As we mark the 30th year of our fight against HIV/AIDS, I join the United Nations High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in honoring the memory of all those we have lost to this disease and rededicating ourselves to the fight against this pandemic.  Thanks to an aggressive global response, fewer people are being infected, a diagnosis is no longer a death sentence and more people with HIV/AIDS are living long, vibrant lives.  But so long as tens of millions of people live with this devastating disease, and so long as nearly two million people die from AIDS-related diseases every year, we cannot and will not rest. 

As the global leader in the fight against AIDS, the United States will continue to do our part.  That’s why my Administration has increased funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to record levels, increased our support to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and launched our Global Health Initiative to help countries build their capacity to deliver better health care, including for mothers and children with HIV/AIDS.  And we will continue to invest in the pioneering research that holds the promise of new treatments and brings us closer to cures.

Still, it is not enough to simply do the same things the same way.  This week’s meeting at the United Nations is an opportunity for all of us to do better.  More governments need to contribute to this effort.  More awareness is needed so that no one with HIV/AIDS is stigmatized or discriminated against.  More coordination is needed so that the investments we’re making are preventing as many infections, delivering as many treatments and saving as many lives as possible.  No nation can do this alone.  Together, we can resolve to meet our shared responsibilities.  Together, we can come closer to our vision of a world without HIV/AIDS.

Readout of President Obama's Video Teleconference with President Karzai

President Obama spoke with President Karzai this morning via video teleconference.  The two leaders spoke for approximately one hour and discussed a number of topics, including the impact of the death of Osama Bin Laden on the fight against terrorism and on regional dynamics, their shared commitment to Afghan-led reconciliation, progress on forging an enduring U.S.–Afghan strategic partnership, and transition to Afghan leadership for security.  The President expressed his sorrow over tragic civilian casualties, most recently in Helmand province.  Both leaders noted that the Taliban are responsible for the great majority of civilian losses,  and agreed that every loss of civilian life is a tragedy and undermines our mission that focuses on protecting the population. The two leaders agreed to maintain their close consultations going forward.

Remarks by the President at a Skills for America's Future Manufacturing Event

Northern Virginia Community College Alexandria Campus, Alexandria, Virginia

11:38 A.M. EDT

     THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you, everybody.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you so much.  Everybody please have a seat.  Thank you.

     Thank you so much, everybody.  It is great to be back at NOVA.  I come here often enough that I think I should be getting some credits.  (Laughter.)  Plus I’ve got an in with Dr. Biden, and her husband owes me big time, so.  (Laughter.)

     It is wonderful to see everybody here.  We’ve got some special guests.  Our outstanding Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is here.  Where’s Hilda?  (Applause.)  Congressman Jim Moran is here, putting on his jacket.  (Applause.)  The mayor of Alexandria, Bill Euille, is here.  (Applause.)  The president of Northern Virginia Community College, Dr. Robert Templin, is here.  (Applause.)

     I just had a chance to see the labs where students are training for jobs working on advanced vehicles, led by a teacher who’s here, Ernie Packer, who spent almost three decades at Ford Motor Company.  Where’s Ernie?  Did we get him back here?  There he is.  (Applause.)

     That’s why my sleeves are rolled up.  I was getting under the hood.  (Laughter.)  Do you guys want me to work on your car?  Don’t do it.  (Laughter.)

     But I was so impressed not only with the skills that the young people were learning but also with the enthusiasm and excitement of what they see as a potential future.  All across America, there are students like the ones that I’ve met here at NOVA, folks who are gaining skills, they’re learning a trade, they’re working hard and putting in the hours to move up the profession that they’ve chosen or to take a chance on a new line of work.  Among the students I was meeting here, we saw some looked like 18-, 19-year-olds, but we also saw a couple of folks who were mid-career or even had retired and now were looking to go back to work.

     So these are men and women like David Korelitz.  David started at a car dealership as a apprentice.  And he’ll tell you, he was at the low end of the totem pole.  Then he entered GM -- the GM automotive program here at NOVA; started picking up new skills; led to better and more challenging work.  He began to prove himself as a technician.  And after he graduated he kept moving up.  So now, David is hoping to work hard enough to earn a management position at the dealership where he was an apprentice just a few years ago. 

