The governor says Wisconsin is a step ahead of its neighbors in job creation, but it still has work left to do.
Gov. Jim Doyle visited Janesville this morning, touting his plan to create better, higher paying jobs.

Students at Janesville's Blackhawk Technical college have a full plate of programs to choose.
Vice president of learning, Marvin Bausman says "everything from culinary arts to machine shop and lots in between."
But afterward students study employment opportunities more than anything else.
Bausman says, "we've been hit hard in some of the cutbacks in manufacturing areas."
Gov. Jim Doyle visited the area this morning to push his plan to create jobs.
Doyle told a small crowd at Lear Corporation, "as we move forward, we need our technical colleges to provide training our workers need for Wisconsin to compete at the high end."

The governor used the car seat assembly plant as a backdrop to propose two initiatives.

One, a $5 million grant program to bring new jobs to struggling communities. Another initiative has the state picking up the tab for worker training to entice business to come to Wisconsin or to stay put.

Doyle says, "but we don't just hand them a check. We invest in training of the workers so that they have the skills to earn good wage jobs."

One example of a company leaving the state is Alliant Techsystems. This Janesville plant makes fuses for bombs, but will consolidate with a plant in West Virginia, taking roughly 200 jobs with it.

Bausman says, "whether it's Lear, where we were this morning, or GM it's clear they have to move into new technologies and that's a difficulty. They need to train people and it's a difficulty for us because we need the funding to provide that training."

The governor's proposal comes after Dodgeville retailer Lands' End laid off about 400 employees, from executives to customer service representatives.

Doyle says, "it's just an example of in this changing world, we've always got to stay a step ahead of technology."

Before the superhighway drives employers somewhere else.

The governor's two proposals are part of a $10 million economic development program called for in his budget address earlier this year.