Fund Already Works With Business on Jobs

To the Editor:

In your March 26 issue, Basil J. Whiting calls upon foundations to work with the business sector to address the growing problem of inadequate worker training (“Foundations Must Work With Business on Job Training,” My View). While he praises a few large foundations for early efforts, he has failed to recognize that some of us have been working on this issue for at least the last two years.

The Blandin Foundation, based in the north woods of Minnesota, first tackled the subject of worker shortages — and the need for worker training — in its 1996 annual report. With that beginning, we narrowed our focus specifically to the topic of worker training. Our 1997 annual report, “Worker Education for the 21st Century,” dealt solely with this issue through a canvass of some 25 key stakeholders.

And we didn’t stop with writing about the problem. We listened not only to business but also to organized labor, education, and government and formed a task force with all these players to prioritize and define the issue. We took the discussion on the road via four Blandin-sponsored regional town-hall meetings to learn firsthand how the lack of adequate worker training is affecting our state’s diverse economy.

Certainly, our work is not yet done. Our goal is to help shape public-policy changes through our state educational and legislative systems to more directly meet the needs of Minnesota employers and employees — whether they are welfare workers, high-school students, or employees who have not kept pace with technology. We continue our dialogue with state legislative leadership, the Governor’s office, business, labor, and education.

Next time, Mr. Whiting may want to look a little further for foundations that are taking a leadership role on some of the tough issues of the day.

Paul Olson
President
Blandin Foundation
Grand Rapids, Minn.