Bartow Employer Committee Runner-Up for Top State Award

The Bartow County Employer Committee was named runner-up in the Georgia Employer Committee’s Employer Committee of the Year Award for 2012, State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler announced Friday. The Middle Georgia Employer Committee won first-place.

Committees are groups of local business representatives who establish and maintain a working relationship between the employer community and the Georgia Department of Labor, according to GDOL's website.

Butler presented the awards on behalf of the state committee at its annual conference held last week in Savannah.

"Sometimes it’s difficult to select a clear winner in awards competition and this is one of those occasions," Butler said in a release. "The Bartow County Employer Committee has had such a successful year that the judges thought it worthy to make an exception and present a runner-up award for Employer Committee of the Year. I wholeheartedly agree and congratulate the Bartow committee for its excellent work."

The employer committee was involved in a variety of activities, including a regional forum on building a competitive workforce, awarding need-based scholarships, providing funding for school supplies for at-risk youth, and participating in an educational community collaboration and various chamber of commerce partnerships.

Bartow's committee and the Cobb/Cherokee Employer Committee co-sponsored the forum Georgia’s Workforce, Today and Tomorrow: Planning for the Future. It featured a panel of governmental and educational officials discussing ways to bridge the skills gap in today’s workforce by preparing job seekers through education and training for the jobs of tomorrow. Committee members also met with the local board of education, route: {:controller=>"listings", :action=>"show", :id=>"bartow-county-schools"} --> and to identify business and industry needs in