Indiana Gov. Mike Braun has re-established a board overseeing the state’s workforce training programs just months after a similar board was dissolved.
Braun signed an executive order saying the State Workforce Development Board was needed to comply with federal law on the implementation of state and federal workforce initiatives.
The governor’s office said the board would serve “as a central coordinating body to align employers, education and training providers, and state agencies around measurable workforce outcomes.”
Braun’s order released Monday comes after the 21-member Governor’s Workforce Cabinet was eliminated as of July 1. The Workforce Cabinet was enacted in 2018 at the request of then-Gov. Eric Holcomb.
The state budget bill approved by the General Assembly last year repealed the Workforce Cabinet from state law and transferred its activities to the state Department of Workforce Development.
Braun has not yet named members to the board or specified its makeup.
The order said Braun will be a board member and that the governor will appoint other members from those nominated by Indiana business organizations, trade associations and labor unions. Board members must include officials responsible for state workforce programs and from local government.
“We will use the Indiana Workforce Development Board to bring together an elite team of job creators and workforce development experts to help create new opportunities and bigger paychecks for Hoosier workers,” Braun said in a governor’s office statement.
The workforce board’s reinstatement follows a renewed push by some Republican lawmakers to reduce Indiana’s roster of more than 250 state boards and commissions. Legislation specifying which board might be eliminated had not been released as of Friday.
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