[Senate Hearing 112-678]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 112-678
PROMOTING AMERICAN COMPETITIVENESS:
FILLING JOBS TODAY AND TRAINING WORKERS FOR TOMORROW
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HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMPETITIVENESS, INNOVATION, AND EXPORT PROMOTION
of the
COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE,
SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
APRIL 17, 2012
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation
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SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia, Chairman
DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas,
JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts Ranking
BARBARA BOXER, California OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine
BILL NELSON, Florida JIM DeMINT, South Carolina
MARIA CANTWELL, Washington JOHN THUNE, South Dakota
FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi
MARK PRYOR, Arkansas JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia
CLAIRE McCASKILL, Missouri ROY BLUNT, Missouri
AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
TOM UDALL, New Mexico PATRICK J. TOOMEY, Pennsylvania
MARK WARNER, Virginia MARCO RUBIO, Florida
MARK BEGICH, Alaska KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire
DEAN HELLER, Nevada
Ellen L. Doneski, Staff Director
James Reid, Deputy Staff Director
John Williams, General Counsel
Richard M. Russell, Republican Staff Director
Jarrod Thompson, Republican Deputy Staff Director
Rebecca Seidel, Republican General Counsel and Chief Investigator
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SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMPETITIVENESS, INNOVATION, AND EXPORT PROMOTION
AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota, Chairman ROY BLUNT, Missouri, Ranking
JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts JIM DeMINT, South Carolina
MARIA CANTWELL, Washington JOHN THUNE, South Dakota
MARK PRYOR, Arkansas JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
TOM UDALL, New Mexico KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire
MARK WARNER, Virginia DEAN HELLER, Nevada
MARK BEGICH, Alaska
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on April 17, 2012................................... 1
Statement of Senator Klobuchar................................... 1
Prepared statement of Steven J. Rosenstone, Chancellor,
Minnesota State College and Universities submitted by Hon.
Amy Klobuchar.............................................. 31
Statement of Senator Blunt....................................... 2
Prepared statement........................................... 2
Statement of Senator Warner...................................... 3
Prepared statement........................................... 4
Statement of Senator Ayotte...................................... 24
Witnesses
Roger D. Kilmer, Director, Hollings Manufacturing Extension
Partnership, National Institute of Standards and Technology,
U.S. Department of Commerce.................................... 5
Prepared statement........................................... 7
Jane Oates, Assistant Secretary, Employment and Training
Administration, U.S. Department of Labor....................... 10
Prepared statement........................................... 12
Hon. Martha Kanter, Under Secretary, U.S. Department of Education 16
Prepared statement........................................... 19
Robert H. Kill, President and CEO, Enterprise Minnesota.......... 36
Prepared statement........................................... 37
Don Nissanka, President and CEO, Exergonix Inc................... 39
Prepared statement........................................... 40
Lee Lambert, President, Shoreline Community College.............. 44
Prepared statement........................................... 45
Monica Pfarr, Corporate Director, Workforce Development, American
Welding Society................................................ 52
Prepared statement........................................... 54
Jennifer M. McNelly, President, The Manufacturing Institute...... 59
Prepared statement........................................... 61
Appendix
Response to written question submitted by Hon. Amy Klobuchar to
Hon. Martha Kanter............................................. 73
PROMOTING AMERICAN COMPETITIVENESS:
FILLING JOBS TODAY AND TRAINING
WORKERS FOR TOMORROW
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TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 2012
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation, and
Export Promotion,
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:06 a.m. in
Room SR-253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Amy
Klobuchar, Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. AMY KLOBUCHAR,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MINNESOTA
Senator Klobuchar. Good morning. I want to thank all the
witnesses and guests for being here for this important
discussion about workforce competitiveness.
Senator Blunt is Ranking Republican and has worked hard on
these issues as well. So we're excited to have this hearing,
and we're glad Senator Warner is here as well.
We're going to be examining the role that training programs
play in ensuring a highly-skilled workforce. And we'll be
looking into the potential for building partnerships between
government, industry, and the education community as a way of
responding to the needs of both workers and employers.
I've certainly seen this in my state. I was at Dunwoody
Technical Institute which has one and two-year degrees
preparing students for technical jobs. And others--they are
doing great things. Their Automotive Technician Apprenticeship
Program has 100 percent placement rate. I've seen other
programs throughout my state community colleges with 96 percent
placement rates--Alexandria Tech in western Minnesota. So we've
seen this all over the place.
And part of the issue we're seeing--which in some ways is a
good problem to have as we see some stability and improvement
in the economy--though we're not where we want to be--we're
starting to see job openings. In my state, we are down to 5.7
percent unemployment. So we are really feeling it, particularly
in the areas of things like welding, tool and die, computer
skills, technical jobs.
And as I tell high school students these days, this is no
longer your grandpa's vo-tech. These kids are learning skills
that run computers that run major assembly lines. And many of
them then go back after getting a two-year degree to get other
degrees and go on from there.
And so I see this as an exciting possibility for our
country as the only way we're going to be able to compete on
the international stage against companies and countries that
are ramping up their technical training. We have to be doing
the same, starting with science, technology, engineering, and
math classes in the K through 12 area and then going on from
there.
I have a bill with Senator Scott Brown and others--I know
Senator Warner is on the bill--that doubles the STEM schools in
this country and also looks at making it easier for companies
to donate equipment to these types of programs in the post-
secondary area.
We have with us today Bob Kill. He's the CEO of Enterprise
Minnesota, a non-profit organization that represents small and
midsize businesses in our state. This year, in the Annual Poll
of Businesses by Enterprise Minnesota, nearly 6 out of 10
respondents said it was a challenge for them to attract workers
with the skills that they need to fill the job. And that is
what I'm hearing anecdotally throughout our state.
Part of this is also--I mentioned the high school level--is
looking at how we can better integrate--and I look forward to
hearing this--our community colleges with our high school
programs, because we have--Secretary Duncan came out to
Minnesota. Irondale High School in Minnesota is now directly
working with the community college, and these kids are actually
getting those degrees in high school. We're seeing that in
other parts of the state as well.
So I am looking forward to hearing from our witnesses, and
I'm going to turn it over to Senator Blunt for a few words and
then Senator Warner.
Senator Blunt.
STATEMENT OF HON. ROY BLUNT,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MISSOURI
Senator Blunt. Thank you, Chairman. Thanks for holding this
hearing. I believe in the interest of hearing from the
witnesses, I'll submit my statement for the record. And I
appreciate your leadership of this subcommittee and
particularly bringing attention to this issue.
[The prepared statement of Senator Blunt follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Roy Blunt, U.S. Senator from Missouri
Thank you, Chairwoman Klobuchar, for yielding me this time and,
more importantly, for hosting this hearing on this really important
topic. I'm looking forward to hearing from both of our panels today,
and I would like to give an especially warm welcome to my fellow
Missourian Don Nissanka, who will be on our second panel to offer us
insight into current and future workforce and employment issues.
For too many years, too many Americans have been telling us that
they're struggling to find good quality, good paying, private sector
jobs. Our panels today will have keen insights into a very important
piece of that equation, which revolves around the structural barriers
to training and maintaining a 21st Century workforce.
Even with an unemployment rate higher than the historical average,
there are a number of companies that are either ready to start hiring
or currently have job openings they are unable to fill. Specifically,
one recent estimate put the number of unfilled manufacturing jobs as
high as 600,000. I know we have at least one or two panelists today who
are going to talk about the workforce skills gap deficit and what it
means to our current employment and productivity levels in the short
and long terms. I'm looking forward to hearing from them.
As we continue to compete in the global marketplace we cannot
overlook the fact that jobs now follow talent. Countries with the
strongest talent supply have a significant advantage in attracting and
keeping jobs.
We must look toward the future with an eye on instituting policies,
and streamlining regulations, to create steady stream of talented,
high-skilled workers. Building that talent supply depends, foremost, on
education.
According to a Georgetown University study, since 1973 the
percentage of U.S. jobs that required post-secondary education rose
from 28 percent to 59 percent. And they forecast that disparity to
continue rising into the future. The authors stated that post-secondary
education has become the gatekeeper to the middle class.
This current and growing education gap is not limited to the number
of college graduates we are producing, especially in the ever important
math and science fields. It also reaches into sector-specific job
training programs, such as apprenticeships, on which employers in the
increasingly high-tech manufacturing sector rely.
And the downstream effects of a robust, competitive and growing
manufacturing sector have a multiplier effect which not only creates
more jobs along the supply chain and distribution channels but is also
our best avenue for innovation.
I am looking forward to hearing from all of our panelists and
delving in to these structural issues, so again, thank you Senator
Klobuchar for holding this topical and important hearing.
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you very much.
Senator Warner.
STATEMENT OF HON. MARK R. WARNER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM VIRGINIA
Senator Warner. Thank you, Madam Chair. I know I should
follow Senator Blunt's lead, but I just can't help myself.
[Laughter.]
Senator Warner. I'm glad you brought--I will watch--boy, it
went from 5 minutes to 3 minutes right away on the clock here
all of a sudden.
[Laughter.]
Senator Warner. I'm glad to hear from the witnesses. I'm
looking forward to hearing Secretary Oates. We had a chance to
visit on another issue recently.
I want to thank the Chair as well for her focus on this
issue. I think it's terribly important. The Chair has had to
listen to me many, many times talk about this and that when I
used to have a real job being Governor. And we talked about a
lot of the things we were able to get done.
One of the areas that was the most frustrating as a
governor was workforce training and--you know, had all these
wonderful ideas about consolidation and efforts and found as I
got into this the enormous challenges trying to consolidate all
the various Federal programs. I think the GAO has said we've
got 47 different Federal workforce training programs. This
area, I think, is ripe for consolidation and more local and
state flexibility, particularly to make sure that we're
training for the jobs that exist in the community. And that
means really having to have a strong partnership with
businesses.
And I've got a minute-40. I'll do this in less than that.
The one area that we did make some progress in in Virginia,
though, was taking those kids in high school who we had
identified as probably not having--looking at going on to
college, going to them in about that sophomore and junior year
of high school and saying, ``If you will go ahead and graduate
from our high school, meet our high standards, we'll guarantee
you not only a high school diploma, but also an industry
certification, because that becomes now the gating tool to a
job going forward. And if you don't finish that industry
certification by the time you graduate from high school, we'll
give you a free semester at the community college.''
Now, this didn't move us to a full K-13 apprenticeship
program the way the Germans have, which is actually, I think, a
fairly good model. But it did take to a K-12 1/2 system, and we
were able, out of a cohort of about 78,000 graduating high
school seniors, to move from 4,000 to 11,000 kids getting
industry certification.
So, you know, one small step in the right direction, and,
again, something, whether it's in Missouri or whether it's in
Minnesota--you know, this is an area that I think is ripe for
new ideas and an area where we can clearly learn from the
private sector. And I hope it's an area that we can work with
our colleagues on the HELP Committee at looking at trying to do
some consolidation, trying to get those 47 programs down to a
more manageable number.
So with 15 seconds left, I will go ahead and submit the 18-
minute opening statement I had for the record and thank again
the Chair for her leadership on this issue.
Senator Klobuchar. Are there any objections to that
statement being included? There are not.
[The prepared statement of Senator Warner follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Mark Warner, U.S. Senator from Virginia
Chairman Klobuchar, thank you for holding this hearing. Before I
was a Senator, I served as Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In
that capacity, I became well acquainted with the vital role a skilled
and trained workforce plays in keeping not only Virginia, but also our
Nation as a whole, competitive.
As Governor, I recognized the need for a tighter organized, better
coordinated workforce assistance apparatus. Before my tenure, workforce
development efforts were scattered across a number of state agencies
and administered by an inefficient Virginia Workforce Council.
In response, I proposed--and worked closely with our Republican
State Legislature to enact--legislation that reduced the size of the
Workforce Council, shifted Virginia to a demand-driven workforce system
guided by employer needs, and created better performance measures for
the regional boards responsible for overseeing training programs
throughout the state.
To help jumpstart the economy of rural Virginia, I also developed
the Virginia Works program. Through this program, we created Regional
Workforce Consortium Grants, which funneled $2 million to employer-led
consortiums that developed innovative programs to train the local
workforce in the skills that employers needed at that moment in time,
but also reflected employer needs over the next 5 years.
For areas that were going through particularly rough economic
times, we developed the Economic Crisis Strike Force, which established
one-stop shops for workers to obtain assistance from a variety of
government agencies and private sector groups.
These one-stops were extremely successful, serving nearly 87,000
clients and producing more than 1,713 job placements.
It is my hope that the Federal government will one day be able to
recreate Virginia's successes. As GAO has noted, there are 47 Federal
programs that seek to address workforce training and many of the
objectives and target populations of these programs have overlap. There
are 21 workforce training programs at the U.S. Department of Labor
alone. An additional 11 programs can be found at the U.S. Department of
Education and 7 are located within the U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services. The Departments of Interior, Agriculture, Defense,
Justice, VA, and the Environmental Protection Agency all have at least
one workforce training program. The strangest thing is that many of
these programs seek to assist the same populations of Americans but we
really do not have long term data which proves which programs provide
the most value to participants or to taxpayers. Surely, we can do
better than this in serving the needs of a diverse population of
Americans.
