This commentary is by Rep. Edye Graning of Jericho, a Democrat representing the Chittenden-3 district in the Vermont House of Representatives. She is vice chair of the House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development.
As sure as our Vermont winters are long, we know that finding the right worker is a challenge. In reality, across far too many sectors, hiring anyone has been nearly impossible in recent years. The Legislature realized that this must change and has been hard at work.
We all understand that a strong workforce is a foundational step to address many of Vermont’s challenges. A more robust pool of health care workers increases access to medical care, a skilled workforce trained in the trades will help us get to our housing goals sooner, to provide just two examples.
The Legislature’s current efforts build upon several critical steps taken in recent years.
- We encourage Vermonters to become dentists and physicians through forgivable loan programs.
- The crucial work to add nurses to our workforce has included forgivable loans for education, stipends for nurses who train new nurses and grants to health care employers who expand partnerships with Vermont nursing schools.
- The Legislature has supported training and retention programs for direct care providers in areas of provider shortages through our Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living and the Department of Health.
- The 802 Opportunity Grant was created to provide a tuition- and fee-free education to any Vermonter with a household income of $50,000 or less pursuing an associate degree or certificate in a high needs field. Seeing the positive impact of this initiative, we raised that threshold to $75,000 and in 2024 more than 2,600 students attended Community College of Vermont tuition free.
- To encourage college graduates with bachelor’s and master’s degrees to stay here in Vermont, we launched the Green Mountain Job and Retention Program. This program provides up to $5,000 in loan repayment over two years for graduates. Amplifying the impact of the program, some Vermont employers have matched this incentive for their new employees.
Our part-time citizen legislature can come up with innovative programs like this and make an impact in some high need job sectors. However, despite signs that the work done to date is bearing fruit, we realize that the need remains great and there is more that must be done. To amplify the legislature’s strong work, the Office of Workforce Strategy and Development was born in 2023.
This new office lives within the executive branch and is led by an Eeecutive director who serves as a full-time workforce expert tasked with bringing together the key players, gain a deep and holistic understanding of the system, and create and implement a workforce expansion and development strategy for Vermont. Sabina Haskell was tapped to fill the role of executive director and started just this past month.
The next step to ensure strong forward progress is H.34. This bill came out of the House Commerce Committee with unanimous support and was passed by the full House before heading over to the Senate. H.34 looks at the parameters for the Office of Workforce Strategy and Development, and its executive director, setting the vision for how this role will work with the state’s existing workforce development framework. The creation of this role, putting a strong leader in place, and now strengthening this new position’s charge will serve to keep our foot on the gas on this critical issue.
We are setting Vermont up to be a workforce leader. To use the assets that we have to make our brave little state the best place to work in the nation.
