SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – With an interest in promoting job growth and supporting job creators, state Rep. Mike Smiddy, D-Hillsdale, has recently been chosen to serve on the Illinois Workforce Innovation Board, an unpaid collaboration of leaders involved in a wide range of employment and policy.
“I am humbled and excited about the opportunity to assist in developing a strategic workforce plan for the state,” Smiddy said. “It’s important that we focus on the making the state attractive to businesses, giving support to job creators and innovators, while building our communities in the process.”
Smiddy is joining the Illinois Workforce Innovation Board (IWIB), which provides oversight and strategic leadership to workforce development programs in order to further the state’s goals of meeting the workforce needs of employers and workers. In addition, IWIB is charged with the task of reviewing the progress of the state’s workforce development efforts. The board includes leaders from business, state agencies, industry, labor, education and community-based organizations. The IWIB spearheads the Transition Task Force, Healthcare Task Force and Disadvantaged Youth Task Force, which are all apart of the task force structure of the board to include input from the public and Workforce partners.
“Business leadership is needed at state, regional and local levels to support engagement across the workforce system,” Smiddy said. “I am glad to contribute to the process of working on job issues facing our state, and I intend to be a voice for the specific challenges and strengths of our region.”
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