Appropriates funds to the University of Hawaii at Hilo for workforce development.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that in order to increase the marketability of students at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, the strengthening of employer recruitment activities is critical because of two important reasons. First, Hawaii county has the highest unemployment rate of any county in the State. Second, sixty-eight per cent of the University of Hawaii at Hilo's students are first-generation college students from low-income families. These students have few role models at home to coach them on the job search and career-decision making techniques required in a competitive labor market.

The University of Hawaii at Hilo seeks to increase the career options and marketability of its students and alumni and increase job development and placement activities by creating a full-time career counselor position and adding an assistant director for job development and student employment and a student support specialist focusing on student employment.

This initiative is the second step in their multi-year plan to build a full-service career center at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. In the past, the University of Hawaii at Hilo's career center has limited its functions to administering the student employment program (part-time, on-campus employment). In fiscal year 2002, recognizing the importance of offering students the benefits of a full-service career center, the University of Hawaii at Hilo created and staffed a career center director position. The director has conducted a needs assessment and determined that the most urgent need is the addition of the staff positions described above. The addition of these positions will simultaneously strengthen both the workforce competitiveness of the students and increase the employment opportunities available to them. This new initiative is essential to equipping students with the knowledge and skills they need to compete for career positions in the marketplace and to expanding employment opportunities available to them while they are students and after they graduate.

At current staffing levels, the career center director must divide his time between management, administrative, and employer relations tasks and also provide direct services to students. As a result of this, none of the constituents are fully served to the degree that they need and deserve. Ideally, the director of the career center should primarily be focused on developing career center programs, initiatives, and the budget, coordinating with the university administration and instructional faculty, coordinating recruiting events with directors of other University of Hawaii career centers, training and supervising career center staff, and building a development base within the community. Adding the requested positions will enable the career center director to attend to these matters, while still ensuring that students and alumni receive a full-range of career development services and that routine administrative matters are attended to efficiently and expeditiously.

The new career counselor will assist the career center director with tasks that involve direct service to students in terms of career development and job search. This includes teaching students how to prepare superior resumes and write correspondence, how to seek career positions in difficult economic environments, how to interview effectively, and how to negotiate salary and working conditions. The career counselor will also help students to expand their horizons by assisting them with self-assessment and career-decision making and encouraging them to explore career options that they had not previously considered.

Adding an assistant director for job development and student employment will create a management team focused on increasing availability of job and internship opportunities available for students and alumni and increasing employer awareness of the University of Hawaii at Hilo career center services for employers. The new assistant director will focus on such tasks as supervising the administration of the student employment program, developing tools to facilitate student and alumni access to job and experiential learning opportunities, and fostering increased use of career center services among the principal constituencies of employers, students, and alumni.

The third position is a specialist whose responsibilities will be to carry out the daily functions of the student employment program. Many University of Hawaii at Hilo students seek part-time employment while attending college and, in fact, require the income from a part-time job to remain in school. The much-needed position will serve to assist students with finding, applying for, and securing on and off campus employment and will work with the University and at-large communities to create employment opportunities for students.

It is vitally important to simultaneously implement these program changes. This Act addresses both employer and potential employee issues by significantly enhancing the University of Hawaii at Hilo 's ability to match employers with well-prepared, competitive university graduates.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $459,767, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007, to enhance the employability of students and graduates of the University of Hawaii at Hilo, as follows:

SECTION 3. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the University of Hawaii for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2006.