This morning the President unveiled several new efforts related to job training. First, he announced the creation of opportunity.gov, a site dedicated to connecting unemployed individuals with educational opportunities. Second, he announced that Dr. Jill Biden, the Vice President’s wife, has been appointed to “to lead a national effort to raise awareness about what we’re doing to open the doors to our community colleges.” The President called community colleges “one of America’s underappreciated assets” and indicated that they are ” increasingly important centers of learning where Americans can prepare for the jobs of the future.” Finally, the President noted that ” (i)n the weeks to come, I will also lay out a fundamental rethinking of our job training, vocational education, and community college programs. It’s time to move beyond the idea that we need several different programs to address several different problems — we need one comprehensive policy that addresses our comprehensive challenges.” What does this mean for CTE? Does this mean the Administration will be proposing its own alternative to WIA? We don’t know yet but you can be sure we’ll have our ears to the ground and providing input at every given opportunity!
Here is a link to the President’s remarks: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-on-Job-Creation-and-Job-Training-5/8/09/?tr=y&auid=4844222
Tags: community colleges, Job training