I know that some have expressed concerns about eliminating Federal
workforce training programs because they are worried that these
services will simply disappear. That is not my objective. However, I do
believe that by consolidating programs we can eventually have more
efficient and effective training programs that all Americans can
utilize as needed. At a minimum, we should focus on reducing
administrative costs and overlap between different Federal departments.
If we do not address these important issues, then we risk
continuing to fund an inefficient system which is not doing enough to
train young people who need a pathway towards getting key industry
certifications while they are still in school. Nor is our current
patchwork of programs doing enough to meet the needs of adults who are
already in the workforce and need to be able to develop new skills in
order to get better jobs or to improve their lives. We have to make
sure our programs work well because at the end of the day, the U.S.
needs a well-trained, well educated workforce to stay competitive with
other countries.
This work was not easy to do in Virginia, and I am sure it will be
a significant challenge for the Federal government to solve. But it's
not something we can ignore much longer. Madam Chairwoman, I hope that
this is an issue we can continue to work on with other Senators,
particularly those on the Senate HELP Committee.
Thank you.
Senator Klobuchar. We will get started. I'll introduce our
panelists.
Mr. Kilmer, Mr. Roger Kilmer, is the Director of the
Manufacturing Extension Partnership program at the Department
of Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology,
better known as NIST. Mr. Kilmer has been with the MEP program
since 1993 and with NIST since 1974. He has extensive
experience working with manufacturing and technology industries
through the Department of Commerce.
Ms. Jane Oates is the Assistant Secretary for Employment
and Training at the Department of Labor. Ms. Oates directs the
Employment and Training Administration which helps design and
deliver high-quality training and employment programs for our
Nation's workers.
And then Ms. Martha Kanter is the Under Secretary of
Education and directs the Office of Vocational and Adult
Education at the Department of Education. She oversees
policies, programs, and activities at the Department of
Education related to post-secondary education, as well as adult
and career technical education.
So we'll start with Mr. Kilmer.
STATEMENT OF ROGER D. KILMER, DIRECTOR,
HOLLINGS MANUFACTURING EXTENSION PARTNERSHIP,
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY,
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Mr. Kilmer. Thank you.
Madam Chair Klobuchar, Ranking Member Blunt, and members of
the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear
before you today to discuss the work the Hollings Manufacturing
Extension Partnership, known as MEP, is doing to address the
workforce training and skills required for jobs in advanced
manufacturing.
Manufacturing matters, Madam Chair. As the President has
said, an economy built to last demands that we keep doing
everything we can to keep strengthening American manufacturing.
As the National Science and Technology Council's National
Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing states, while
unskilled labor was once the mainstay of the manufacturing
labor workforce, as advanced manufacturing supersedes
traditional manufacturing and domestic manufacturers deepen
their investment in advanced technologies, the skills required
for manufacturing jobs are rising.
Manufacturing employers perceive a skills gap. Sixty-seven
percent of companies surveyed recently by an industry
association reported moderate to serious shortages in the
availability of qualified workers, even in a period of elevated
general unemployment. The report further states that programs
to address workforce should be targeted particularly toward the
needs of small manufacturing enterprises, or SMEs, which are
MEP's focus. As more advanced manufacturing technology is
deployed, training becomes more expensive and difficult for
companies, especially SMEs.
MEP has been working to support U.S. workers in these SMEs
for a number of years. In order to support the U.S. workforce,
MEP is addressing what skills manufacturers need to perform the
advanced manufacturing jobs of the future.
Let me describe what MEP is doing to address these
challenges. Since its inception in 1988, MEP has focused on
solving American manufacturers' challenges and identifying
opportunities for growth. MEP offers small manufacturers
resources centered in five areas critical to their global
competitiveness: technology acceleration, supplier development,
sustainability, workforce, and continuous improvement.
MEP addresses workforce development and training in
multiple ways. For example, MEP works with manufacturers to
adopt a culture of innovation and product development to help
increase their competitiveness. MEP is working to create and
retain jobs across the country through our partnerships with
state and local Workforce Investment Boards, or WIBs.
Examples of successes include the California MEP's
collaboration with eight local WIBs. The MEP center and WIBs
worked with over 125 manufacturers across southern California
to help companies address these risks. Aggregated results
reported included nearly 350 jobs created and over 1,800 jobs
retained, nearly $60 million in increased sales and $50 million
of sales retained.
A joint training and employment notice issued by both MEP
and DOL is scheduled to be released today, April 17, to
describe how WIBs and MEP centers can continue to expand their
collaborative partnerships. And, we will soon be issuing a
joint solicitation for proposals to accelerate innovation and
job creation in manufacturing.
Additionally, MEP is a partner in workforce certifications,
working with the NAM Manufacturing Institute, looking at how
the standardization of workforce credentials can streamline the
process of workforce training, recruitment, and hiring for
small manufacturers, taking out some of the risks of finding
workers for those manufacturing jobs. MEP also works with the
American Association of Community Colleges to provide
information and best practices in manufacturing training
delivery and the development of curricula for today's advanced
manufacturing jobs.
To further support the workforce needs of America's smaller
manufacturers, MEP created a workforce development model termed
Strategic Management, Acquisition and Retention of Talent,
known as SMART Talent, that encompasses both technology and a
culture of learning within manufacturing operations. The MEP
model is being developed with small manufacturers in mind,
designed to address resource limitations and position workforce
in a strategic framework for business.
It is our intent to use SMART Talent to help companies
think about workforce investments in exactly the same way they
think about other operational investments. MEP centers are
piloting the first module on recruitment and will deploy the
SMART Talent recruitment module to the MEP system later this
summer.
MEP has created this model because we must focus on
addressing the manufacturing workforce training challenges that
can no longer be addressed with the standard training resources
available. As MEP creates an environment of rapid manufacturing
innovation, we must also create workforce strategies and tools
specifically for small manufacturers that will support their
adoption of sustainable, high-tech production.
As we grow domestic industry, replace retiring workers,
encourage exporting, and bring manufacturing back into the U.S.
from abroad, we must ensure that we have the workforce
manufacturers need with skills in sophisticated manufacturing
processes, the kind of advanced manufacturing that MEP is
supporting.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today, and
I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Kilmer follows:]
Prepared Statement of Roger D. Kilmer, Director, Hollings Manufacturing
Extension Partnership, National Institute of Standards and Technology,
U.S. Department of Commerce
Madam Chair Klobuchar, Ranking Member Blunt and members of the
Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today
to discuss the work the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership
(MEP) is doing to address the workforce training and skills required
for jobs in advanced manufacturing. MEP is part of the Department of
Commerce's (DOC) National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Advanced manufacturing--and the jobs it creates--are critical to
advancing America's economy. After losing millions of manufacturing
jobs in the previous decade, the United States (U.S.) manufacturing
sector has added 458,000 jobs over the past 24 months, with 120,000 in
the first three months of 2012 alone.\1\ Both U.S. and foreign-based
manufacturers are increasingly choosing the U.S. as the next location
to build manufacturing facilities, which will create even more jobs.
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\1\ Bureau of Labor Statistics, calculated from Employment, Hours,
and Earnings database, April 6, 2012
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In his State of the Union address this year, the President made it
clear that supporting American manufacturing will remain a top priority
of the Administration. When the Secretary of Commerce set out his
priorities this year, he was determined to harness the great potential
of the Commerce Department in support of driving advanced
manufacturing, exports and business investment. His stated goal as
Secretary of Commerce is simple--``to help American businesses build it
here and sell it everywhere.''
As the National Science and Technology Council's February 2012
National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing \2\ states, while
unskilled labor was once the mainstay of the manufacturing labor force,
as advanced manufacturing supersedes traditional manufacturing, and
domestic manufacturers deepen their investment in advanced
technologies, the skill requirements for manufacturing jobs are rising.
Manufacturing employers perceive a skills gap: 67 percent of companies
surveyed recently by an industry association reported moderate to
serious shortages in the availability of qualified workers, even in a
period of elevated general unemployment.\3\
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\2\ http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/
iam_advancedmanufactur
ing_strategicplan_2012.pdf.
\3\ Deloitte Consulting LLP, Manufacturing Institute (2011),
Boiling Point? The skills gap in U.S. manufacturing.
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The report further states that programs to address workforce needs
should be targeted particularly toward the workforce needs of Small
Manufacturing Enterprises (SMEs). As more advanced manufacturing
technology is deployed, on-the-job training becomes more expensive and
difficult for companies to provide, especially SMEs.
Additionally, the Conference Board's CEO Challenge 2012 \4\ survey
ranked innovation first in the challenges faced by manufacturers, with
human capital coming in second. However, manufacturers view the two as
being intrinsically linked as they strive for innovation and growth.
MEP has been working to support U.S. workers for a number of years and
continues to support the Nation's small manufacturers' drive toward
innovation through workforce development.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ https://www.conference-board.org/publications/
publicationdetail.cfm?publicationid=2152.
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In order to support the U.S. workforce, MEP is addressing what
skills manufacturers need to perform the advanced manufacturing jobs of
the future. A recent study from Boston College \5\ indicates that
manufacturers are less likely than all other businesses to develop
employee career plans, project and plan for pending retirements,
develop succession plans, understand current competencies of their
existing workforce, or anticipate new skill needs. This illustrates how
important it is for an intermediary like MEP to work closely with
manufacturers on these issues.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ Talent Pressures and the Aging Workforce: Responsive Action
Steps for the Manufacturing Sector, The Sloan Center on Aging and Work
at Boston College, 2009. http://www.bc.edu/research/agingandwork/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let me describe what MEP is doing to address these challenges.
MEP's vision is to strengthen American manufacturing--accelerating its
ongoing transformation into a more efficient and powerful engine of
innovation driving economic growth and job creation. Since its
inception in 1988, MEP has focused, with its 60 centers and 1,300 field
staff serving as trusted business advisors, on solving American
manufacturers' challenges and identifying opportunities for growth. MEP
offers small manufacturers a wealth of unique and effective resources
centered on five areas critical to their global competitiveness:
technology acceleration, supplier development, sustainability,
workforce and continuous improvement. As a public/private partnership,
MEP delivers a high return on investment for taxpayers. In Fiscal Year
2010, MEP interacted with over 34,000 manufacturers and did project
work with nearly 10,000 clients that resulted in more than $3.6 billion
in new sales, $1.1 billion in cost savings, and the creation or
retention of more than 52,000 jobs.\6\
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\6\ 2010/2011 Manufacturing Extension Partnership Impact Numbers
www.nist.gov/mep/reports.cfm.
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Over the last several years, MEP has focused extensively on
developing an integrated set of strategies and tools that manufacturers
can use to strengthen their competitiveness. Since workers are a
critical part of manufacturing's success, workforce development and
training must be an integral component of these strategies. The changes
wrought by technology, globalization and demographics have and will
continue to radically change what manufacturing employees need to know
and what manufacturers demand of them in order to innovate and maintain
a competitive position. MEP addresses workforce development and
training in multiple ways.
For example, MEP works with manufacturers to adopt a culture of
innovation and product development to help increase the competitiveness
of U.S. manufacturing. Since January 2010, we have hosted 27 Innovation
Engineering Leadership Institutes with a total of 3,581 attendees.
During this three day training, we teach manufacturers and their key
employees the importance of innovation and how to instill it into the
culture of their company, so that every manufacturing employee is
innovating in their job every day. We also expose them to the tools
necessary to cycle new product ideas in quick, easy stages to minimize
risk and maximize their return on investment. For calendar year 2012,
we have already run five Innovation Engineering Leadership Institutes
and will hold an additional 15.
Another example is the Federal partnership initiative on the
Economy, Energy, and Environment, or E3, which providing participating
companies with customized assessments of their production processes,
implementing projects that reduce energy consumption and increase
productivity, and training workers in environmentally-friendly
manufacturing practices.
The Alabama Technology Network, or ATN, which is MEP's Alabama
Center partnership, is providing sustainability training to firms
participating in E3 with grants from the Alabama State Energy Sector
Partnership and from the Department of Labor's American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act High Growth and Emerging Industries initiative. This
training includes lean and clean value stream mapping, energy
efficiency best practices, environmental factors, and executive
overviews for ISO 14001 environmental management standards. Thus far,
over 100 people have been trained in sustainability practices, with a
target of 500 trained by September of 2012.
MEP is working to create and retain jobs across the country through
our partnerships with state and local Workforce Investment Boards
(WIBs). MEP Centers and WIBs make great partners in keeping people,
businesses and economies working. Examples of successes between WIBs
and MEP include the California Manufacturing Technology Center's
collaboration with eight local WIBs in 2010 and 2011. The MEP center
and WIBs worked with over 125 manufacturers across southern California
to help companies address risks before these risks became acute. The
work included a wide range of activities such as business strategy
assistance, helping companies replace lost customers by pursuing new
customers and new markets, assisting with the deployment of new
technologies, and providing quality and process improvements.
