Report Title:

Hawaii Construction Workforce Action Plan; Implementation

Description:

Appropriates $30,000 to the Department of Labor for a grant-in-aid to the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs (HIPA) to implement the Hawaii Construction Workforce Action Plan; requires a dollar-for-dollar private sector match.

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	16
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

relating to the hawaii construction workforce action plan.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

     SECTION 1.  (a)  In 2004, the legislature provided the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs with a $100,000 grant-in-aid to implement the recommendations of the Hawaii Jobs Summit, a statewide policy forum held on January 20, 2004, to provide community input in addressing Hawaii's workforce needs relating to Hawaii's construction and maritime workforce demand.

     With the funding, Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs prepared the Hawaii Construction Workforce Action Plan, dated Fall 2006.  The action plan notes that the expanding construction industry in Hawaii will require an additional nine thousand four hundred workers through 2012, with an average demand of one thousand two hundred workers each year.  Yet, the current apprenticeship training system, which is attempting to meet this growing demand, produced only two hundred journey workers in 2005.  Worker shortages are expected in almost all construction-related trades, and analysis of available data and input from industry observers offers compelling support for collaborative action between Hawaii's various government and private sector programs to address critical shortages of experienced construction industry workers.

     The action plan offers the following strategies to address Hawaii's current and future construction workforce shortages:

     (1)  Improve the readiness of persons interested in entering apprenticeship programs and increase the proportion of applicants who are accepted into apprenticeship programs;

     (2)  Improve apprenticeship program retention and completion;

     (3)  Increase numbers of persons applying to apprenticeship programs in general, and to targeted trades in particular, through targeted marketing and outreach campaigns; and

    (4)  Continue and expand efforts to develop, organize, coordinate, monitor, and report on workforce development initiatives outlined in this plan.

     Implementation of the Hawaii Construction Workforce Action Plan will require ongoing collaboration and the long-term dedication of business, labor, and government organizations, which will be the focus of the next phase of the Hawaii Jobs Initiative.  Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs estimates that implementation of the action plan would cost approximately $60,000.

     (b)  The purpose of this Act is to appropriate $30,000—with a private sector dollar-for-dollar matching requirement—for implementation of the Hawaii Construction Workforce Action Plan.

     SECTION 2.  There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $30,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2007-2008, for a grant pursuant to chapter 42F, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs for implementation of the Hawaii Construction Workforce Action Plan; provided that no funds shall be made available under this Act unless the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs provides $30,000 from the private sector or from other revenue sources for the purposes for which this sum is appropriated.

     SECTION 3.  The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of labor and industrial relations for the purposes of this Act.

     SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2007.

INTRODUCED BY:

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