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By Jerry Lynottjlynott@www.timesleader.com <style>
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<div class="neCaption">Pennsylvania Department of Labor &amp; Industry Kathy Manderino answers a question at a roundtable discussion with education, workforce development officials and members of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry Wednesday at the Innovation Center @Wilkes-Barre. </div></div></div>
WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Before she heard from workforce and economic development officials about their successes and needs for job creation, state Labor &amp; Industry Secretary Kathy Manderino stumped for Gov. Tom Wolf&#8217;s budget.Education is a critical component of his $33.8 billion spending plan and the key to the state&#8217;s exit from the past and entry into the future with a well-trained and marketable workforce, she explained Wednesday, a day after Wolf, a Democrat, vetoed a budget passed by the majority Republican legislature.&#8220;The governor is committed to making sure that we get a budget that gets Pennsylvania back on track,&#8221; Manderino said Wednesday, prefacing her leading a roundtable discussion at the Innovations Center @ Wilkes-Barre, the latest stop on her &#8220;Jobs that Pay&#8221; tour across the state. &#8220;And here we are now, quite frankly, we&#8217;re still playing games and pretending we don&#8217;t have to do business a different way.&#8221;But the state has to progress and education has to be funded to prepare the workforce, something she said she&#8217;s heard on her tour.&#8220;We don&#8217;t have the workers for the future in the pipeline,&#8221; Manderino said.The workforce in place is aging and there is a need to train students at the high school level and above for advance manufacturing and other high-skill jobs and well-paying jobs, she said. Not all require four-year degrees from colleges or universities, she said.Larry Newman, of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry, talked about the cooperative effort between the education, business, workforce and economic development communities to attract the mail order pharmacy CVS Caremark to the Hanover Industrial Estates.&#8220;What I am happy to hear about is the fact that you are seeing the need for similar partnerships statewide,&#8221; Newman said.A curriculum was developed at Luzerne County Community College to train students to work at the facility, added Susan Spry, vice president of Workforce &amp; Community Development at the school.&#8220;It was a quick, rapid way to get that company to look at us and say,&#8217;Yes, you are going to develop the workforce for us, so we&#8217;ll come,&#8217;&#8221; Spry said.Rodney Ridley, director of The Allan P. Kirby Center for Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at Wilkes University, pushed for support for start-up companies and the importance of growing business and industry from within the state.&#8220;I don&#8217;t know exactly how to answer that today, but I hear you,&#8221; Manderino said.Ridley said downtown Wilkes-Barre is becoming an innovation hub for businesses, pointing out the Innovation Center has approximately 140 people employed there and is home to eBay Enterprise Marketing Solutions which Manderino toured after the roundtable. Wilkes&#8217; Kirby Center has approximately 25 start-ups and is adding more. &#8220;This could explode, &#8221; Ridley said of the potential for growth.The bus driving jobs Patti Lenahan looked to fill were a lot less cutting edge, but nonetheless necessary.Lenahan, executive director of the Luzerne/Schuylkill Workforce Investment Board Inc. said Martz Trailways is need of drivers and will train them.The job was taken off the high priority occupation list and the board is in the process of getting it back on for the new fiscal year. The jobs pay between $40,000 and $50,000 annually, she said.Across the state, the job markets are different in terms of what the specific positions are, Manderino said. &#8220;But in terms of what the needs are, they&#8217;re very similar, throughout the commonwealth,&#8221; she said, adding they include ensuring young people are well prepared to enter the workforce and the matching skills with employer needs. Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLNews

Pennsylvania labor secretary brings ‘Jobs that Pay’ tour to Wilkes-Barre