Aggregated results reported by the clients included nearly 350 jobs
created and over 1,800 jobs retained, nearly $60 million of increased
sales and nearly $50 million of sales retained. A joint Training and
Employment Notice, issued by both MEP and the Department of Labor's
Employment and Training Administration, is scheduled to be released
today, April 17, to describe how WIBs and MEP centers can continue to
expand their collaborative partnerships, and we will soon be issuing a
joint solicitation for proposals, along with the Economic Development
Administration, the Small Business Administration, the Department of
Energy as well as the Department of Labor, for grants to accelerate
innovation and job creation in American manufacturing. Additionally,
MEP is a partner in workforce certifications, working with the
Manufacturing Institute of the National Association of Manufacturers
(NAM) to create awareness of the NAM-endorsed Manufacturing Skills
Certification System and how the standardization of workforce
credentials can streamline the process of workforce training,
recruitment, and hiring for small manufacturers, taking out some of the
risk of hiring workers for middle skill manufacturing jobs. MEP also
works with the American Association of Community Colleges and their
two-year college members to provide information and best practices in
manufacturing training delivery and the development of curricula for
today's advanced manufacturing jobs.
To further support the workforce needs of America's smaller
manufacturers, MEP is moving from an incremental approach in workforce
development, to a full-scale one, with the creation of a workforce
development model that encompasses both what we have termed Strategic
Management, Acquisition and Retention of Talent known as SMARTalent
technology and a culture of learning within manufacturing operations.
The MEP model is being developed with the small manufacturer in mind--
designed to address resource limitations and position workforce in a
strategic framework for business. It is our intent to use SMARTalent to
help companies think about workforce investments in exactly the same
way one thinks about investments in new production technologies or
markets, and to gather data on workforce investments using analytics,
just as manufacturers do for lean, quality and other investment
calculations. This analysis will help define the true value of human
capital by evaluating both tangible and intangible results such as
reduced turnover, improved customer service, new product ideation,
patents, shorter cycle times in problem-solving, and reduced liability
costs, just to name a few, and to do so as an integrated part of an
overall strategy for business growth. MEP centers are piloting the
first module on recruitment to assess the functionality and value of
our model. Once these assessments are completed, we will begin to
deploy the SMARTalent recruitment module--an on-line tool to analyze
the jobs needed to meet future needs for the manufacturers and skills
required to fill those jobs--to the MEP system later this summer.
MEP has created this model because we must focus on addressing the
manufacturing workforce training requirements that can no longer be
scaled up to the extent needed with the standard training resources
available. As MEP creates an environment of rapid manufacturing
innovation, we must also create workforce strategies and tools
specifically for small manufacturers that will support their adoption
of sustainable, high-tech production and increased exporting. As we
grow domestic industry, replace retiring workers, encourage exporting,
and bring manufacturing back into the U.S. from abroad, we must ensure
that we have the workforce manufacturers need with skills in
sophisticated manufacturing processes--the kind of advanced
manufacturing that MEP is supporting.
With the workforce strategies MEP has developed and tools such as
SMARTalent, American manufacturing growth will be supported through its
most unique asset--the workforce.
In conclusion, the MEP approach is holistic, starting with a focus
on the manufacturers, and then supporting manufacturers' growth through
next generation strategies, technology and partnerships that can move
them quickly from 20th century operations to 21st century success.
Thank you again, for the opportunity to testify today, I would be
happy to answer any questions you may have.
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you.
Ms. Oates.
STATEMENT OF JANE OATES, ASSISTANT SECRETARY,
EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING ADMINISTRATION,
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Ms. Oates. Thank you, Chairwoman Klobuchar and Ranking
Member Blunt and Senator Warner, for inviting us here today and
especially together. We really like being together, the three
of us.
The manufacturing sector alone has created 470,000 jobs
since January of 2010. According to BLS, a number of subsectors
within the manufacturing industry are projected to be among the
top 10 fastest growing industry sectors over the next decade.
The public workforce system plays a leadership role in
developing training programs that meet employer needs for
skilled workers. Through the Workforce Investment Act, the
Department provides extensive reemployment assistance to
vulnerable populations disproportionately impacted by economic
downturns as well as those individuals who were in middle or
high-skill jobs and are now unemployed.
Last year alone, 39 million individuals were served by the
public workforce system. The system's dual customer approach
aligns job seeker skills with the employers' needs through
strategies such as on-the-job training, which uses Federal
resources to encourage employers to hire additional full time
workers while helping participants improve their chances for
economic success.
The Department is also actively building partnerships on
the Federal, State, and local levels to improve service
delivery across programs more effectively to benefit
individuals and employers and spur economic growth and job
creation. We're continually seeking opportunities to develop
joint administrative guidance as well as leveraging resources.
For example, as Roger just said, we're publishing joint
guidance with Commerce today so that every member of our system
knows about his MEP programs. Another initiative that Roger
mentioned, the Jobs Innovation Accelerator Challenge that was
launched this year, was a $37 million collaboration with
Commerce and the Small Business Administration to support the
advancement of 20 high-growth regional industry clusters in
advanced manufacturing, IT, and aerospace.
Of note is that the Full Employment Council in Kansas City,
Senator Blunt, your area, and its partners received a grant in
doing this, and they're really hitting the ball out of the
park. They're doing a great job in getting people who didn't
envision themselves in that industry jobs today. Roger
mentioned we're going to do a new one this spring, and we hope
all of your states will apply.
We've built on an initiative started in the last
administration by developing competency models in economically
vital industries such as energy and healthcare. The Advanced
Manufacturing Competency Model outlines the skills necessary to
pursue a successful career in the industry and was done in
partnership with NAM and the National Council for Advanced
Manufacturing and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.
As part of our focus on skills attainment, the Department
has set a goal to increase credential attainment by 10 percent
among workforce system customers by September 2013. Workers who
attain industry-recognized credentials have a demonstrated
skill set to provide to prospective employers. For employers,
they know what they're getting when they hire somebody.
As my colleague, Martha Kanter, will explain, we're
engaging community and technical colleges in our skills
training efforts. In the Fiscal Year 2013 budget request, the
President is proposing an $8 billion Community College to
Career Fund that partners educational institutions with
businesses to satisfy employer needs for a ready skilled
workforce, and we'll co-administer that with the Department of
Education if the Senate and House decide to give us any portion
of that.
The Community College to Career Fund builds on the Trade
Adjustment Assistance Community College Capacity Building
Grants. Through those TAACCCT grants, the Department will
invest $2 billion over 4 years to assist two-year degree
granting institutions to begin with the end in mind, to build
curriculum with employers from the start that will give the
employers the skilled workforce that they need.
We're funding nine grants in Round 1, focusing on the
manufacturing industry. And I want to point out that we've
given over $90 million just for manufacturing, because those
grants were the most impactful and had the best employer
support.
The Department also has invested $342 million in
competitive grants to provide training and job placement in
industries for which employers are currently using H-1B visa
holders to hire temporary high-skilled foreign workers.
Manufacturing is among the top 10 industries where H-1B visas
are requested by business. We can fill that gap with American
workers with the right training.
With approximately $2.2 million in H-1B grants, NIMS is
currently working with manufacturing companies to help 425
unemployed individuals in southern California, in Chicago, in
Alabama, and in other locations across the country to get the
credentials to become computer numerical control machine
operators, a skilled occupation with a promising career path
and positions vacant today.
In conclusion, we've tried to leverage the generous
appropriations that you've given us so that employers find the
skilled workers they need in manufacturing and other sectors.
Thank you to the Subcommittee for giving us this
opportunity, and like Roger and Martha, we'll look forward to
your questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Oates follows:]
Prepared Statement of Jane Oates, Assistant Secretary, Employment and
Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor
Introduction
Chairman Klobuchar, Ranking Member Blunt and Members of the
Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to testify about the work we
are doing at the Department of Labor (Department).
To help create an economy that is built to last, the Department is
working to ensure employers have access to the skilled workforce they
need to fill in-demand positions in industries such as advanced
manufacturing. President Obama believes that we must ensure that the
next generation of products are not only invented here in the United
States, but manufactured here as well. A growing and vibrant
manufacturing sector is key to innovation, our global competitiveness
and creation of good-paying American jobs. The Department is supporting
these efforts by leveraging robust partnerships across Federal
agencies, aligning the national network of almost 3,000 One-Stop Career
Centers and their partners with local and regional labor market needs,
strategically awarding competitive grants, engaging community colleges
for technical skills training, and customizing training to meet the
needs of employers and workers. The Department also continues to
participate in several interagency efforts to promote the manufacturing
industry.
Manufacturing Skills
The unemployment rate has fallen steadily from its peak of 10
percent in October 2009 to 8.2 percent in March 2012. Since February
2010, the economy has generated 4 million private sector jobs. The
manufacturing sector alone has created 470,000 jobs since January 2010.
Manufacturers currently employ nearly 12 million workers, mostly in
jobs with good wages and benefits. Over four million manufacturing
workers are employed in small to medium-sized manufacturing enterprises
(SMEs), which comprise 98 percent of manufacturing firms overall. As
President Obama noted in the State of the Union, ``American
manufacturers are hiring again, creating jobs for the first time since
the late 1990s''. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
a number of sub-sectors within the manufacturing industry are projected
to be among the top ten fastest growing over the next decade.
While signs point to continued improvement and job growth, evidence
shows that both the lack of demand for workers and a skills mismatch
will continue to contribute to the unemployment rate. Some sectors of
the economy, including manufacturing, have been affected by a skills
mismatch more than others. Recent data from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics indicate that occupations that usually require a post-
secondary vocational award or a post-secondary degree for entry are
expected to account for about 37 percent of all new jobs from 2010 to
2020. Middle and high skilled workers will be critical to meeting
manufacturing employers' needs. If current graduation and credential
attainment rates continue at their low levels, a skills mismatch could
continue to play a role in unemployment in the manufacturing industry,
even as demand grows in components of this important sector.
The workforce system is playing a leadership role in developing
training programs that better meet employer needs for skilled workers.
These programs help workers retain or obtain good jobs upon completion
of their training, and contribute to increasing productivity and job
growth.
The Public Workforce System
The national network of One-Stop Career Centers serves as the
foundation of the public workforce investment system. The Department
provides oversight and administrative guidance for this network and
strongly encourages the alignment of workforce development activities
with state and regional economic development plans to ensure that
education and training and employment services support anticipated
industry growth and employment opportunities.
Job training is integral to the success of job creation
initiatives, and skills and knowledge are important drivers of economic
growth. The workforce system provides extensive reemployment assistance
to vulnerable populations disproportionately impacted by economic
downturns, as well as those first time unemployed individuals who were
in middle and high skill jobs. Last year alone, 39 million individuals
were served by the public workforce system. Most of these individuals
received job search assistance, career counseling, and other employment
services, or unemployment benefits, and nearly 500,000 participated in
Workforce Investment Act-funded training. From July 2010 through June
2011, nearly 70 percent of individuals who completed WIA Adult and
Dislocated Worker training became employed within one quarter after
program completion. In the same performance period, 62.5 percent of
youth who were enrolled in WIA training received a degree or
credential.
Alignment of the workforce's skills and abilities with employers'
needs is an essential component to our economic recovery and long-term
competitiveness. This dual customer approach includes strategies such
as on-the-job training that use Federal resources to encourage
employers to explore the possibility of hiring additional full-time
workers while helping participants improve their chances for economic
success. The Department is providing technical assistance to help the
public workforce system better engage employer customers. The
Department believes that stronger employer partnerships will lead to
improved employment and retention outcomes.
Promoting Robust Partnerships to Leverage Resources
We are actively working across Federal agencies to better align
resources and to ensure effective service delivery. For example, our
Fiscal Year 2013 Budget includes proposals to help all dislocated
workers find new jobs and to develop single access points for job
seekers to access all employment and training services. Furthermore,
the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education,
Commerce and the Small Business Administration, among others, are
continually seeking opportunities to develop joint administrative
guidance to state and local grantees, or to leverage available
resources to encourage partnerships and improve models for delivering
quality services across programs at lower costs. These partnerships
allow individuals and employers to benefit from additional services
and, most importantly, to spur job creation and economic growth. We
understand that we need to do more with less, which makes partnerships
at all levels--Federal, state, and local--critical to our continued
investment in a competitive workforce.
Manufacturing Extension Partnership
Today, we are publishing joint guidance with the Department of
Commerce's Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) to encourage the
public workforce system to partner locally with MEP programs to provide
assistance to Small Manufacturing Enterprises (SMEs) to support
economic growth while preserving and creating jobs.
As part of the churning that occurs in any healthy economy, many
manufacturing businesses, especially SMEs, continually face challenges
that, if not addressed, can ultimately lead to downsizing. When faced
with the possibility of layoffs, the state and local workforce
investment system can step in to assist workers in returning to
employment as quickly as possible, or potentially preventing layoffs
altogether by working closely with the employer. Such engagements have
been facilitated in part through the Federal-state-sponsored MEP
program, which works with SMEs to help them create and retain jobs,
increase their profits and export their goods.
