WAUSAU - Thousands of Wisconsinites need jobs, and employers need workers. But there's a skills gap leaving some of those jobs empty.
That's why technical colleges around the state are developing programs to help train workers, and Senator Tammy Baldwin visited one in Wausau Thursday.
The newly elected senator learned about the programs at NTC created to fill those skilled job openings. She got a look at the energy efficiency lab, and the newly constructed manufacturing lab. Baldwin last visited the school when the manufacturing lab was being built.
"I truly believe we need to keep on making things in America, and making things in Wisconsin. And so an emphasis on manufacturing is needed. Technical colleges are really playing an extraordinary role in helping address that," says Sen. Baldwin.
Senator Baldwin says helping to get more things made in Wisconsin will be a major focus during her time in the Senate.
She also reflected on what it's been like to go from representing a district to an entire state.
"Sometimes I think of the congressional districts with very arbitrary lines. You feel as strongly about an issue whether it affects somebody on one side of a county line or on the other side of a county line. The biggest difference is the opportunity to fight for all the people of this great state," says Sen. Baldwin.
Senator Baldwin will serve on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. She hopes what they develop there, will help Wisconsin close its skills gap.
MINOCQUA - These plants may look pretty but they're taking over our rivers and lakes. Michele Sadauskas is Oneida County's Aquatic Invasive Species Coordinator. She is working to map and control the yellow iris, the plant you see here. She and two other conservation workers spent the day weeding Stacks Bay.
"They invade our wetlands. They're a really robust, aggressive plant. What they do is they crowd out our native species and make actually the wetland a lot less diverse," says Michele Sadauskas, Oneida County AIS Coordinator.
Removing yellow iris is a slow process. It takes three hours of work just to properly map and control 20 feet of shoreline.
TOMAHAWK - Workers at Daigle Brothers in Tomahawk can build almost anything out of steel. Most of their business is creating custom parts and putting up buildings, but more recently, they've been building a new invention.
Daigle Brothers began in 1987. Back then they did a lot of construction related jobs like painting. Later they focused on steel construction.
"In the 90's we did a lot of school buildings, there was a lot of schools being built, so we supplied structural steel for these building projects... Currently our biggest markets are universities, hospitals, office buildings... we do a lot of fire stations," said Steve Daigle President of Daigle Brothers Inc.
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