Colorado and its western neighbors have done well economically, according to Gov. John Hickenlooper, but a low unemployment rate, at around 2.4 percent, is creating its own problems: Workers lack the the skills necessary to attract new businesses or help expand existing ones.

Hickenlooper, along with South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard, spoke on Monday at a workforce development meeting held by the Western Governors Association in Denver, one of four workforce sessions designed to develop partnerships with industry to improve the labor market.

After the address, Hickenlooper spoke with reporters on Amazon’s plans for a second headquarters; Denver is on the short list for that location, which would bring in 50,000 high-paying jobs.

“These are skills-based jobs based on understanding coding, technology oriented positions,” and all of the cities in the running have the same problem, Hickenlooper said, which is a low unemployment rate in the tech sector. Denver’s advantage is the apprenticeship program and skills-based approaches. “We have a strong argument for the largest pipeline for getting young people with those skills in a position where they’re ready to go to work.” And young people will be more attracted to Colorado than to other places in the running, he said.

Hickenlooper also said that Amazon bears some responsibility to help  Colorado and other western states figure out how to ramp up the workforce. While other states like Wyoming and Utah don’t have one of the major requirements for the Amazon bid – a city with a population of a million people or more – Amazon can take advantage of some of the talent being turned out by those states. Hickenlooper pointed specifically to Wyoming and its electrical engineering program at the University of Wyoming. “I’m not sure Amazon needs all those jobs in one place,” he said. “We don’t need it all. We should have partnerships with these communities,” which he said will help Amazon find the best solutions for its needs.

But Amazon and much of what Hickenlooper described in his workforce development goals are centered in the Front Range, not on the Eastern Plains or other rural communities where the unemployment rate is higher. Hickenlooper responded that it’s more difficult to find apprenticeships in rural small businesses, and that he might go to the General Assembly next session for a tax incentive for rural counties.

By 2030, Hickenlooper said, three-quarters of the jobs in Colorado will require a high school diploma and post-secondary work, but not necessarily a four-year college degree. Both Hickenlooper and Daugaard pointed to community college and technical education as the pathways to jobs in the future, not college degrees.

“Our economy is growing so rapidly, we’re going to need technicians at every level who don’t need a college degree,” Hickenlooper said.

In 2015, the governor signed an executive order creating the Business Experiential Learning commission (BEL), led by now-gubernatorial candidate Noel Ginsburg, CEO of Intertech Plastics. The commission’s goal is that high school students learn first in school and second by industry, through apprenticeships in manufacturing or information technology, for example. They work three days a week at these internships, and by the time they graduate from high school they’ve got not only the high school diploma but experience in the industries they’ll be working in. “So far, every business thinks it’s well worth the effort,” Hickenlooper said. In 18 months of pilot programs, 250 high school students have worked in 80 different companies. The goal in 10 years is to have 20,000 apprenticeships, helping students build skills for high-demand jobs.

“With low unemployment, we have to do a better job of getting every kid into the workforce, to make sure they have not just a job but a good job” that will lead to a career. “This is the one of the most powerful things I’ve had anything to do with since I’ve been governor.”

Daugaard said his state has the same issue as Colorado – low unemployment – and the same problem: employers who go elsewhere to get the labor or skill set that isn’t available in his state. Calling Colorado “a great learning lab” for other states, Daugaard said his state is working to enhance the career pathways for young people and even those with degrees who don’t have the skills in demand by the workforce, or to help workers whose skills have been replaced by automation and technology.

Daugaard was dismissive of the liberal arts education, stating that students who do get their degrees find few jobs in their fields or jobs that don’t pay well, adding that they’ve racked up significant student loan debt, only to end up in low-paying entry level jobs. Those degrees produce skills that are not in demand in the workplace, he said. “We want to redefine success, which is not necessarily a four-year degree program,” he said.

For workers in minimum wage or low wage jobs, apprenticeships are also part of the solution, Hickenlooper said, noting that automation is replacing workers at fast food restaurants. “I don’t know of anything else that will help with the tidal wave of automation,” he said.

Addressing the workforce issue also means fixing the state’s broadband gap, Hickenlooper said. In the next few years, the governor has called for every community in the state to have broadband. But that also means getting a lot of money from urban areas and persuading urban residents that rural broadband is in their best interest. “This is the currency of life,” the governor said.