In South Carolina the state workforce agency requires that the
state MEP review any manufacturer who applies for WIA funds for
Incumbent Worker Training. This allows MEPs to access additional
resources when significant business risks are identified, but
importantly, helps them to design effective training for workers to
maintain competitiveness.
The Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge
An example of a Federal partnership to support economic development
driven by local or regional needs is a partnership between the
Department and Commerce's Economic Development Administration and the
Small Business Administration to launch the Jobs and Innovation
Accelerator Challenge. This $37 million initiative supports grants for
the advancement of 20 high-growth, regional industry clusters in order
to promote development in areas such as advanced manufacturing,
information technology, aerospace and clean technology. The projects
are driven by communities that identify the economic strengths of their
areas and encompass urban and regional areas in 21 different states.
For example, the Full Employment Council in Kansas City, MO is
collaborating with the Mid-America Regional Council Community Services
Corporation and the University of Missouri Curators (on behalf of the
University of Missouri-Kansas City Innovations Center KC SourceLink) on
a $2 million project to implement training designed to meet the skill
requirements of businesses in the advanced manufacturing and
information technology sectors. The project also will support taking
university and corporate research to commercial application, and
support small businesses in taking these applications to market and
finding opportunities for growth both domestically and through exports.
Career Pathway Models
Earlier this month, the Departments of Labor, Education, and Health
and Human Services released a joint letter highlighting our commitment
to promote the use of career pathway approaches as a promising strategy
to help youth and adults acquire marketable skills and industry-
recognized credentials through better alignment of education, training
and employment, and human and social services among public agencies,
and through better linking those services with employer needs. Career
pathway models link education and training for specific occupational
sectors, such as manufacturing, to help individuals of varying skill
levels earn credentials valued by employers, enter rewarding careers in
in-demand and emerging industries and occupations, and advance to
increasingly higher levels of education and employment.
Through the Department's Employment and Training Administration's
Career Pathways initiative, nine states including Minnesota, New
Mexico, and Virginia and two tribal entities have established cross-
agency teams that include local workforce boards, Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families (TANF) providers, adult basic education providers,
community colleges, career and technical education providers, and
employers.
Subsidized Youth Employment
The Department also partners with HHS to better align TANF funds in
support of subsidized youth employment. Most recently, an evaluation
report entitled Using TANF Funds to Support Subsidized Youth
Employment: The 2010 Summer Youth Employment Initiative was published
and posted on both Departments' websites signaling the culmination of
both Departments' continued collaboration to evaluate Workforce
Investment Act (WIA) and TANF coordination and the potential benefits
and challenges of the TANF-funded summer youth employment initiative.
Funded through an Interagency Agreement between the Departments, this
study followed up on the 2010 joint DOL-HHS letter that encouraged
states to use TANF funds for subsidized youth employment and for
workforce and human service agencies to co-enroll youth in WIA and TANF
programs. During January-December 2010, 1,600 low-income youth found
subsidized jobs as a result of this partnership.
Informing and Guiding the Workforce System
Credential Attainment
As we invest in skills development, we will not only help
individuals return to work, but we also will help workers obtain the
measurable and specific skills needed to move along career pathways,
while giving employers access to the skilled workers they need to
compete globally.
The Department plays a vital role in increasing access to industry-
recognized credentials, in partnership with community colleges,
businesses and labor unions. This year, the Department set a high
priority performance goal to increase credential attainment by 10
percent among customers of the public workforce system by September 30,
2013, and we emphasized occupational training that leads to an
industry-recognized credential or certificate.
We also work collaboratively with community colleges, vocational
technical schools, and state workforce agencies through discretionary
grants and technical assistance efforts to identify and broadly
disseminate best practices. For example, best practices such as
Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) have shaped our
grant competitions, including the current round of the Trade Adjustment
Assistance Community College and Career Training grants. I-BEST in
Washington State helps adults who have to balance family and work
responsibilities with learning by offering the means to acquire
``stackable'' credentials along career paths that may result in more or
different job responsibilities and associated pay increases. This
program also highlights the need to coordinate with partners including
employers in order to achieve success.
Manufacturing Competency Model
As part of our focus on skills and competencies attainment, the
Department released an updated advanced manufacturing competency model,
based on collaborations with industry partners, such as the National
Association of Manufacturers/Manufacturing Institute (NAM/MI), 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 and includes the recognition of sustainable and
environmentally friendly advancements that are now an important part of
the advanced manufacturing skill set. The model also allows workers in
advanced manufacturing fields the ability to advance their training in
a way that is consistent with industry demands. This is one of several
competency models that the Department has released.
Electronic Tools
To support the goal of increased credential attainment, the
Department has also augmented information on industry-recognized
credentials in its suite of online electronic tools that are geared to
helping jobseekers explore career options, search for new opportunities
and find information on high growth occupations. In mid-December 2011,
certifications and credentials that have been endorsed or recognized by
third-party industry associations, including the stackable
manufacturing credentials endorsed by NAM/Manufacturing Institute, were
added to the employment web portals of two such tools: mySkills
myFuture and My Next Move.
Engaging Community Colleges
New Community College to Career Proposal
The Department is working diligently to engage community and
technical colleges to bolster skills training among jobseekers. A few
weeks ago, Secretary Hilda L. Solis and Dr. Jill Biden announced the $8
billion Community College to Career Initiative that would allow for
partnerships between community colleges and businesses to spread more
broadly and help employers satisfy their skill needs. Co-administered
by the Department of Labor and the Department of Education, this Fund
will train two million workers for good-paying jobs in high-growth and
high-demand industries, such as health care, transportation, and
advanced manufacturing. These investments will give more community
colleges the resources they need to become community career centers
where people learn crucial skills that local businesses are looking for
right now.
Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training
Grants
Through the TAACCCT grants, the Department has invested $500
million to assist community colleges and other eligible institutions of
higher education to expand and improve their ability to deliver
education and career training programs; and a competition is currently
open for an additional $500 million in TAACCCT grants. In coordination
with the Department of Education, these competitive grants are geared
towards developing education and career training programs targeted to
trade impacted and other workers that can be completed in two years or
less and that prepare participants for employment in high-wage, high-
skill occupations. With a focus on programs that have strong employer
partners and meet industry needs, these grants will improve the
capacity of higher education institutions to develop, upgrade, and
offer programs that result in skills and credentials that are relevant
to high-skill industries, such as manufacturing. And the program's
emphasis on producing open educational resources means materials
produced through this funding can be leveraged by colleges across the
country, not just those that received funding.
One such grantee, the NorthWest Arkansas Community College, leads a
consortium of all 22 two-year colleges in the state. Each partner
school in the consortium carried out extensive outreach to businesses
and other organizations in their communities, and conducted research
and gathered labor market data to identify growing industries and
occupations. Based on this input, the colleges identified advanced
manufacturing and healthcare as the primary target industries across
the state, and each school is working to restructure two career
pathways, which are comprised of stackable, linked certificates and
degrees.
With an almost $15 million grant, these colleges are working
collaboratively to transform and accelerate developmental education,
streamline and restructure 104 certificate programs and 42 associate
degree programs, and enhance the technology and systems that support
their students. The colleges also are transforming their student
advising systems in ways that will avoid unnecessary credit
accumulation and improve the job placement assistance that students
receive. This project anticipates accelerating program completions by
15 percent by reducing both the time it takes and the number of credits
required for community college students in Arkansas to complete
certificate and degree programs.
Another TAACCCT grant is helping the Florence-Darlington Technical
College lead a consortium of 10 public two-year technical colleges in
South Carolina to improve their ability to deliver programs leading to
high-demand industry-recognized certificates and degrees. Through this
project, the consortium is addressing several capacity constraints by
developing 37 new online contextual learning courses and enhancing its
existing online offerings in manufacturing, industrial maintenance, and
transportation and logistics.
Customizing Training to Meet Worker and Business Needs
By promoting tailored training strategies to simultaneously meet
the needs of workers and meet employer needs for skilled workers, the
workforce system plays a valuable role in developing training programs
and helping workers retain or obtain good jobs upon completion of these
programs.
Business and Industry Partnerships for Earn and Learn Models
In the manufacturing industry, employers have utilized Registered
Apprenticeship for decades to train apprentices in traditional
manufacturing and other occupations. In the past decade, as the
manufacturing industry has advanced with new technologies, the
Department has worked with industry partners, particularly the National
Institute of Metalworking Skills (NIMS), to develop competency-based
Registered Apprenticeship training models that establish unified skill
standards throughout the industry. NIMS has established standards for
several occupations, including machinist, press set up operator,
electronic discharge machine operator, tool and die maker, precision
assembler, and computer numeric controlled operator. At of the end of
Fiscal Year 2011 (October 31, 2011), the Department was responsible for
overseeing about 14,450 active apprentices in over 2,800 active
manufacturing programs (NAICS 31-33), of which 96 were registered
during that fiscal year.
Registered Apprenticeship is an `earn while you learn' model that
provides employment and a combination of on-the-job learning with a
mentor, related technical and theoretical instruction, and wage
increases as apprentices progress. The model offers an efficient,
flexible training strategy, responsive to new technology to keep
workers up-to-date on skills they need to meet the needs of high-growth
industries. In Fiscal Year 2011, Registered Apprenticeship programs
served 403,700 participants.
H-1B Technical Skills Training Grants
The Department also has invested $342 million in competitive grants
to provide training, job placement, and other assistance in the
occupations and industries for which employers are using H-1B visas to
hire temporary, high-skilled foreign workers. Manufacturing is among
the top 10 industries for which H-1B visas are granted. Our long-term
goal is to decrease the need for H-1B visas by helping American workers
develop the high level skills needed by these employers. The Department
will continue to use the H-1B grants to help individuals upgrade skills
for high-growth industries and occupations. The grant program helps
workers upgrade their skills while assisting businesses to retain and
improve the skills of their workers, expanding their workforce as they
successfully compete and prosper in the global economy.
Under an H-1B Technical Skills Training grant for approximately
$2.2 million, NIMS is helping 425 unemployed individuals in southern
California, greater Chicago, and Alabama get back to work as Computer
Numerical Control machine operators--a skilled occupation with a
promising career path in precision manufacturing. NIMS is working with
manufacturing companies to conduct structured on-the-job training. This
training will meet the competencies required by the NIMS National
Skills Standards, and participants who complete will earn five
nationally-portable industry-recognized credentials.
Another example, the Junior College District of Metropolitan Kansas
City, MO recently received an H-1B Technical Skills Training grant for
$5 million to implement innovative on-the-job training programs in the
information technology sector. The program builds on traditional on-
the-job training models to offer training for participants who, without
it, might not qualify for information technology positions. Programs
like this one help to bridge that gap by helping dislocated workers
update their skill sets while working. At the same time, employers are
able to offset some of their training costs, allowing them to hire new
workers sooner than initially planned and giving them more confidence
to hire individuals who might have a steeper initial learning curve.
Closing
In conclusion, we believe our myriad efforts support our shared
goal of helping more Americans gain the skills to find good jobs in the
21st century economy and to spur growth in critical industry sectors,
such as the manufacturing industry. We again thank this subcommittee
for holding a hearing on an important topic, and we would happy to
provide additional information and assistance as needed.
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you very much.
Ms. Kanter.
STATEMENT OF HON. MARTHA KANTER, UNDER SECRETARY,
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Ms. Kanter. Madam Chairwoman Klobuchar, Ranking Member
Blunt, and Senator Warner, thank you for having me here to
testify this morning. I'm going to talk about the Department of
Education's vision for community colleges in training the
American workforce for the jobs of today and tomorrow--we're
thinking ahead--and also the underpinning of keeping education
affordable in order to do this.
From the beginning of the administration, the President and
the Secretary have emphasized how crucial education is to build
a competitive workforce. And that's why we have set a bold goal
for our Nation: by 2020, to have the highest proportion of
college graduates in the world. Community colleges are a big
part of that effort to not only meet that goal of 2020, but
also preserving the pathway to the middle class for millions of
Americans.
We often talk about community colleges as one type of
institution. But that really fails to capture that they are
designed to meet the many needs of our Nation's communities and
vary in structure, in mission, and in offerings. And most every
community college across the country works closely with local
business leaders to help prepare millions of students for jobs
in their various regions.
For recently displaced workers, a community college is the
place to acquire new skills to help them reenter the workforce.
Part of our trade adjustment work with the Department of Labor
is designed to do just that.
For others, community colleges are the place to acquire job
certifications, credentials, and technical skills to embark on
a successful career or upgrade their skills to advance in the
careers they have or even change careers. Still others choose a
community college as the local affordable springboard to a
four-year baccalaureate degree, while some enter a community
college to begin the basic skills and get an entry-level job.
So they have various needs, and community colleges really
address the wide range of students coming in their doors. But
they face tremendous capacity challenges, which is why those
grants were so important as a start.
I served as president and then chancellor of a large
community college district for 16 years. And it was gut-
wrenching in tough economic times when state funding declined
to decide which programs to reduce while enrollments escalated.