     And I want to quote David, because I think it captures what happens here at a place like NOVA.  David said whatever he ends up doing, the automotive training program here was “the spark [he] needed to get [his] career started.”  The spark he needed to get his career started. 

     Lighting a spark.  That’s what community colleges can do.  That’s what learning a new skill or training in a new field can do.  And that’s the reason that I’m here today.  We’ve got to light more sparks all across America, and that’s going to make a difference in the futures of individuals who are looking for a better life, but it’s also going to make a difference in America’s future.  So I’ve set a goal that by the end of this decade, we are going to once again lead the world in producing college graduates.  To achieve that, we’re making college more affordable and we’re investing in community colleges.

     But the goal isn’t just making sure that somebody has got a certificate or a diploma.  The goal is to make sure your degree helps you to get a promotion or a raise or a job.  And that’s especially important right now.  Obviously we’re slowly recovering from a very painful recession.  But there are too many people out there who are still out of work -- without a job that allows them to save a little money or to create the life they want for their families.  That’s unacceptable to me.  It’s unacceptable to all of you. 

     So we’ve got to do everything we can, everything in our power, to strengthen and rebuild the middle class. We’ve got to be able to test new ideas, pull people together, and throw everything we’ve got at this challenge. So we’re going to have to have all hands on deck.

     And that’s why, last year, we brought together major companies and community colleges to launch a new campaign, led by business leaders from across the country, called Skills for America.  And the idea was simple.  If we could match up schools and businesses, we could create pipelines right from the classroom to the office or the factory floor.  This would help workers find better jobs, and it would help companies find the highly educated and highly trained people that they need in order to prosper and to remain competitive.

     So today, we’re announcing several new commitments by the private sector, colleges, and the National Association of Manufacturers, to help make these partnerships a reality.  Through these efforts, we’re going to make it possible for 500,000 community college students -- half a million community college students -- to get industry-accepted credentials for manufacturing jobs that companies across America are looking to fill.  Because the irony is even though a lot of folks are looking for work, there are a lot of companies that are actually also looking for skilled workers.  There’s a mismatch that we can close.  And this partnership is a great way to do it.

     So if you’re a company looking to hire, you’ll know exactly what kind of training went into a specific degree.  If you’re considering attending a community college, you’ll be able to know that the diploma you earn will be valuable when you hit the job market.  And a lot of that’s already happening here at NOVA.  If you participate in the GM program here, like David did, you can count on being prepared to work on GM cars.

     We’re also taking some additional steps today:  a new resource on the Internet so workers can sign on and see what jobs their skill sets allow them to access all across America.  It’s interesting, I was talking to Ernie, and he was saying how a lot of the young people who go through this program, they think initially that they can only get a job at a dealership.  And then they realize that there are a whole range of possibilities out there.  You might end up working for a company maintaining its fleet.  You might end up working for NTSA, making sure that automobile safety is practiced all across the country.

     So part of what this website will do is give people a better idea of the scope of opportunities available for the skill sets that they’re gaining.

     A new push to make it easier for high school students to get a head start on their degrees at 3,500 participating schools -- because part of our task is making sure that young people even in high school see a relevance between what they’re learning and a potential career.

     New mentoring programs and scholarships for folks who are thinking about careers in engineering -- something that’s going to be vital to our manufacturing success.  And more business leaders, companies, colleges, and organizations are joining this campaign all the time.

     What all these steps boil down to is this:  Right now, there are people across America with talents just waiting to be tapped, sparks waiting to be lit.  Our job is to light them.  And there’s no time to lose when we’ve got folks looking for work, when we’ve got companies that need to stay competitive in this 21st-century economy, and when we know that we’ve got to rebuild a middle class, and a lot of that is going to have to do with how well we do in manufacturing and how well we do in those jobs that are related to making products here in the United States of America.

     The fact is, we understand what it takes to build a stronger economy.  We know it’s going to require investing in research and technology that will lead to new ideas and new industries.  We know it means building the infrastructure, the roads and bridges, and manufacturing the new products here in the United States of America that create good jobs.  Above all, it requires training and educating our citizens to out-compete workers from other countries.

