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Rep. Wagner Earns Workforce Development Lifetime Achievement Award from Statewide Organization

Boston—Chicopee State Representative Joseph F. Wagner has been recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the statewide Workforce Solutions Group (WSG), the first-ever recognition by the group.

Representative Wagner will be awarded this distinction at the 13th Annual Jobs & Workforce Summit, hosted by WSG, on Tuesday, October 25 at the Devens Conference Center in Devens. Learn more about the summit at www.workforcesolutionsgrp.org/summit22/.

In a letter announcing the honor and signed by ten statewide leaders in workforce development, the group cited Wagner’s central role in supporting and advancing the statewide workforce development infrastructure.

The letter announcing the first-ever recognition from Workforce Solutions Group stated, “From the creation of the Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund and its initial funding, to saving that funding during the Great Recession, to growing that funding to unprecedented levels in our post-pandemic times when it is needed more than ever, the WSG is keenly aware of how instrumental you have been as a leader on these issues.

“Key programs such as Learn to Earn, School-to-Career, STEM, ESL/ESOL/ELL, YouthWorks, AVTE, and key agencies such as the One Stop Career Centers and now MassHire system, are all in positions of strength because you prioritized their funding budget cycle after budget cycle, and economic development bill after economic development bill.

“This focus made a huge difference in the trajectory of workforce development programs and funding, the impacts of which will be experienced for generations. As Chair, you helped ensure that workforce development went hand-in-hand with economic development, and helped to establish, fund, and then increase funding for critical workforce.”

The letter was signed by Tim Sullivan, Project Director, Workforce Solutions Group; Andre Green, Executive Director, SkillWorks; Kethurah Brewster, Executive Director, I Have a Future; Chrtine Niccoli, Director Community Impact United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley; Lauren Jones, Executive Vice President, Mass Business Roundtable; Steve Tolman, President, Massachusetts AFL-CIO; Lew Finfer, Director, Mass Communities Action Network, Maybeth Campbell, Executive Director, Worcester Community Action Council on behalf of MassCAP; Kim Janey, EMPath Economic Mobility Pathways; and, Tonja Mettlach, Executive Director, Mass Workforce Association.

Headquartered in Boston, the Workforce Solutions Group is a statewide advocacy coalition that plays a crucial role in setting the state’s agenda for skills training and workforce development.