Our waiting lists were horrendous, because we couldn't afford
the technology to better automate our schedules until we ran a
local bond election to upgrade our information system. Nor
could we afford the computer numerical controls programming and
machining lab that Jane Oates mentioned until Haas Automation,
Incorporated, stepped in to outfit the lab with the equipment
that we needed. The same was true for Energy Management and
many other training programs that we offered.
Our state couldn't fund the upgrades we needed for our
science labs. So, again, we had to turn to the local community,
ran a bond--helped us expand capacity, worked with
philanthropies and others just to make ends meet.
So recognizing the critical importance of community
colleges and the real challenges that they face across the
country, our administration has made some significant
investments to help keep these institutions accessible and
affordable for students and also pursue the kind of innovation
that you're hearing about from my colleagues so that we can
have the competitive workforce that we need for the 21st
century.
The first and foremost investment we have made is in the
Pell Grant program. I want to thank you all. It's really having
great returns. It's helping low income students access higher
education.
Second, we're working closely, as you heard from Jane
Oates, with the Department of Labor on the Trade Adjustment
Assistance and Community College Career Training Act Program to
provide $2 billion--we're in the second year--to help establish
or modernize training programs to help students prepare for the
occupations you all mentioned. Our plans are to build on these
investments, expand capacity for community colleges, get
students off the waiting list, as I mentioned, and really
deliver the programs that employers need so we don't have those
statistics that Mr. Kilmer mentioned.
If we can work to keep college affordable on the one hand
and help build capacity between high schools, community
colleges, and universities, we'll leverage innovation, increase
productivity, and realize the promise of a well-educated
workforce. That's why our budget for next year, Fiscal Year
2013, proposes to establish the Community College to Career
Fund that Jane Oates mentioned. We'd be administering this
together. It's an $8 billion fund to support employer
partnerships with education to get that high-skilled national
workforce that we're going to need and create, specifically,
pathways for entrepreneurship for small business owners.
We'll train 2 million workers with that fund, leading to
skilled jobs in high-demand industries that you mentioned, like
advanced manufacturing or healthcare, biotechnology, IT, and
also promote promising training strategies to allow students to
earn post-secondary credit, the industry-recognized credentials
that you mentioned in their selected area of studies, and get
ready to be hired by employers or upgrade from where they
already are.
As a former chancellor of a very large community college, I
know how important a fund like this would have been to my work.
I spent many years--well, 10 years on the Workforce Investment
Board, but many years building a nursing workforce with 19
hospitals that we served in Silicon Valley. And we had to run
an annual lottery every year and turn away hundreds of
students, literally, for those jobs because we couldn't expand.
So we did reach out to the local community. They actually
funded our nursing simulation lab. They funded our skills lab.
They provided philanthropy for scholarships. But without more
support, we won't be able to do this going forward, and
community colleges are having those kinds of struggles that I
mentioned.
Our budget is going to make continued critical investments
in student aid to keep college affordable, preserving the
maximum Pell Grant award so low income students, as I
mentioned, can afford to count on that support in a community
college coming from high school, coming from the communities
that we serve. We are also proposing $150 million investment in
doubling work-study over a five-year period, work-study that
the data are clear, students are retained, they persist in
college, they are ready for jobs. It gives them relevant
employment experience, internships, earn while you learn kinds
of things to better prepare them for the workforce. I think
Northeastern University is a great example.
So in closing, let me underscore that a college education
is no longer a luxury. It's an economic necessity. We want to
build capacity, ensure students that come to two- and four-year
institutions get in the door. We can shrink the time to degree
by accelerating high school to college, the dual enrollment
that you mentioned.
I want to thank you for having me this morning. I am happy
to answer any questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Kanter follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Martha Kanter, Under Secretary,
U.S. Department of Education
Madam Chairwoman, Ranking Member Blunt, and Members of the
Committee:
Thank you for inviting me to testify today on the Department of
Education's work as it relates to community colleges and educating our
Nation's youth and adults to ensure our Nation's competitiveness. Our
work in this area is critical to creating an America that is built to
last.
The President stated in his Fiscal Year 2013 budget remarks on
February 13, 2012 at Northern Virginia Community College that community
colleges are examples of what is best about this country. As he stated,
there is a promise that the knowledge, skills and training that a
person can acquire at a community college will enable students to
achieve the American promise: the promise that if you work hard, you
can do well enough to raise a family, own a home, send your kids to
college, and save for retirement.
We believe that an affordable, high-quality college education is
fundamental to America's future: to our economic and social prosperity
and security. President Obama established a bold goal for our Nation to
have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.
The President, the Secretary, and I deeply believe that achieving this
goal, by providing Americans with the opportunity to access and
complete high-quality post-secondary education is vital if our Nation
is to prosper in a global economy that is predicated on knowledge and
innovation.
Dr. Jill Biden, who teaches at a community college, is also one of
community colleges' biggest champions. She calls community colleges
``America's best-kept secret.'' The Obama Administration's vision means
that community colleges will no longer be a best-kept secret--we
envision community colleges assuming a larger role to fulfill the
American promise by educating and training our Nation's workers, its
youth, and all those who are seeking employment for the jobs of the
future.
Background on Community Colleges
There are 1,167 community colleges in this country.\1\ But that
doesn't mean there is one single model for all community colleges to
follow. Rather, they are flexible institutions with several core
missions to serve various constituencies in a range of general
education, career-technical education and basic-skills programs. For
some, community colleges are the first step along a path that leads to
a bachelor's degree at a university; for others they are a place to get
a certificate or associate degree in a technical field. Or they may be
a place to get just a few additional courses that will help a worker
keep his or her skills current and in demand. But regardless of each
student's goal, community colleges are charged with building the
economic and civic pipeline in their local communities and regions.
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\1\ http://www.aacc.nche.edu/ABOUTCC/Pages/default.aspx
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Community colleges are the on-ramps to postsecondary education for
diverse groups of students seeking education and training. Nearly half
of our Nation's students enroll in a community college for a variety of
reasons: to acquire job skills, either to stay current with the
workforce or to obtain the basic requisite skills needed to succeed in
a career; to attain an associate degree, certificate, or industry-
recognized credential, or to complete the first years of a longer
degree program at an affordable cost. A recent report from our National
Center for Education Statistics says that community colleges have
larger percentages of nontraditional, low-income, first-generation and
minority students than our Nation's four-year colleges and
universities.\2\ Community colleges educate half of all Hispanic and
Native American students and nearly half of all students who are
African American or Asian/Pacific Islanders.\3\ Community colleges are
also a major source of education for nontraditional students, such as
women re-entering the workforce, displaced workers, and thousands of
returning veterans. Today, the average age of a community college
student is 28.5 years,\4\ and 59 percent of the community college
student body attends community-college full-time while working part-
time.\5\
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\2\ http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/analysis/2008-index.asp
\3\ http://www.aacc.nche.edu/AboutCC/Pages/fastfacts.aspx
\4\ http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/analysis/tables/2008-
tabsa09.asp
\5\ http://www.aacc.nche.edu/AboutCC/Pages/fastfacts.aspx
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Importance of Higher Education
Now I would like to provide you with some significant data on
community college and university graduates that underscore why our
Administration is adamant about the need to continue our investment in
higher education. First, the evidence on the importance of higher
education is unequivocal--individuals with postsecondary credentials
earn more money and are much less likely to be unemployed than
individuals with only a high school diploma or less. Not only do those
with two-and four-year degrees earn substantially higher salaries than
those without any postsecondary degree, but they are much less likely
to experience unemployment. The proportion of jobs that require some
postsecondary education is estimated to increase from 59 percent to 63
percent in the next decade.\6\ To remain competitive in today's global
economy, the United States needs more workers with postsecondary skills
and credentials.
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\6\ http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/
FullReport.pdf
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We know that the challenge before us is great. Estimates from
Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce show that
we are projected to produce 3 million fewer college graduates than will
be needed by our economy within the next decade--a gap that could make
it much harder for American employers to fill high-skill positions.
Worse yet, this gap will hamper innovation that could open up new
industries and sources of future jobs.
But if we act now, we can address the gap between employer needs
for, and the availability of, postsecondary-educated workers. According
to the Center, by adding an additional 20 million postsecondary-
educated workers over the next 15 years, our national level of
educational attainment would be comparable to the best-educated
nations, help us meet the economy's need for innovation, and reverse
the growth of income inequality.
That is why this Administration has worked with Congress and taken
a number of steps over the last three years to: 1) help support and
expand capacity at community colleges to ensure our economic
competitiveness; and 2) address the challenge of helping to keep
college affordable and accessible.
To build capacity at community colleges, the Administration has:
Invested $2 billion over four years through the Trade
Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training
(TAACCCT) Grant Program. This historic investment already
awarded $500 million last year to help community colleges
dramatically expand their capacity and support enhanced
partnerships between community colleges, industry, and local
Workforce Investment Boards to design and offer programs that
provide career pathways for individuals in high wage, high
skill industries These programs prepare students for jobs in
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields
such as transportation and advanced manufacturing. And
resources produced will be open source, allowing even those
schools that don't receive funding to take advantage of
cutting-edge materials that are developed. While the TAACCCT
program is administered by the Department of Labor (DOL), the
Department of Education works in partnership with DOL to
leverage our technical expertise and existing resources to
increase the number of individuals with degrees, industry
recognized credentials and certificates. The competition for
the second round of $500 million in the TAACCCT initiative is
underway right now.
Supported and participated in the launch of Skills for
America's Future, an industry-led initiative to enhance
employer partnerships with community colleges This program will
build a national network and maximize industry-driven workforce
and economic development strategies to strengthen community
college career-technical programs and increase the placements
of job-seeking Americans into in-demand jobs.
Convened the first-ever Community College Summit at the
White House in October 2010, bringing together an unprecedented
number of higher education, industry, research, military and
workforce and economic development leaders, to discuss and
identify solutions to everyday challenges facing community
colleges. Building on this historic convening, the Department
of Education led five regional Summits to further engage local
community college boards, faculty, administrators, students,
businesses, community partners, and other stakeholders in
helping students reach their academic and career goals.
Launched a series of peer-led webinars to deliver
professional development and technical assistance to large
community college audiences. The Department of Education's 2012
community college webinar series offers webinars on topics such
as strengthening employer partnerships, academic alignment
between high schools and community colleges, building career
pathway programs that help bridge the needs of adult learners
and improving developmental education--all to help these
institutions build capacity by modernizing their courses,
building more robust partnerships with industry and deploying
evidence-based strategies to increase community college
retention, persistence, graduation and employment numbers and
rates.
Issued a joint letter, along with the Departments of Labor
and Health and Human Services, affirming the mutual commitment
of these agencies to career pathways approaches, generally
referred to as a series of connected education and training
strategies and support services that enable individuals to
secure industry relevant certification and obtain employment
within an occupational area and to advance to higher levels of
future education and employment in that area. This letter also
encourages State and local governments, and their partners, to
coordinate resources to ensure a streamlined service delivery
system across various funding sources in the development of
career pathway strategies that result in employment. We believe
that the efforts of these three Federal agencies working
together toward a common goal is a powerful signal. It will
encourage collaboration at the State and local levels to
increase opportunity and employment and to advance our Nation's
economic competitiveness.
Proposed to strengthen the education and career and
technical skills pipeline for in-demand occupations in high-
growth industries. The to-be-released Blueprint will be the
Administration's foundation for the $1.1 billion proposal for
the reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical
Education Act of 2006. The Blueprint sets forth a vision to
transform career and technical education. It will strengthen
connections among high schools, community colleges and
universities by ensuring that career pathways and postsecondary
programs are closely aligned with labor-market needs to
increase the number of college graduates with postsecondary
degrees and certificates as well as industry certifications,
that meet the workforce needs of our Nation.
Lastly, the President's Fiscal Year 2013 Budget builds on historic
investments in community colleges by proposing a new initiative
designed to improve access to education and job training nationwide.
Through the Community College to Career Fund (Fund), the Budget would
provide $8 billion, administered jointly by the Departments of
Education and Labor, to support State and community college
partnerships with businesses to build a high-skilled national workforce
and create pathways to entrepreneurship for 100,000 small business
owners. In total, this investment would train 2 million workers with
skills that lead to good jobs in high-demand industries that require
highly-trained workers, including manufacturing, healthcare, IT and
biotechnology.
The Fund would be an economic development strategy that serves the
dual purpose of ensuring that community colleges have the necessary
resources to train workers, and that employers in growth industries
have the skilled workforce they need for positions that might otherwise
go unfilled be outsourced overseas.
In addition to supporting community college-based training programs
that provide workers with targeted training for jobs in growing
industries, the Fund would also support on-the-job training
opportunities, such as registered apprenticeships and paid student
internships, allowing students to earn postsecondary credit for work-
based learning. The fund will also support promising ``Pay-for-
Performance'' strategies for training providers that include community
colleges, community-based organizations and local workforce
organizations to help Americans secure long-term employment after
attaining their postsecondary education, training and credentials.
Finally, the Fund would also recognize that improving career
training requires us to also address larger issues beyond institutions
by supporting regional or national industry group efforts to develop
solutions such as worker certification standards, wide-scale adoption
of proven training technologies, and industry-education collaboration
to strengthen career pathways. The Fund will enable Federal agencies to
partner effectively with State and local governments, to accelerate the
education and training of individuals. With this Fund, companies would
be motivated to locate or stay in the U.S., where they will have ready
access to a well-trained workforce who possess the knowledge, skills
and work ethic required by employers.
