22 Jun

Increased Emphasis and Funding for Vocational Training

Posted by Emma Kincaid in Education Master |

Last week at Northern Virginia Community College, President Barack 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,” according to a White House press release.

“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,” explained President Obama. “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.”

The Manufacturing Institute, the affiliated non-profit of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and a key partner of Skills for America’s Future, announced an effort to help provide 500,000 community college students with industry-recognized credentials that will be of great assistance to them in securing jobs in the manufacturing workforce.

Over the past two years, the manufacturing sector has led the economic recovery. Since the beginning of 2010 more than 230,000 new jobs have been added to the sector, which currently employs over 11 million Americans.

There remains, however, a lack of standardized credentialing system within the sector to aid employers in evaluating qualifications of job applicants. Through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), the Federal government intends to cooperate with The Manufacturing Institute to promote a curriculum based on NAM’s advanced manufacturing skills certification program in community colleges in 30 states. Additionally, national MEP centers will educate local manufacturers about the value of this NAM-endorsed system, and why it will be a beneficial standard to utilize in the hiring process.

Under the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, an initiative housed at the Department of Labor and implemented in close cooperation with Department of Education, will make available $2 billion in competitive funds to eligible institutions of higher education, such as community colleges, over the next four years. The funds will be used to develop and upgrade technical programs in these schools that meet industry needs.

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