     That’s why today’s announcement is so important.  And that’s why I also want to see Congress -- so, Jim, get working on this -- (laughter) -- pass the Workforce Investment Act, to build on this progress -- (applause) -- to build on this progress with new and innovative approaches to training -- and to really figure out what works.  We’ve got a lot of programs out there.  If a program does not work in training people for the jobs of the future and getting them a job, we should eliminate that program.  If a program is working, we should put more money into that program.  So we’ve got to be ruthless in evaluating what works and what doesn’t in order for folks to actually obtain a job and industry to get the workers they need.  That’s how we’re going to help more Americans climb into the middle class and stay there.  That’s how we’re going to make our overall economy stronger and more competitive.

     Let me just make this point.  If we don’t decide to do this -- it’s possible that we could choose not to do the things that I just talked about.  We could choose not to make investments in clean energy or let tuition prices rise and force more Americans to give up on the American Dream.  We could choose to walk away from our community college system.  We could say to ourselves, you know what, given foreign competition and low wages overseas, manufacturing is out the door and there’s not much we can do about it.  We could decide, in solving our fiscal problems, that we can’t afford to make any of these investments, and those of us who’ve done very well don’t have to pay any more taxes in order to fund these investments.

     But I want to make clear, that’s not our history.  That’s not who we are.  I don’t accept that future for the United States of America.  I see a United States where this nation is able to out-compete every country on Earth, where we continue to be the world’s engine for innovation and discovery.  I see a future where we train workers who make things here in the United States, and continue a important and honorable tradition of folks working with their hands, creating value, not just shuffling paper.  That’s part of what has built the American Dream. 

     And if anybody doubts that future is possible, they should come to this school and talk to the young people who are getting trained and the folks who are doing the training.  They ought to go to Detroit where auto companies are coming back and hiring again, after a lot of people declared that entire industry dead and buried.  They ought to travel all across the country like I do and meet men and women who are starting businesses, testing new ideas, bringing new products to market, and helping this country come back stronger than before.

     We are in a tough fight.  We’ve been in a tough fight over the last two and a half years to get past a crippling recession, but also to deal with the problems that happened before this recession -- the fact that manufacturing had weakened, the middle class was treading water.  I don’t think the answer is for us to turn back.  I think the answer is to stand up for what this country is capable of achieving, and to place our bets on entrepreneurs and workers and to get behind some of the great work that’s being done here at NOVA and in schools all across the country.

     That’s how we’re going to win this fight.  That’s how we’re going to win the future. 

     For all of those who are participating, including National Association of Manufacturers and the companies who have already begun to participate in this process, thank you.  These young people are excited.  They’re ready to get trained.  They’re ready to go to work.  America is ready to win the future.

     Thank you very much everybody.  God bless you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

END 11:51 A.M. EDT

President Obama and Skills for America's Future Partners Announce Initiatives Critical to Improving Manufacturing Workforce

Efforts by Leading Manufacturers will help prepare 500,000 Workers for Cutting-Edge Manufacturing Jobs

Today at Northern Virginia Community College, President Obama will announce 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,” saidPresident Barack Obama.

As one of the key partners of Skills for America’s Future, an initiative of the Aspen Institute that was launched by the Administration last year, The Manufacturing Institute, the affiliated non-profit of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), will announce an effort to help provide 500,000 community college students with industry-recognized credentials that will help them get secure jobs in the manufacturing sector. Several other partners of Skills for America’s Future and The Manufacturing Institute will also help enhance these efforts through their own initiatives to bolster our nation’s manufacturing workforce.

This builds on the Administration strong leadership on manufacturing. The manufacturing sector has led the economic recovery over the past two years, with over 230,000 jobs added since the beginning of 2010.

A New Credentialing System that Works - A Vibrant Manufacturing Workforce

While the manufacturing sector has faced real 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 10^th 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% 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.

For that reason, our ability to win the future will depend in large part on our ability to train the most productive manufacturing workers in the world. This effort is especially important at a time when 2.7 million manufacturing employees are 55 years of age or older and likely to leave the labor force in the next 10 years.

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 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.

Key Partnerships -- An All-Hands-on Deck Effort by Government, Business, Philanthropy and Others

As part of today’s initiatives, the Administration will announce new key business leaders leading the President's call to action by joining Skills for America's Future board, including Greg Brown, chairman and CEO, Motorola Solutions; William D. Green, chairman, Accenture; 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.

The President and Skills for America’s Future will also announce a number of public-private partnerships that leverage the core competencies of the technology sector, media companies, and federal agencies to enhance these efforts through their own initiatives to bolster the nation’s manufacturing workforce.