In the area of college affordability and accessibility, the
Administration:
Invested more than $40 billion in Federal Pell Grants over
the past 3 years, extending Pell grants to 3 million more
college students this year than in 2008 and raising the maximum
Federal Pell Grant award to an estimated $5,635 for the 2013--
2014 award year--a $905 increase per Federal Pell Grant since
2008. As you know, most of that investment was paid for by
increasing efficiency in our student loan program.
Working to make college loans more affordable through the
``Pay as You Earn'' proposal, which would enable an additional
1.6 million students to take advantage of a new option to cap
student loan payments at 10 percent of a borrower's monthly
income starting as early as this year.
Proposed to make the American Opportunity Tax Credit
permanent, to provide a credit of up to $10,000 for up to four
years of education. Over nine million middle class and low-
income families claimed the credit last year.
These historic investments in student aid has kept the net tuition
and fees paid by families--the tuition and feeds they paid after grant
aid--essentially flat over the last few years at approximately 80
percent of our Nation's postsecondary institutions. Because of the
Administration's Federal investments, the net price of a four-year
college education at one of our public postsecondary institutions has
increased by just $170 since the 2006-07 academic year. Significantly,
the average net tuition and fees paid to attend a community college has
actually decreased by $840 over the same period.\7\
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\7\ http://trends.collegeboard.org/downloads/college_pricing/PDF/
Trends_in_College_Pric
ing_2011_Average_Net_Price.pdf
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But we know that the Federal Government cannot single-handedly
ensure worker competitiveness and college affordability, access, and
success. The Administration, Congress, postsecondary institutions,
states, industry and other stakeholders must all work together to build
on the momentum of recent years to make sure that more Americans will
have access to the nation's growing employment opportunities through
workforce education and training offered at community colleges, and
that a college education is affordable and available to all who want
the opportunity.
As the President has said, ``in today's global economy, a college
education is no longer just a luxury for some, but rather an economic
imperative for all.'' The Federal Government, states, and colleges and
universities must all work together to promote college access and
affordability by reining in college costs, providing value for American
families, and ensuring that America's students and workers can obtain
and complete the education and training they need, when and where they
need it. America must have a workforce prepared for the jobs of the
21st century and a society that will strengthen and preserve our
democracy for our generation and generations to come. Our
Administration stands ready to work with Members of this Committee on
legislation to implement the President's proposals. We also look
forward to working with states, colleges, and other stakeholders on
this important agenda.
I am ready to answer any questions you might have. Thank you.
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you very much. We're going to
start with Senator Blunt.
Senator Blunt. Thank you, Chairman.
Ms. Kanter, on the--what was the--the 2020 goal you
mentioned was to have the highest percentage of----
Ms. Kanter. College graduates.
Senator Blunt.--college graduates.
Ms. Kanter. In the world.
Senator Blunt. Would that also include like an associate's
degree from a community college?
Ms. Kanter. We're hoping--yes. What we're hoping for is to
have 5 million more graduates from the two-year institutions
and about 3 million more from the rest of higher education, in
addition to the 2 million that would happen doing nothing. I
mean, we really need to accelerate the education and training
of----
Senator Blunt. But in trying to reach that goal, the two-
year, the associate degree of some kind----
Ms. Kanter. Yes.
Senator Blunt.--would accommodate the goal.
Ms. Kanter. Half of the goal.
Senator Blunt. And where are we now, related to the other
countries in the world? If we're going to be the highest----
Ms. Kanter. Right now, we're 16th in the world. A
generation ago, we were first in the world. So we've lost our
share. We're tied for 16th with three other countries.
Senator Blunt. So this goes to move us 16 places in 8
years?
Ms. Kanter. Yes.
Senator Blunt. I hope we can do it. That would be----
Ms. Kanter. It's a very ambitious goal, but we've got
states like Indiana and Florida and--there are lots of states
across the country that have set that goal. Some go to 2025.
Some go to 2020. We think we just need to accelerate. We need
more students getting the kinds of credentials and degrees that
my colleagues have described.
Senator Blunt. From the point of view of your earlier work
as the chancellor at a community college, do you have any idea
how the proposal that we begin to penalize loans and grants if
tuition goes up too much--how much that will --how that would
impact community colleges? You know, the President in the State
of the Union said we were going to begin to condition loans and
grants based on tuition increases. I really don't know what
that means, particularly as it might relate to community
colleges where a 10 percent increase may be a whole lot less
money than a 2 percent increase at a state or private
institution down the street.
Ms. Kanter. Right. Well, I mean, the President talked
about--and we're planning to look at several parts of this
equation for campus-based aid. This is money that Congress has
allocated to the campuses to give out, that goes from States to
the campuses. It's called campus-based aid. There are three
parts of it. Perkins, work-study are two parts of that, and
SEOG, which are supplemental grants for the lowest income
students in the Nation. Those are sort of a type of addition
that students--when they really need that push.
So the plan is to look at colleges and universities over
time that provide good value. So, for example, colleges that
have very low graduation rates historically or colleges that
aren't serving the full range of students in their
communities--colleges that provide good value--we've reached
out to the communities to ask colleges and universities--we're
having affordability summits around the country to get ideas of
how to measure good value.
We want students graduating without huge loans to repay, so
repayment rates is a part of it. We produced a score card on
the White House website that--we'll be actually sending out a
draft of that in a couple of weeks--what it would look like. So
good value----
Senator Blunt. And you think the normal accreditation
process doesn't--no longer serves that need of determining
which institution should continue to do the work they're doing
or not?
Ms. Kanter. Well, I think every process for evaluating the
quality of institutions needs change. And we just finished
negotiated rulemaking with people from all over the country who
are experts in their fields of study in the different sectors
of education to come together and provide recommendations to
the Secretary. And I can get back to you.
They just published their findings recently on what their
opinion is in terms of really improving accreditation, places
where accreditation can, for example, look more directly at the
quality of learning outcomes from institutions of higher
education and what does that really mean, you know. Anyway,
that's a long story. But I'd be happy to get you information.
Senator Blunt. And I'd like to see it.
Put me down, at least right now, on the side that we'll
actually mess this process up if we get overly involved in it.
I think one of the reasons the United States has been so good
since World War II in higher education is the government has
found ways to provide assistance in funding and hasn't until
right now really gotten much into the job of trying to run
these institutions.
And this is just to report back to the home office for you,
but I think it's a bad idea for us to, one, begin to think that
we're going to do a better job determining whether programs
meet the criteria they need to meet. What's a credit hour? I
was like you. I spent several years as president of a
university, and I think that the accreditation system has
worked pretty well.
And I have a lot of concerns, the one I just mentioned
being one of the top ones, that if we really do begin to
evaluate tuition increases and things like that with some
number that we think for a moment can equally apply to
everybody--because it would particularly be penalizing in the
environment you're so familiar with.
Ms. Kanter. Yes.
Senator Blunt. I'm going to come back. We'll maybe have a
second round of questions.
So, Chairman, thank you.
Senator Klobuchar. Very good.
Senator Ayotte.
STATEMENT OF HON. KELLY AYOTTE,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE
Senator Ayotte. Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I thank the witnesses for being here today. I appreciate
your testimony. This is certainly an important issue.
Secretary Oates, you and I had a chance to talk on the
phone last spring about a very important project in New
Hampshire, the Manchester Job Corps Center. And when we talked
about it, the project had been stalled because of protests that
were issued in it because of a project labor agreement
requirement for this very important Federal project in New
Hampshire, which we would hope would put probably about 300 to
400 people to work to build it and then, obviously, provide
very important training opportunities for individuals in New
Hampshire that are able to get their high school education and
also get very valuable training.
In fact, New Hampshire was really one of only two states in
the Nation that is without a Job Corps training center. I
wanted to follow up, because as I understand it, when I spoke
with you last spring, I expressed the concerns of our
associated builders and contractors in New Hampshire over the
project--the President's Executive Order requiring project
labor agreements--particularly because our New Hampshire
contractors felt that most of them were non-union and felt that
they would not be able to meet the requirements of a project
labor agreement.
So here we are 2 years later, and the project went out for
bid, and there were, as I understand it, three bids on it. All
of them were from outside of New Hampshire. In fact, our
contractors--again, the requirement--I asked you not to include
the project labor agreement requirement in it again. The
Department went forward, included the project labor agreement
requirement in it, and now here we are again with bid protests.
And the bids that you have before you are three out of state
contractors.
The New Hampshire contractors, I can tell you, having
spoken to them, feel denied an opportunity to actually build
this important Federal project in our own state, because, you
know, they're basically non-union shops. So I guess I would ask
you, at the end of the day--I've looked at the studies on this
project labor agreement. The studies show that costs increase
between 12 and 15 percent when you include a requirement of a
project labor agreement.
In my state, it leads to the absurd result that out of
state contractors are the only ones that are bidding on this
really important New Hampshire Federal project in our state. So
somebody from Florida may build our project--our Job Corps here
in New Hampshire.
So this whole hearing is about competitiveness. Can you
help me--why was the project labor agreement--why does that add
to our competitiveness? Because I view it as the opposite. Why
wouldn't the President--if it costs 12 to 15 percent more to
build a Federal project that has a project labor agreement in
it, why would we keep this requirement when it seems to impede
good contractors like we have in New Hampshire from building
Federal projects in their own state?
So can you help me with this? I'm really struggling with
it. And I feel like the contractors in New Hampshire who do
things efficiently and very well are being denied an
opportunity here to bid because they are non-union shops, and I
think it's wrong.
Ms. Oates. Senator, first, I'll start with where we agree.
We are both committed to building a Job Corps in Manchester,
New Hampshire. I would ask you to understand that there is an
Executive Order, and our agency followed the Executive Order.
And it was the finding of both political--because I sit on the
Board--as well as career people that a project labor agreement
was the best way to proceed in New Hampshire.
The bottom line here----
Senator Ayotte. I'm sorry to interrupt. But just to
clarify, the project labor agreement--you were required to have
that because of the Executive Order. Isn't that correct?
Ms. Oates. No, ma'am, no, not----
Senator Ayotte. So you could have proceeded without the
project labor agreement?
Ms. Oates. That's correct. If the evidence had indicated
that we should not use a project labor agreement, that's the
way we would have gone. Now, I do want----
Senator Ayotte. What type of evidence, though? Can you help
me with this?
Ms. Oates. I can certainly show you the process that we
went through. The project labor agreements that we've studied
actually come in on or below budget and on time. And I just
want to stop--as much as I know that this gets in the spin--a
project labor agreement does not require organized labor. In
fact, as you mentioned, one of the successful bids is a Florida
construction company, not a state known for a lot of organized
labor.
The problem that you're describing--this is a $40 billion--
a $40 million project, not billion--$40 million project, and
the bonding is what impacts a lot of construction companies.
They can't bond for that high a number. And we are certain if
the New Hampshire site follows work that was done in other
states, that even though the contractor is from out of state,
there will be work for New Hampshire workers.
And, of course, at the end of the day, all the non-
construction jobs, the teaching jobs, the resident assistance
jobs, all the vocational jobs, will go to New Hampshire
individuals. Again, I hope you appreciate that while the
President--any President puts in an Executive Order in our
department, it's our responsibility to follow that Executive
Order.
And I'll end where I began. Senator, we are both equally
committed. I hope you noticed that in our budget request, we
put in that we would have not only for New Hampshire but also
for Wyoming a Job Corps in every state, no matter what else I
have to do.
So while we'll agree to disagree on the project labor
agreement, we'll continue--it is in protest right now at GAO. I
can't give a lot more details about that right now, because I
wouldn't want to impact that protest and slow things down
further. We will proceed with Manchester as soon--and we have
not slowed down anything. As soon as GAO makes their
determination, we will proceed in whatever way we have to
proceed.
Senator Ayotte. Well, Secretary Oates, I really appreciate
your commitment to going forward with the Manchester Job Corps.
We do share that commitment, because I think it's very
important that New Hampshire have the Job Corps.
But where we disagree--I mean, I've got before me a number
of studies that show that it's a 12 to 15 percent increase in
cost. And I've got from our builders and contractors--and I've
spoken to them personally about this--that if the PLA was not
on this, we wouldn't have--these protests would be unlikely.
This thing could have already been done, and, frankly, more
people would have been given the opportunity to bid on it. So
you and I disagree on the project labor agreement. I think it's
an unnecessary Federal burden placed on people who want to do
good Federal work and do it at the lowest cost possible, really
maximizing the taxpayer dollar.
So I still haven't heard why--why is it necessary, how does
it make us more competitive to have a project labor agreement?
I guess I don't understand that. Can you tell me why we're more
competitive by having these?
Senator Klobuchar. Ms. Oates, if you could, make your
answer brief and then if Senator Ayotte wants to continue in
the second round, we can go on.
Ms. Oates. OK, Senator.
Senator Ayotte. Thank you.
