Training Workers with the Skills Employers Need

Vice President Joe Biden, Dr. Jill Biden, and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis make remarks at Davidson County Community College, in Thomasville, North Carolina, February 24, 2012. The Vice President Joined Dr. Biden and Secretary Solis for the last stop of their community college tour to announce the availability of $500 million to fund partnerships between community colleges and businesses to train workers with skills employers need. (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann)

Last Friday, Vice President Biden joined Dr. Jill Biden and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis at Davidson County Community College in Thomasville, North Carolina to discuss the importance of training workers with the skills employers need right now. This visit was the final leg of a five-state, three-day Community College to Career Bus Tour that Dr. Biden and Secretary Solis took to highlight the $8 billion Community College to Career Fund recently proposed as part of the President’s FY 2013 Budget.

Speaking to over 300 faculty, students, and other members of the Davidson community, the Vice President argued that America’s skilled workforce is one of our greatest economic assets.  But now that many American manufacturers and other businesses are growing again, too many are having trouble finding workers with the exact skills they need.  That’s why it’s so important to forge partnerships between community colleges and businesses to train workers with the skills that employers need for jobs that are open right now.  On Friday, the Vice President announced that the Administration is taking further steps to do exactly that by making available another $500 million to create and expand these partnerships as part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Community College and Career Training grant program. 

The Administration’s efforts to create and expand these training partnerships are already showing results at places like Davidson County Community College (DCCC).  Thanks to a grant they received in the first round of this program, DCCC has been able to expand their partnerships with local companies to train workers with the skills they need—companies like Ingersoll Rand, which is working with DCCC to train workers with computer numerically controlled manufacturing skills, or Unilin Flooring, which is training workers in electronics engineering.  And these programs are working—in fact, every single graduate of the electronics engineering program at Davidson County Community College has been able to secure a job, many of them at companies like Unilin.  

“You’re part of the reason why I’m so absolutely convinced that we can accommodate the good, middle-class jobs that are coming back to the United States,” Vice President Biden said, discussing the ways that job training partnerships like this one are contributing to the Administration’s efforts to bring manufacturing jobs back from overseas. “This is a direct channel.  We’re not wasting money or time here.  We’re training individuals for jobs that are needed and are in short supply…This is about nuts and bolts, basic dollars and cents.”
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Learn more about the CC2C Tour here:

• Kicking off the Community College to Career Bus Tour
• Report from the Road: An Ambitious Plan to Train Ohio Workers for New Jobs
• A New Generation of Nurses