Community colleges will train and certify 500,000 manufacturing workers over the next five years, said President Obama in a speech today at Northern Virginia Community College. Speaking with business leaders at his side, the president said the $2 billion Skills for America’s Future program would lower unemployment and build the middle class.
“Lighting a spark, that’s what community colleges can do,” Obama said. “We’ve got to light more sparks all across America.”
Employers will develop a manufacturing skills certificate recognized throughout the industry and ask 200 community colleges to offer the certificate program.
“We haven’t been as attentive to the manufacturing sector as we should have,” Ron Bloom, White House adviser on manufacturing policy, said in a briefing for reporters. While the nation needs scientists and engineers, “we also need skilled blue-collar workers” who “make things with their hands.”
The Skills for America’s Future board will expand to include Greg Brown of Motorola, Bill Green of Accenture, Brad Keywell of Groupon and Nick Pinchuk of Snap-on and David Zaslav of Discovery Communications, as well as Ellen Alberding, president of the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation, and Walter Bumphus, president and chief executive of the American Association of Community Colleges.
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[...] manufacturing jobs over the next five years. With a year of training or less, they’d earn a certificate developed by the National Association of Manufacturers in conjunction with community [...]