Ms. Oates. I don't understand the competitive nature. These
jobs are going to get done one way or another. And, obviously,
we have conflicting studies. I have studies that show that the
jobs come in on time and on or under budget. And I don't
disagree with you, Senator, that you have other studies that
say the opposite. I'll just--and, again, we're committed to
this, and we're going to make sure that Manchester happens no
matter what.
Senator Ayotte. Well, I appreciate it.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And I just want to save
taxpayer dollars.
Thank you.
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you.
I'm going to step back a little bit to talk about some of
the issues that affect every single state, and that is how
we're going to get a manufacturing workforce again. We have
people retiring, so that is a major issue. And then we also, as
I mentioned, have actual job openings, especially in states
that are moving ahead in high-tech manufacturing areas, like
Minnesota with medical device and other things.
So one of the things that I've heard from some of our
superintendents, particularly in the rural suburban areas, is
just that they have trouble getting not just the kids--it's the
parents--to see that this is a good occupation and a way to go
again. And I don't blame these parents. They're thinking about
what happened in the past when factories shut down. They're
thinking of other kinds of manufacturing jobs.
Yet for many of these kids, they're either not graduating
from high school, they're going to college maybe for a year and
then they stop--maybe they can't afford it--or they just quit.
And then--or they get a 4-year degree for which they don't have
a job.
So just a quick answer here on how you think we get at that
issue. Anyone? Practically.
Ms. Kanter. I mean, I just visited Garden City Community
College and Des Moines Area Community College. I'll just
identify Accumold as a company that's expanding in Des Moines.
What they're doing is identifying promising high school
students, making the community college students an Accumold
scholar, giving the kind of industry internship while the
students are in school, and giving them employment, and they
are having tremendous success--those high employment rates in
advanced manufacturing. They're expanding the plant. But it's
about, I think, as Roger told me before the hearing,
relationships.
Senator Klobuchar. Exactly, and I agree. I think that's a
good answer. I've seen in some of our high schools where, like,
Mayo doctors adopt a school from elementary on. Seagate was out
at Shakopee High School, and, actually, these kids had made
automatic pool ball rackers, which was this incredible thing
with sensors--high school kids. And I asked them who they
thought would get this product, and they said people who have
everything. But it was just an incredible scene of what was
going on. So I think that industry pairing is important.
Quick, quick on one point--and then I want to move on--that
we are working very hard on the Stafford loans. As you know,
Ms. Kanter, the interest rates are set to double to 6.8 percent
in July unless Congress acts. What do you think would be the
effect of that when kids are already having trouble affording
school?
Ms. Kanter. Yes. It's going to make it harder for students
to feel that college is affordable. So we're hoping that
Congress will act to approve the--extend the current interest
rate to keep college affordable.
Senator Klobuchar. One of the things around our state--and
maybe the other two witnesses here can answer--is that we've
seen, you know, industries that have certain job openings, and
it seems to work best when they have a community college. I'll
use the example of Digi-Key. Arctic Cat makes snowmobiles and
ATVs, and then Digi-Key is an incredible company, and they are
in the town of Thief River Falls, Minnesota. You may not have
heard of it.
These companies are employing thousands of people. Yet they
have a community college, Northland Community College, that's
right there. And they're able to go to them and say, ``Hey, we
need 30 employees in a management program,'' or ``We need more
technicians in this area.'' And my view is that that works when
you're in a town--a sort of mid-sized town that can do that.
Some of the smaller towns--more difficult, and then also the
metro areas, where you have kids in inner-city schools that
really don't know what's available out there in terms of
manufacturing.
Talk to me about how we can better match--we're doing a
mapping in our state. The Governor has ordered it--match the
industry, what they need, with the community college and the
four-year degree systems.
Ms. Oates. Well, one of the things that we're doing is
mandating that you have employer partners in everything that
you do and making things end in this industry-recognized
credential. It's amazing to me that prior to 2009, as smart as
previous administrations were, they put money out the door and
didn't demand that the training and education end in an
industry-recognized credential.
But I think that's only the beginning. I think the
partnerships that you're hearing about here with both Roger and
Martha--we can't just talk to our own people. I can't talk to
the workforce without talking to the community college and
without talking to businesses. We we're trying to leverage
that, so we're all talking to each other's audience as well as
our own audience. We have a real--you know, everywhere I go, I
hear about jobs and demand and people unemployed. And until we,
you know, improve that alignment, we're not going to get the
job numbers that we want.
Senator Klobuchar. So do you think that national
certifications or industry standards are a solution to aligning
workers with these jobs? Or is it just, you know, more
bureaucracy?
Ms. Oates. No. I think it's the answer. And I can tell you
that there's not a week that goes past that I'm not sitting
with employers, and they're telling me what they want people
trained in. And areas where we haven't seen this mismatch are
areas where states license. So we don't hear this in
healthcare. We hear about shortages, but not a skills
misalignment. Instead, we hear it in IT and in manufacturing,
where the industry has grown, and the educational and training
partners haven't been attuned to what the industry needs are.
So we have to force that from the Federal and State level
so that we don't keep training people who end up at the end of
training saying there's no job at the end. And I think we've
begun to do that, but it's really important that we always
begin with the business. If we don't talk to businesses first,
we're going to sell our workforce short.
Senator Klobuchar. Very good. Thank you.
Senator Blunt.
Senator Blunt. Thank you, Chairman.
Ms. Oates, I would think one of our big challenges would be
training people for jobs that will still be the jobs by the
time we get them trained. I know 15 years ago, you'd walk
through a machine shop, and there would be all this talk about
how we're not bringing the machinists on. Nobody's going to
know how to do this. There's still some need for that skill
set, and it turned out to be pretty transferable.
But I was in some defense subcontractors, mostly in rural
Missouri, in the last couple of weeks. And, of course, none of
that machine work--or, at least, most of that machine work is
not done the way it used to be done. It's computer skills, math
skills, setting up the equipment in the right way.
How do we keep up with--what do we do that allows us to
prepare people for the job skills that they're likely to need
and that we can't quite anticipate what those are?
Ms. Oates. I'll tell you, Senator, it's really complicated,
because we still have a need for old occupations like welding.
When I came into this job, Governor Barbour from Mississippi
was one of the first phone calls I got. And he said, ``How come
we have all these foreign welders, and I can't get
Mississippians''--I mean, I dragged myself down to Mississippi,
and he was right. Everybody had stopped training welders except
Rochester, Minnesota. You know what I mean?
So we have to stay true to some of those other things, but
we have to get ready for advanced manufacturing and IT and
things like that. And I stole the idea from the last
administration. In the last administration, my predecessor at
ETA started building something called a Core Competency Model,
just like a pyramid.
There are courses on the bottom leg of that pyramid that
are going to be the core foundational courses for a number of
jobs. And then as you get up to the top of the pyramid, that's
where you're going to see customization and specialization.
So they did a--since we've been here, we've done advanced
manufacturing. We've done medical records. And we've done--
we've continued to work with the good work that they did in the
previous administration with energy, because energy is
changing, you know. And it's amazing to me that we have to keep
this idea of those foundational courses so that employers see
that people have the basics, and we can customize on the job
site for them, but also so that employees, when they're
dislocated, don't think the first 40 years of their work life
was for naught. So I think that's the technology--you know,
manpower technology that we're going to use, staying with these
Core Competency Models.
Senator Blunt. Right. And you mentioned that with proper
training, we can fill the current gap where we think we need
more H-1B visas. Between now and the time we fill that gap, are
you all looking--either you or Education--at making the H-1B
visa number work better?
Ms. Oates. Well, we actually take your lead. You establish
a cap, and you make certain occupations above or outside the
cap.
Senator Blunt. Right.
Ms. Oates. So any faculty members that come in to Martha's
institutions that she oversees are not in the cap. That's all
outside the cap. So for us--I mean, look, there are some
occupations that are going to take a long time. We can't help
people become engineers in less than four years.
Senator Blunt. Right.
Ms. Oates. No matter what kind of skills. But there are
things that we can do getting ready for that. So you don't need
a four-year degree to be a web page designer, and yet in 2010,
we brought in hundreds of people on H-1B visas who were
designing web pages. So we're working together to make sure
people understand that with 1 year of technical training or a
two-year degree, you can compete as a web page designer.
We know we're always going to need international talent.
You know, I'm not James Monroe, you know. I don't want to keep
everybody else out. But we need to have the right mix, and we
need to do a better job of explaining to young people that we
all care about, but also to dislocated workers, that they could
get the skills through higher education. At least 1 year, maybe
more, of higher education will give them the competitive edge
they need to get that job.
Senator Blunt. Just for the record, I don't think James
Monroe wanted to keep everybody else out, either. Maybe Millard
Fillmore, but not James Monroe.
[Laughter].
Senator Blunt. Mr. Kilmer, the single best strategy that
you've found to get people interested in participating in your
program?
Mr. Kilmer. For us, it's really about getting manufacturers
to start thinking more strategically about where they're taking
the company and what they need. I mean, we've obviously got
some very short-term needs. And so that's why when we're
looking at this initial tool development, for example, we're
really focused on the recruitment piece of this. How do you
find those positions--or how do you find the people to fill
those positions right now?
But a company has got to start thinking a little bit more
strategically about where they're going to be, what their needs
are going to be, so that, one, they better understand and can
fill those requirements, they can do the internal training of
their existing staff, and then I can also be feeding these
kinds of requirements to these other programs in the community
colleges to do a better job of aligning both what the future
needs are and the kind of programs they've got to support that.
Senator Blunt. Thank you, Chairman. I may have some other
questions for the record to submit later, but that's all I have
for this panel.
Senator Klobuchar. Very good.
Well, I want to thank all of you. It has been very helpful,
and I'm glad that you're very focused on these needs out there
and coordinating. I think that was one of Senator Warner's
points at the beginning--because I think we have huge potential
here to make more things in America, and we need to have the
workers that are there to do it. I know we have people that
want work right now, and so we need to match them with those
skills and those jobs.
So thank you, and we'll call up our second panel.
Before I introduce our second panel, I'd like to have the
written testimony from Chancellor Steven Rosenstone of the
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities submitted to the
record.
The information referred to follows:]
Prepared Statement of Steven J. Rosenstone, Chancellor,
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Chairwoman Klobuchar and members of the Competitiveness,
Innovation, and Export Promotion Subcommittee, thank you for the
opportunity to submit written testimony on Promoting American
Competitiveness: Filling Jobs Today and Training Workers for Tomorrow.
As the largest higher education system in Minnesota, the Minnesota
State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) system is committed to
providing the workforce that is the engine of Minnesota's prosperity by
producing the graduates who are crucial to the success of businesses
and industries across the state.
In my testimony, I will first provide an overview of the MnSCU
system, then address the challenges facing Minnesota that impact our
ability to fuel the state's prosperity, and finally discuss actions we
are taking to address those challenges.
The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities is a tremendous state
resource made up of 31 colleges and universities, with 54 campuses,
providing access to higher education for learners across the State of
Minnesota for more than 150 years. Our campuses have a broad and deep
impact on regional economies, citizens and businesses. We serve 420,000
students who come to us as new high school graduates, as adult
learners, or as workers and professionals retooling to meet the current
and future needs of Minnesota's businesses.
We are the system of access and opportunity, educating 60 percent
of Minnesota's undergraduates, with 88 percent of our students from
Minnesota. Eighty-five percent of our graduates get jobs related to
their field of study, and 80 percent stay in Minnesota to work or
continue their education and contribute to Minnesota's quality of life.
Each year, we deliver 49 percent of new teaching graduates in the
state, 83 percent of new nursing graduates, 84 percent of new
construction trades workers, 85 percent of new law enforcement
graduates, 90 percent of new mechanics and 9,000 fire fighters and
first responders.
The colleges and universities confer more than 40,000 degrees,
certificates and diplomas each year, preparing Minnesota's workforce
with the skills required by business and industry. We prepare our
students to be good citizens and future leaders. In addition to
providing certificate and degree programs, we deliver 6,000 customized
training programs to businesses across Minnesota, to ensure that
120,000 workers each year are up-to-date on the latest technologies
needed for Minnesota to remain productive and competitive.
To be successful in this role, we must continually redesign how we
do business, how we work together to reduce costs and increase the
effectiveness of our operations. Over the past decade, demand has
soared with enrollment up 15 percent. Over this same period, we have
worked prudently to manage our operating costs and increase
productivity and have had some success. Faculty productivity has
improved 12 percent; and compared to similar systems throughout the
country, MnSCU's administrative spending per student ranks 37th out of
50.
We are the state's most affordable higher education option. We
cannot meet the state's workforce needs or ensure access to higher
education unless we can reduce the financial barriers to college.
So what are the challenges? The bottom line is we are facing a
significant future workforce shortage. First, Minnesota has an
immediate and growing skills gap that is holding back job creation and
our economy. There are many good jobs available, but there is a
shortage of people with the education to do those jobs. I hear from
companies across Minnesota about a dire need for workers with advanced
skills, particularly in the manufacturing, bio-tech and health care
sectors. The painful reality is that many of the 167,000 Minnesotans
without jobs do not have the education needed for the new economy.
