EDITOR’S NOTE: In the weeks leading up to the 2024 legislative session, State Affairs is taking a look at key issue areas likely to lead to proposed legislation and lively debate at the Statehouse. Our latest story focuses on workforce-related legislation.

Employers in Georgia are ready to expand their businesses but are hard-pressed to find adequately trained and qualified applicants, while many would-be professionals find themselves hampered  by the state’s often burdensome licensing requirements and inefficient licensing boards. That’s a problem in a state where 1 in 6 jobs requires an occupational license. 

Legislators working across several study committees last year have come up with plenty of ideas to get more Georgians trained and into good-paying, high-demand jobs. Here are some of their recommendations.

Expand the pipeline of training for high-demand careers

The Senate Study Committee on Expanding Georgia’s Workforce heard from manufacturers, health care providers, logistics and construction companies, small business organizations and regional economic development officials last year. They chronicled how gaps in their skilled workforces are counter-productive and costly. 

Meanwhile, representatives from many of the same industries ballyhooed some of the partnerships between employers, state universities and technical colleges (and even some high schools) that are creating training opportunities and career tracks offering high-demand, high-skilled, lucrative jobs. 

Lawmakers want to support more of what’s working in 2024. In their final report issued last month, the Expanding Georgia’s Workforce committee recommended increasing tuition reimbursements for students pursuing high-demand careers, and also enacting legislation to develop a program to transfer credits between University System of Georgia schools and Technical College System of Georgia schools in high-demand career paths.

Defining exactly what high-demand careers are is part of the challenge — multiple state department lists include jobs ranging from nurses, teachers, and truck drivers to electrical engineers and web developers — and so the joint study committee on Dual Enrollment for Highly Skilled Talent at Younger Ages made nailing down that definition its first priority in its final report. 

The report also calls to streamline and develop more partnership agreements between local school systems, technical schools, state universities, and local employers. The committee would like to see more college-age students as well as 15- to 18-year-olds (in dual enrollment programs) learning not just in-demand skilled trades as welding, automotive tech and aeronautical engineering, but advanced skills such as computer coding, robotics and manufacturing automation, skills that will get Georgia’s new and expansion-minded employers such as Rivian, Hyundai and Qcells deeper into production. 

The dual enrollment study committee also recommended providing more funding for technical college instructors and high school counselors, who are key players in dual enrollment and accelerated career pathways programs. 

Reform the occupational licensing process

Georgia doesn’t make it easy for some people pursuing professional careers to get the license or credential they need to get to work, and several groups of legislators, state officials, industry leaders and advocates have weighed in on what should change in occupational licensing. 

Both the Expanding Georgia’s Workforce study committee and the Occupational Licensing study committee in the Senate want to see more flexibility in licensing requirements (both educational and experiential) of some professional boards, including those who regulate nurses, truck drivers and people in construction trades.  

They’d also like to see Georgia get up to speed with other states in developing more universal recognition or reciprocity agreements so that experienced professionals coming in from out of state, foreign countries, or the military — including doctors and other health care professionals — can have their credentials recognized and accepted more quickly. 

Because many of the 43 professional licensing boards housed in the Secretary of State’s office are significantly backlogged in approving license applications and renewals due to low staffing and slow-moving, inefficient technical processes, the Occupational Licensing study committee’s final report also recommended providing more funding to the ongoing overhaul of the SOS licensing portal, as requested by the secretary of state’s Chief Operating Officer Gabriel Sterling. 

Reduce barriers to employment for people with criminal records 

Senate Bill 157, which would remove barriers for some people with a criminal background to obtain or retain a professional license, sailed through the Senate last session but did not get a vote in the House. The legislation would direct licensing boards to create and clarify guidelines as to how the type, age and severity of criminal offenses should be considered when determining a person’s eligibility to work in certain industries. It would also create a pre-clearance process so applicants can find out if they’re likely to be approved or denied a license before investing time and money into professional training. 

Its passage is recommended by the Senate Occupational Licensing study committee.

“While the conviction of certain offenses should prevent someone from obtaining a license in some fields, the goal is to help people who have made mistakes by giving them the opportunity to remain in the workforce as productive members of society without being precluded from working in industries where a previous conviction has no relation to the field of profession,” said bill sponsor Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, who is also a member of the study committee. 

Republican Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and most of the bipartisan workforce-related study committees in both chambers are in favor of the bill, which would address a key part of the state’s workforce shortage. According to the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, 65,000 licensed jobs are unfilled in Georgia’s health care, child care, elder care, transportation and finance industries. About 40% of Georgians — 4.5 million people — have a criminal record.

‘Red Tape Rollback’

Reforming the occupational licensing process and opening up more jobs to people with criminal backgrounds are two elements of the ‘Red Tape Rollback’ initiative that Jones announced last November. Endorsed by Senate leadership and prominent Georgia business leaders, Jones’ plan also includes legislation that will expand the definition of a small business in Georgia from 100 to 300 employees, which could make more businesses eligible for tax relief incentives while reducing some regulatory requirements. 

The rollback’s backers also envision empowering members of the General Assembly to request and conduct economic analyses of proposed legislation and agency regulations that impact small businesses prior to implementation.

Address the shortage of child care options

One factor impacting economic development statewide is the chronic shortage of child care workers and providers across the state. Many people who’d like to join or get back into the workforce can’t do so due to the lack of quality, affordable child care providers and pre-K programs in their communities. 

Early education advocates want the Legislature to increase state investment in the Child Care and Parent Services program, which subsidizes the cost of child care for low income families and children with special needs. Only 15% of eligible children in Georgia currently receive such subsidies. 

Others, including the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, want legislators to use the ever-growing unrestricted lottery reserve to boost the pay of pre-K workers, particularly assistant teachers whose base salary is $20,190, according to the Department of Early Care and Learning.

The House Working Group on Early Childhood Education, which heard a good deal of testimony on the challenges to employers and workers posed by the child care crisis, hasn’t yet issued its final report and recommendations.

In October, Rep. Jan Jones, R-Milton, speaker pro tem of the House and chair of the working group, said she and the group’s members would make recommendations for funding pre-K programs prior to the 2024 legislative session, which begins Jan. 8. 

Read these related stories:

Lawmakers eye Medicaid expansion and more mental health services

Manufacturing jobs reward skilled high school grads, while businesses beg for more trainees. Should the state incentivize more tech training?

Georgia considering occupational licensing reform

Georgia has $2B in lottery reserves, but pre-K child care is in crisis

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