• “Boots on the Ground” Help for Manufacturers to Implement Credentials: Through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), the Federal government will collaborate with The Manufacturing Institute in a program to promote a curriculum based on NAM’s advanced manufacturing skills certification system in community colleges in 30 states. The 60 centers of the national MEP system will serve as the “boots on the ground” with local manufacturers to educate them about the value the NAM-endorsed skills certification system to their business so that they utilize the skills certification system in their recruitment and hiring efforts. In addition, the MEP will provide input to The Manufacturing Institute about aggregate skill needs of manufacturers by industry and geography so that certification systems can remain dynamic and evolving. 
• Building These Credentials into High School Pathways: Given that many students begin to seek manufacturing training before college, Air Products, a global manufacturer serving customers in industrial, energy, technology and healthcare markets worldwide, is partnering with SkillsUSA to build partnerships in 3,500 member high schools and more than 200 colleges to adopt these credentials in their schools.
• Providing New Online Tools for Workers to Earn and Utilize these Credentials:Students and employees in the manufacturing field will not only have a new, more meaningful certification program to take advantage of, but a new career website called Pipeline that will provide job seekers with real-time data on job openings and information on additional education needed. This effort will be headed up by Futures Inc. in partnership with the Manufacturing Institute in 17 partner states with plans to expand nationwide.
• A Career Awareness Campaign to Learn about Such Credentials:Students and employees in the manufacturing field will also be able to access critical resources for obtaining marketable job skills and expertise through “Discover Your Skills,” a Discovery Communications initiative designed to raise awareness of career opportunities including PSAs, on-air talent, their media properties and Discovery Education. With collaborators including The Manufacturing Institute, National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and Skills for America’s Future, Discovery viewers will have a pathway to a world of resources to help educate and advance entry into the workforce.
• More Opportunities for At-Risk Youth To Seek these Careers and Credentials: At-risk young people will be provided additional assistance through Jobs for America’s Graduates’ new commitment to a five-year goal of helping 30,000 high-risk youth obtain professional credentials in high demand occupations including Advanced Manufacturing.  Archer Daniels Midland Company, a leading global agribusiness with operations in 36 states and a JAG board member, will serve as JAG’s National Business Partner.
• Creating our Next Generation Engineering Workforce:In addition, over 5,000 young people will be able to benefit from a mentorship program and scholarships being expanded by The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), the SME Education Foundation and the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering and the National Academy Foundation. 

Building on Progress

These commitments build on important steps already taken by this Administration.

• Investing over $2 billion to help community colleges train students and workers: Under the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, over $2 billion in competitive funds have been made available to eligible institutions of higher education, such as community colleges, over the next four years. The initiative, housed at the Department of Labor (DOL) and implemented in close cooperation with the Department of Education, will focus on the capacity of community colleges to develop, upgrade, and offer programs that result in skills, degrees, and industry recognized credentials that are relevant to high-skill industries such as manufacturing. These competitive grants will have a focus on programs that have strong employer partners and that meet industry needs, including allowing consortiums that can focus across an entire region, state, industry or a cluster of related industries.  This program will complement President Obama’s broader commitment for higher education, which nearly doubled funding for Pell grants and tripled the largest college tax credit, now known as the American Opportunity Tax Credit.
• Leadership by the Department of Labor on industry-recognized credentials:The Department of Labor has released an updated advanced manufacturing competency model.  Working with industry partners such as The Manufacturing Institute, the National Council for Advanced Manufacturing and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, this employer validated model outlines the skills necessary to pursue a successful career in the manufacturing industry. DOL is also promoting the importance of credential attainment with the adoption of a high priority performance goal to increase credential attainment by 10 percent among customers of the public workforce system by June 2012.
• Leadership by Health and Human Services (HHS) to Expand its Health IT Training Program with Community Colleges Nationwide. To address a skilled worker shortage within the health IT industry of 50,000 workers, and create thousands of new health care jobs, the HHS Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) launched the Community College Consortia (CCC). This consortium of 82 member colleges has created new Health IT academic programs that can be completed in six months or less. As of May 2011, a total of 2,434 total students have successfully completed the program to take on new jobs or to upgrade skills within existing jobs. Going forward, ONC will increase the capacity of these training programs, starting in September 2012 the CCC will graduate at least 10,500 students annually.