRKLAND — Gov. Gary Locke today proposed a $25 million high-technology education program that would give Washington State students the skills they need to fill thousands of information-technology jobs in the state's business community.

The governor's plan would address a shortage of trained technology workers that has become a barrier to continued growth of the state's tremendously successful information-technology industry. It would ensure that students from high school through college obtain the skills they must have to meet demands of an industry where rising standards are the rule.

Today, more than 7,000 information-technology jobs in the state are going unfilled, and technology-industry leaders say their expansion plans for the next three years will create another 60,000 jobs. But each year, the state's education institutions are graduating fewer than 2,000 students with the right skills to fill these jobs.

"It is absolutely outrageous that Washington residents are not educated and trained for the great jobs that the software industry is creating,'' Locke told a meeting of the Washington Software Alliance. "And it is equally outrageous that the growth of this industry, which promises so much for our future, is constrained by the lack of qualified job applicants."

Locke's plan would direct $14 million in new state funding to information-technology education in the next biennium. Grants requiring a total of at least $11 million in matching private-sector or community contributions would go to at least 200 public high schools and be available on a competitive basis to all of the state's community colleges and four-year state colleges and universities.

Under the proposal, 3,000 high school students each year would receive the skill training they need to enter the information-technology job market. At community colleges, the number of technology-degree graduates would more than double to over 1,000 annually. And at the state's four-year college and universities, the number of graduates earning computer-science degrees could triple over four years — to as many as 1,800 annually.

The governor's information-technology training plan is a key element of an education-funding package being developed for his budget proposal for the 1999-01 biennium. The overall goal of his education initiatives is to build on successful reforms to raise learning standards, prepare students to meet job-market demands, and provide opportunities for life-long learning.

"This year, like last year — and next year — my budget and legislative priorities will be to put education first,'' Locke said.

In the past two decades, growth in high-technology industries has played a major role in strengthening and diversifying Washington State's economy. The state's software industry generates more than $20 billion in revenue, employing more than 45,000 people at 2,500 companies. And this year, for the first time, wages earned by the industry's workers exceed total compensation going to workers in the state's aerospace industry.

Seeking to sustain their success, the state's technology companies are recruiting new workers from other regions of the United States and from overseas. Industry leaders have warned that if they are unable to find skilled workers, they will be forced to forego expansion over the next three years that would pump an estimated $12 billion into the state's economy.

Locke is proposing a "disciplined approach" to address technology workforce needs. His plan would make the private sector a partner with the state in funding education programs to train students for the information-technology jobs of tomorrow. Elements of the proposal include:

* $7 million in grants for high schools that commit to providing information-technology instruction that leads to industry-accepted skill certifications, such as those offered by Cisco and Microsoft. Grants would be for equipment, curriculum development and their purchase. It also would provide training so high school faculty have the skills to teach information- technology courses. Grants would depend upon at least a 50 percent private match at each school. Preference would go to schools with technology plans and strategies for private-sector partnerships, as well as those serving low-income communities.

* $3 million in grants to community colleges to increase enrollment in information-technology programs and provide one-time start-up and faculty training funding for technology program expansion. No single institution could receive more than 20 percent of total grant funding. Grants would depend upon a 100 percent private-sector match. The goal is to make every community college, either on campus or through distance education, a provider of high-demand information technology skills that lead to industry-accepted certifications and opportunities to advance to upper-division computer science studies.

* $4 million in grants to state four-year colleges and universities to expand computer science and computer engineering enrollments and faculty. Grants would require 100 percent private-sector match, and no single institution could receive more than 50 percent of total grant funding. The goal is to expand computer science and engineering programs by an average of one-third by the end of the biennium.

"Frankly, I would like every one of these programs to be bigger, and for our progress in this area to be faster," Locke said. "But state government is severely constrained by a very tight budget, and by huge new demands such as saving our endangered salmon, sustaining access to health care for children from low-income families, and helping distressed rural counties become part of the mainstream."

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