Authors

Diane Reynolds Ravnik

Article Title

From Smokestacks to High Tech: Retraining Workers for a Technological Age

Abstract

This comment will examine a jobs re-training program, The Employment Training Panel (ETP), an innovative piece of job training legislation enacted in California in 1982. Designed with the dual purpose of economic development and job training and employment, the bill seeks to (1) foster job creation and put the unemployed back to work, (2) meet employer needs for skilled workers, and (3) minimize employers' unemployment insurance costs. ETP does so by working closely with the State's Department of Economic and Business Development to entice new business to locate in California and to encourage existing business to expand their operations by offering to train whatever employees the company needs at virtually no cost to the employer. Workers who have lost jobs with companies which are closing down or laying off can thus be retrained for new jobs. By "recycling" employees back into the work force quickly, ETP can assist employers to reduce their unemployment insurance costs. Since more of the employers' contributions stay in the unemployment insurance fund, it may remain solvent, thus avoiding higher contribution rates.

Recommended Citation

Diane Reynolds Ravnik, From Smokestacks to High Tech: Retraining Workers for a Technological Age, 14 Golden Gate U. L. Rev. (1984).
https://digitalcommons.law.ggu.edu/ggulrev/vol14/iss2/2