Missouri House Advances Workforce Bill Modeled On Ohio's TechCred

By Samantha Dietel, Missouri Independent

February 22, 2023

An effort to reimburse Missouri employers for helping to expand the skills of their workers was inspired by the success of an Ohio program.

Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted told the Missourian that TechCred, Ohio’s upskill credentials program, has funded over 57,000 awards since its inception in 2019.

Husted is the director of the Ohio Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation, which TechCred falls under. TechCred is the model for a similar program outlined in Missouri House Bill 417, which won initial approval in the House on Tuesday. It needs one more vote before going to the Senate.

Rep. Mike Henderson, R-Bonne Terre, who sponsors the bill, said the proposed upskill credentials program aims to help fund employers seeking to teach their workers new skills. This way, businesses have the skilled workers they need, while employees can continue their education and earn higher wages, he said.

The creation of this program would come at a time when businesses are grappling with a skilled workforce shortage.

“Workforce is the biggest barrier that employers are experiencing right now,” said Kara Corches, vice president of government affairs at the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“It’s a huge obstacle to growth both in terms of workforce shortage, as well as skills gap. The employers are looking for skills in their workforce at a certain level, and prospective employees don’t necessarily have those skills.”

The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry was the source of the bill. Corches said her organization learned about TechCred from the Ohio Chamber of Commerce.

Because of TechCred’s success in Ohio, Corches said, her organization worked closely with the Ohio Chamber to learn more about how TechCred is administered. This influenced the design of the program defined in HB 417.

Husted said he feels encouraged that Missouri lawmakers are considering the implementation of this type of program because he believes industry-recognized credentials are the future of continuing education for workers.

“I hope as more states adopt programs like this, they can serve as a model for how the federal government can change the way it funds education,” Husted said, “and use Pell grant money for these kinds of programs because right now, they don’t.”

Understanding Ohio’s TechCred

TechCred has created a culture of lifelong learning among Ohio’s employers and employees, Husted said in a telephone interview.

Since 2019, 2,173 different employers have used this program to upskill their workers. This sum is made up of a balance of small, medium and large businesses across all industry sectors, Husted said.

Husted said TechCred is allocated $25 million each year, and these funds are not divided between small, medium and large businesses.

“It’s worked itself out very well,” Husted said. “It organically just kind of split up between all three of those categories.”

TechCred has awarded just over $64 million to businesses since the program began. Approximately 41% of these funds were awarded to large businesses, 29% were awarded to medium-sized businesses and about 30% were given to small business employers.

Before applying for the TechCred program, employers must select an employee or prospective employee that they would like to upskill, as well as identify a training provider for their desired short-term credential. The credential must take less than a year to complete in order to qualify.

The recipient of the funds cannot also be the training provider.

The employer then submits an online application for approval. Husted said applications for funding are open every two months. The next application period is March 1-31. Awards will then be made in April, Husted said.

Once an employer is approved, their employee or prospective employee must earn the credential before they can be reimbursed up to $2,000. This incentivizes credential completion, Husted said.

“As long as it’s one of the approved credentials and with an approved provider, it’s basically 100% guaranteed you’re going to get it approved,” Husted said.

The program offers over 1,000 different credentials focused on technology. These credentials are in industry areas such as IT, construction technology, cybersecurity, healthcare technology and more.

“Everything is tech,” Husted said. “Healthcare is tech, logistics is tech, manufacturing is tech. So it’s a pretty broad term in how we use it.”

Husted said when the program began in 2019, a few hundred credentials were available for employers to choose from. He said the program was built around in-demand tech credentials that were important to growing the economy.

As the program grew, Husted and his team listened to employers about what additional credentials they wanted to have available, he said. The program expanded to meet those needs, Husted said, and new credentials continue to be added.

Husted said the idea for the program came to him after hearing from constituents about how technology has been changing “the nature of work.” He also said he thought about how a state’s future workforce is their current workforce.

“The nature of the marketplace is changing all the time, the nature of the skills you need are changing and you have to constantly upskill people so employers have the talent they need and people have the skills that they need,” Husted said.

TechCred also has a sister program called the Individual Microcredential Assistance Program, which allows unemployed, partially employed or low-income Ohioans to go through training at no cost by reimbursing training providers up to $3,000 per credential completed.

“Industry-recognized credentials are the currency of the modern economy when it comes to job training,” Husted said.

Upskilling Missouri workers

Henderson’s bill would establish a fund to award businesses up to $2,000 to upskill an employee or prospective employee.

In order to receive this grant, an employer would need to submit an application to the Department of Economic Development.

Like TechCred, an employee must complete their credential within 12 months before the employer can be reimbursed.

Up to $6 million will be allocated to Henderson’s proposed upskill credentials program. These funds will be subject to appropriations, Henderson said.

The bill was amended in committee so that the appropriated funds would be evenly divided three ways:

• 33.3% of these funds would go to businesses with 1-50 employees.
• 33.3% of these funds would go to businesses with 51-100 employees.
• 33.3% of these funds would go to businesses with over 100 employees.

According to the bill summary, any of these reserved funds may be accessed by any eligible employer if they are not awarded by March 1 of the fiscal year.

Henderson said the credentials of this program are not limited to technology and healthcare, but those are the focus due to workforce shortages.

“They’re having trouble finding the people they need in healthcare, and so we’re looking at both of those particularly, but we are not limiting to those either,” Henderson said. “There are companies that can’t find welders, there are companies that can’t find electricians, but they can find workers who they can maybe upskill.”

Corches said the proposed program fits into recommendations from the Missouri Chamber Foundation’s Workforce 2030 report, which advises the improvement of worker skills and worker retention.

Corches said a business investing in their employees’ professional development often helps worker retention. The upskill credential program would be helping employers with that, so Corches said it could be a great tool for businesses.

Henderson said he hopes businesses will find success with the program, which could be expanded in the future. He also said it would be better if the workforce starts to balance out as a result of the program.

“Either way, if we can fill the gap in the meantime, that would be great,” Henderson said.

This story originally appeared in the Columbia Missourian. It can be republished online or in print.

This story was originally published by Missouri Independent. For more stories from the Missouri Independent, visit Missouri Independent.