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Corporate Voices' Policy Update: President Obama Announces Initiatives Critical to Improving Manufacturing Workforce
Recently, President Obama announced a major expansion of Skills for America's Future, an industry led initiative to dramatically improve industry partnerships with community colleges and build a nation-wide network to maximize workforce development strategies, job training programs, and job placements.
"Last year, we launched Skills for America's Future to bring together companies and community colleges around a simple idea: making it easier for workers to gain new skills will make America more competitive in the global economy. Today, we are announcing a number of partnerships that will help us make this a reality, by opening doors to new jobs for workers, and helping employers find the trained people they need to compete against companies around the world," said President Obama.
While the manufacturing sector has faced unprecedented challenges in recent years, it continues to be the lifeblood of the American economy. The manufacturing sector currently employs over 11 million Americans, and by itself it would be one of the tenth largest economies in the world. Manufacturing is also critical for our continued innovation; manufacturing companies account for two-thirds of private sector research and development and roughly 90 percent of all registered patents. Most importantly, manufacturing has long provided good-paying jobs for millions of families and serves as the anchor employer in communities across America.
One of the challenges in today's manufacturing sector is the lack of a standardized credentialing system that manufacturing firms recognize as useful preparation for their unfilled jobs. As a result, students often spend time and money on training that can have little value to potential employers while employers have difficulty identifying which credentials are of value and should influence hiring and promotions.
The Manufacturing Skills Certification System, developed with manufacturing firms at the table, will give students the opportunity to earn manufacturing credentials that will travel across state lines, be valued by a range of employers and improve earning power. In designing this program, the Manufacturing Institute has partnered with leading manufacturing firms, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lumina Foundation, and key players in education and training including ACT, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the American Welding Society, the National Institute of Metalworking Skills, and the Manufacturing Skills Standards Council. This will allow students and workers to access this manufacturing credentials and pathways in community colleges in 30 states as a for-credit program of study.
The Administration also announced new key business leaders leading the President's call to action by joining the Skills for America's Future board, including William D. Green, chairman, Accenture; Greg Brown, chairman and CEO, Motorola Solutions; Penny Pritzker, chairman and CEO, Pritzker Realty Group (Chair); Brad Keywell, co-founder and director of Groupon, Inc. and co-founder and managing partner of Lightbank; Nick Pinchuk, chairman and CEO of Snap-on Incorporated; David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery Communications; Ellen Alberding, president, The Joyce Foundation; and Walter Bumphus, president and CEO, American Association of Community Colleges. Learn more about Skills for America's future at www.skillsforamericasfuture.org.
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As the economy starts to recover, now is the time to analyze and discuss what is needed to make that recovery sustainable, and how we can build a stronger and more competitive future workforce. Corporate Voices is proud to announce that Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and Congressman Howard P. "Buck" McKeon (R-CA-25) will give keynote remarks at a special bi-partisan Congressional briefing as part of Corporate Voices' 10th Annual Partners Meeting on June 15, 2011 at 1:00 p.m..
Sen. Murray and Rep. McKeon will share their views on these subjects as well as their related work as Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety and member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce respectively.
Corporate Voices is proud to announce that it has joined the National Coalition for College Completion (NCCC). NCCC is a group of organizations representing business, civil rights, social services, students and youth advocacy. The goal of NCCC is to mobilize a diverse, non-partisan voice in support of college completion that speaks for the collective interests of the American public by demanding a policy agenda that encourages higher education institutions to provide better support to underrepresented students; namely, those from low-income, racial/ethnic minority, and first-generation-to-college backgrounds. NCCC's goals will be achieved through the guidance of five driving principles: affordability, career readiness, equity, transformation, and quality.
