President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are touting a new job training program involving community colleges.
The plan is aimed at better connecting the training of students at community colleges with specific types of jobs in the marketplace.
The plan would offer $600 million in grants “to support job-driven training, like apprenticeships that will expand partnerships with industry, businesses, unions, community colleges, and training organizations to train workers in the skills they need,” said a White House statement.
Obama and Biden announced the new initiative on Wednesday at Community College of Allegheny County West Hills Center, which has collaborated with New Century Careers, a nonprofit consortium in which Pittsburgh-area employers work with local community colleges to develop apprenticeship programs.
The job training plan has two major components: first, to which $500 million is being dedicated, is a competitive process that seeks the best programs linking community colleges with businesses. The second, to which $100 million is being dedicated, expands apprentice programs across the country.
It only makes sense to train workers for specific jobs that employers are actually seeking to fill. The challenge will be to train workers for the jobs of today and also for the jobs of the future in an ever changing global economy.
According to the U.S. Labor Department, some of the fast-growing jobs include occupations such as information technology healthcare and advance manufacturing.
When it comes to more funding for apprenticeships it is important that America begin to catch up with many European nations that seem to place greater value on apprenticeship.
The money for these job training programs has already been allocated, which allows the president to circumvent a deadlocked and divided Congress. The president had announced earlier in the year he would go around congress if necessary to get things done. This is another example of him doing just that.
But there are limitations to how much the president can do without Congress. A great deal more than $600 million grant is needed to address the issue Americans see as the nation’s top priority—jobs.
The president’s proposal is important first step, but Congress also needs to get involved.
(Reprinted from the Philadelphia Tribune)