Helping students, parolees and disability beneficiaries gain employment plays a major role in a framework of workforce development reform offered recently by U.S. Rep. French Hill (R-AR).
“As we think about workforce strategies and the supply of badly needed workers across the entire spectrum of career opportunities, we must broaden our horizons from simply K-12 education and a four-year college degree,” said Rep. Hill during his keynote address at a meeting of the Rotary Club of Little Rock, Ark.
To ensure a better-prepared workforce in Arkansas, Rep. Hill told attendees that “we must look at traditional K-12 education; secondary education, both college and career tech; mid-career training; reentry from incarceration; transition from honorable service in the military; and significant reform of the disability system incentives.”
For instance, the congressman said that all students should receive enriching curriculum and concurrent tracks of study that prepare them for either college-level work or an apprenticeship or career.
To help parolees re-enter society, Rep. Hill suggested legislatively establishing a transitional program combined with drug and alcohol treatment and skills training for eligible offenders.
“Like those shifting back to society from incarceration, our brave, humble veterans who transition back to civilian life face many obstacles to productive civilian employment,” he added. “We need to streamline this at the state level so that our veterans can go to work faster.”
Lastly, Rep. Hill discussed the bicameral Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) Return to Work Act, H.R. 3566 / S. 2016, introduced on June 27 in both houses of Congress by Rep. Hill and U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) to help individuals receiving disability insurance benefits obtain rehabilitative services and return to the workforce.
“The SSDI is critical to states like Arkansas where nearly 300,000 citizens rely on the program,” he said. “This is a key area at the federal level where we can encourage and help people get back on their feet and get back to the joy and reward that work provides.”