Last night President Obama delivered his penultimate State of the Union (SOTU) address to Congress. In his remarks, the President laid out an ambitious agenda for the remainder of his term which he dubbed “middle-class economics”— a series of domestic policy proposals the administration will seek to implement over the next two years to support a stronger middle class.

Touching on issues ranging from immigration, tax reform, infrastructure investment, foreign policy and energy, the President touted recent positive trends in the economy declaring that “our economy is growing and creating jobs at the fastest pace since 1999.”

Although the speech did not touch on education and workforce development issues as much as his past addresses have, the President did devote significant attention to the Administration’s broader skills agenda. As expected, the Administration’s recently announced America’s College Promise proposal was a central feature in last night’s remarks. “By the end of this decade, two in three job openings will require some higher education” said the President before emphasizing that “this plan is your chance to graduate ready for the new economy, without a load of debt. That’s why I am sending this Congress a bold new plan to lower the cost of community college – to zero.”

President Obama also referenced Vice President Joe Biden’s ongoing Job-Driven Training efforts, an announcement that was made during last year’s State of the Union address. He went on to highlight the importance of employers partnering with the education system to “train workers to fill high-paying jobs like coding, and nursing, and robotics” before going on to call for more companies like CVS and UPS to offer apprenticeships and other work-based learning opportunities.

Although Career Technical Education (CTE) was not directly mentioned during last night’s State of the Union, CTE still had a significant presence in the Congressional chamber where the President delivered his remarks. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) brought Lisa Barnett, a CTE coordinator for Botetourt County public school system, as his guest for the annual convening in the Capitol. First Lady Michelle Obama also brought Katrice Mubiru, a CTE instructor for the Los Angeles unified school district, as a guest last night. Two other postsecondary CTE students were also in attendance from Tennessee and North Carolina respectively.

Steve Voytek, Government Relations Manager 

TWEET OF THE WEEK
@WhiteHouse “In America, a quality education cannot be a privilege that is reserved for a few” —Obama: http://go.wh.gov/comm-college #FreeCommunityCollege
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TOOL OF THE WEEK 
Colorado Advanced Manufacturing Career Action Tool
This website provides visual pathways a user can take to determine the skills, education and training jobs require in manufacturing. Using this tool you’ll find complete information for each job type, including a video showcasing what the job looks like, what responsibilities the job entails, hot to get into the profession and what license or certificate may be required.
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ARTICLE OF THE WEEK 
Obama Proposes Publicly Funded Community College for All
President Obama announced today a proposal to provide students with two years of free community college, a program modeled after the highly successful Tennessee Promise, which provides free community and technical education tuition. “Community college should be free for those willing to work for it because, in America, a quality education should not be a privilege that is reserved for a few,” said Obama.
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RESOURCE OF THE WEEK
Success in Real-Time: Using Real-Time Labor Market Information to Build Better Middle-Skills STEM Pathways
This brief encourages states to support their colleges as they use high-quality, real-time labor market information to align the creation of middle-skill STEM pathways with robust career opportunities, and provides recommendations and examples for how states can do so.
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PARTNER UPDATE OF THE WEEK 
We are very excited to announce that the National Career Clusters® Institute is merging with CareerTech VISION, hosted by the Association for Career and Technical Educators (ACTE). We hope to see you in New Orleans November 19-22.
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Katie Fitzgerald, Communications Associate 

All of us at the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium wish you a happy and safe holiday season! We thank you for your continued support and advocacy for Career Technical Education in your communities, helping to create opportunities for a better future for all CTE students.

Katie Fitzgerald, Communications Associate 

From its earliest roots, employer engagement has been a part of CTE’s legacy. Yet little is known about what is really happening consistently and systematically across the country, and what state leaders can do to accelerate effective engagement.

Over the summer, NASDCTEc conducted a survey of the State CTE Directors to better understand how and in what ways employers are engaging in CTE today. To review the results of the survey as outlined in the report, The State of Career Technical Education: Employer Engagement in CTE, NASDCTEc will host a free webinar on December 3, 2014 from 2:00 – 3:00 PM ET.  The webinar will unpack the survey’s results and seek to illustrate the employer engagement landscape with a particular focus on the ways in which states are and can foster and sustain meaningful employer engagement to strengthen their CTE system for all students.

Register for free

Katie Fitzgerald, Communications Associate