Second, we are facing a significant shortage of workers with the
education needed for the jobs of the future. By 2018, 70 percent of all
jobs in Minnesota will require some postsecondary education; and 85
percent of the new jobs created between now and 2018 will require some
postsecondary education with over half of those jobs requiring a
certificate or associate degree, not a baccalaureate degree.
Put differently, in this century, Minnesota's most precious
resource is not its land, mines, rivers, or timber, but our people. To
compete in the global, knowledge economy, Minnesota's workforce needs
higher levels of education than ever before. We need a more robust
pipeline of increasingly skilled workers, innovative and creative
thinkers who solve problems, are on the leading edge of knowledge
creation, and can bring those solutions to market. Minnesota's
workforce must also meet the needs of global customer service,
production, assembly, delivery and distribution systems. If we don't
provide the workforce that firms need to be globally competitive, our
businesses and factories will move to where they can find those
workers.
Succinctly put, if we fail to meet our state's evolving workforce
needs, Minnesota will be in great jeopardy.
Third, K-12 preparation is not where it needs to be to meet the
future workforce needs of Minnesota. About one-fourth of Minnesota
students entering high school don't graduate on time; one-half of
students of color who enter high school don't graduate on time; and too
many of all those who do graduate are not college-ready.
Minnesota now has the third largest achievement gap in the Nation.
This means that our state's fastest growing populations--people from
communities of color and families of modest financial means--are the
least prepared for the jobs that lie ahead. We must close the
achievement gap. Minnesota business needs a diverse workforce to
compete in the global economy. And going forward, there will be
virtually no jobs that will provide a decent standard of living to
those who don't complete some postsecondary education. Failing to close
this gap will condemn those left behind to a life of poverty. We simply
cannot allow this to happen. We must ensure that all high school
students are college ready so they can acquire the skills needed for
the work that needs to be done in Minnesota.
Fourth, the State of Minnesota has disinvested in higher education.
State funding of higher education has declined with Minnesota's
investment per student in higher education dropping faster than the
national average. Between Fiscal Year 1999 and Fiscal Year 2010,
Minnesota's support of higher education fell 40 percent in constant
dollars, compared to a 19 percent decrease for the Nation as a whole.
Over the past two years, only nine states in the country decreased
higher education spending more than in Minnesota. Minnesota's cuts to
higher education were five times deeper than the national average.
Minnesota's support of higher education is no longer above average at a
time when above average is no longer good enough.
The impact of all this on students has been profound. The stark
reality is that state funding per student in Minnesota State Colleges
and Universities--in constant dollars--has been cut 46 percent since
2000. Withdrawal of state support has pushed more of the financial
responsibility onto students and that trend cannot continue if we are
going to meet Minnesota's workforce needs. The cost--in constant
dollars--of educating a student in MnSCU is actually 10 percent lower
than it was a decade ago; it's who pays the cost that has shifted from
the state to the students.
We are facing a perfect storm. At a time when more and more people
need higher levels of education than ever before, to be prepared for
the jobs that will enable businesses across Minnesota to compete in the
global economy, we have slashed our investment in higher education.
Education was Minnesota's comparative advantage in the last century. It
must continue to be our comparative advantage in this century, but we
are in great danger of not being prepared.
How can we meet these challenges? The Minnesota State Colleges and
Universities are playing a lead role in delivering solutions. We are
working together with the Minnesota Department of Employment and
Economic Development; the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and local
chambers; the Minnesota Governor's Workforce Development Council;
Greater Twin Cities United Way; Governor Mark Dayton; and the Minnesota
Legislature; workforce centers; faculty and staff; foundations,
businesses, industries, and labor across our state to forge a plan. Key
to the plan is working together in new ways. Let me share with you some
of the steps I think we need to take together.
A Four-Part Strategy
Part 1: We need to map the workforce needs of Minnesota going
forward, sector by sector, region by region. We need to move from many
anecdotes to a systematic assessment and precise projections of the
need for skilled workers. To that end, MnSCU is leading a ``Workforce
Assessment'' initiative to address the state's growing skills gap. The
Workforce Assessment initiative will engage employers in developing
precise projections for how many workers and professionals, with what
kinds of skills, for what kinds of jobs.
This spring, we are coordinating more than 40 listening sessions
with Minnesota employers throughout the state to gain a better
understanding of their current and future workforce needs. The data
gathered from the sessions will be used by MnSCU colleges and
universities to align their certificates and degrees, worker retraining
and customized training programs with the needs of Minnesota's
businesses, industries and communities. The initial listening sessions
focus on specific occupation groups in six industry sectors:
Healthcare, Information Technology, Manufacturing, Engineering, Energy
and Transportation. Sessions in the agriculture sector are planned for
this summer, and sessions for additional sectors, including financial
services, insurance, mining and forestry will be held this fall.
At each listening session, employers are being asked to discuss a
series of questions focused on key occupations in their industry,
including the following:
Workforce Supply/Demand: What are your current and future
hiring challenges? Where do most of your workers come from
today? What does the future of your workforce look like--what
types of jobs will you need to fill? What is your time-frame
for filling these positions? What is your estimate for how many
positions you may need to fill?
Workforce Skills: What qualities/skills are you currently
looking for (or will be looking for in the future) but not
finding in your workers? What skills/abilities would you like
to see in individuals entering the workforce that you are not
seeing today? What changes or trends will affect your industry
over the next 2-5 years? What are the implications of these
trends for your workforce requirements? What skills or
credentials (e.g., technical skills, ``soft'' skills,
leadership skills, languages, etc.) do you expect to be looking
for in the next two years?
By listening to Minnesota employers, we can obtain a greater,
much more nuanced understanding of the state's workforce needs.
Armed with the data obtained from the listening sessions, we
can ensure that higher education is delivering the right
academic programs and preparing graduates with the skills
necessary for the success of Minnesota's businesses and
communities. By doing so, we will help more Minnesotans find
fulfilling careers while at the same time helping to secure the
state's economic prosperity.
The Workforce Assessment initiative is underway with seven
sessions having already been convened and many more scheduled
in the upcoming weeks. Already we have heard of the need for
students to have greater exposure to hands-on problem solving
and real-world business scenarios, stronger math and computer
science skills, and a willingness to learn new technologies.
Employers speak of the need for ``business critical soft
skills'' in time management, conflict resolution and
adaptability. In Information Technology, for example, employers
said the days of ``banging out code'' are over, and that
graduates need to have the ability to work in complex systems
and communicate with customers who are tech savvy, but not
experts.
Part 2: We need to make sure that our conversations with business
and industry are ongoing, so that we can ensure that our college and
university programs are aligned with Minnesota's workforce needs going
forward. We need to ensure that we have the right programs, in the
right places, to prepare the right kind of graduates--with the skills
they need to work in and lead every sector of Minnesota. This includes
not only aligning our certificate and degree programs, but our advanced
certification programs, our programs aimed at retooling workers, and
our customized training programs that meet the needs of business.
Part 3: Higher education must do an even better job preparing
graduates. Our good programs must become excellent, and our excellent
programs must become preeminent. MnSCU faculty members from across the
entire state are leading discussions about how we can do more to ensure
that students realize their full potential and that every one of our
programs is preparing graduates who are ready for the workplace of the
future. We must do a better job of helping students complete their
certificate and degree programs in a more timely fashion. We must
continue to identify ways to increase the effectiveness and efficiency
of our operations so that tuition can remain affordable. And finally,
we must focus on outcomes--the capabilities of our graduates, not the
test scores of our freshmen--as the measure of success.
Part 4: We need to ensure that there is a pipeline of high school
graduates who are college ready and heading to programs that will fill
the jobs that will enable Minnesota to soar. We are partnering with the
Minnesota Department of Education and with schools across Minnesota to
ensure that students from all walks of life--young and old, rich and
poor, black and white, immigrants and fourth generation Minnesotans--
are all college-ready.
We must close the achievement gap, and we are partners in statewide
initiatives to do just that. We must get more students to graduate high
school proficient in reading, math and science, and ensure that we
understand the capacities and passions of every student so we can point
them to the right postsecondary program that will lead to them filling
critical, well-paying jobs and happy, productive lives. We must take
what we have learned from our workforce needs assessment into the high
schools so that we can get the jobs of the future and the skills needed
to do those jobs on the radar screens of young people so they can chart
smart courses.
We must be willing to redesign grades 11-14 to do just that.
Students should have the option of starting college courses when they
are ready and not have to wait until they complete grade 12. Not
everyone needs or wants to pursue a four-year degree. Let's connect
students with an interest in technical careers with programs in
technical colleges that are aligned with the jobs of the future. Let's
make it easier, more cost-effective, more flexible, and more efficient.
These are huge challenges and I take them on with tremendous
enthusiasm and a keen sense of responsibility.
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities play an essential role in
growing Minnesota's economy and opening the doors of educational
opportunity to all Minnesotans. We are committed to:
1. Ensuring access to an extraordinary education for all
Minnesotans. Our faculty and staff will provide the best
education available in Minnesota, preparing graduates to lead
in every sector of Minnesota's economy. We will continue to be
the place of opportunity, making education accessible to all
Minnesotans who seek a college, technical or university
education; those who want to update their skills; and those who
need to prepare for new careers.
2. Being the partner of choice to meet Minnesota's workforce and
community needs. Our colleges and universities will be the
partner of choice for businesses and communities across
Minnesota to help them solve real-world problems and keep
Minnesotans at the leading edge of their professions. Our
faculty and staff will enable Minnesota to meet its need for a
substantially better educated workforce by increasing the
number of Minnesotans who complete certificates, diplomas and
degrees.
3. Delivering to students, employers, communities and taxpayers the
best value/most affordable option. Our colleges and
universities will deliver the highest value to students,
employers, communities and taxpayers; and we will be the
highest value, most affordable higher education option.
To meet our commitments to the people of Minnesota will require
courage to do what's needed when it's needed, creativity to make the
impossible possible, and collaboration by working together in new ways.
The ultimate goal that we are committed to is nothing less than the
economic vitality of our state and the quality of life of its people.
This is the project I signed up for when I accepted the position of
Chancellor of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. This is the
project I look forward to working with you on over the years ahead.
Thank you.
Senator Klobuchar. Our second panel is made up of industry
and educational leaders who have a crucial role in keeping our
workforce competitive, as well as attracting talent and setting
industry standards for American workers. So I was kind of
thinking in my head when one of our witnesses in the previous
panel said we always have to start with business--well, we have
a habit in the Senate of starting with the government, and now
we are turning to business and those that work with business.
Maybe it should have been reversed, but we have traditions
here. And I want to thank you all for coming.
First of all, I want to introduce Mr. Bob Kill. He's the
CEO, as I mentioned before, of Enterprise Minnesota, a non-
profit business organization connected to the National Network
of Manufacturing Extension Partnership Organizations. What he
basically does is help small and medium-sized manufacturing
companies work with education services and government to help
them find skilled workers to compete and grow.
He also has a mentor program set up. During the worst of
the downturn, he was out there helping his small businesses to
find people that would give them advice on how to handle the
downturn. And he has done an incredible job, so I'm very
honored to have him here.
Our next witness will be introduced by Senator Blunt,
because he happens to be from Missouri.
Senator Blunt. Well, Chairman, I'm always glad to have
Missouri witnesses, and I'm always glad to get to introduce
them. So thanks for letting me do that.
I want to introduce the President and CEO of Exergonix.
This is Don Nissanka. He's on the cutting edge with his company
of designs for energy storage, for really a wide range of
applications. Don has started other companies and done very
well with that. He's a self-made success story. His current
company and the companies he has started in the past employ
hundreds of people in our State and around the country.
He works really closely with the University of Central
Missouri, where he graduated, to train workers and to be sure
they have the skills they need for high-tech manufacturing. And
I thank you for including him on the panel today.
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you very much, Senator Blunt.
Next we have Dr. Lee Lambert. He is the President of
Shoreline Community College in Shoreline, Washington. He came
to the college in January 2005. He is recognized nationally as
a champion for innovation and change in U.S. higher education
and is a leading advocate for the advancement of 21st century
technologies, international education, and global affairs.
Thank you, Dr. Lambert.
Next we have Ms. Monica Pfarr. She is the Corporate
Director of the American Welding Society Foundation. By the
way, all the time, when I go to events, they say there's
openings in welding. So now I know where to direct them.
She has been appointed to spearhead the American Welding
Society initiatives, consulting with and building strategy for
local welders, businesses, and other organizations with needs
in welding.
Thank you.
And next and last we have Ms. Jennifer McNelly. She is the
President of the Manufacturing Institute, which is the non-
partisan affiliate of the National Association of
Manufacturers. We are pleased to have the president of NAM out
in Minnesota, and we went and he saw firsthand--went to visit
some of the companies where we actually have a lot of openings
and heard about the issues we have. And we've truly appreciated
working with NAM on the bill that I have with Senator Brown as
well as one we're working on with businesses.
So thank you.
She is one of the chief architects of one of the
Institute's flagship reform efforts, the NAM-endorsed
Manufacturing Skills Certification System.
That's why I saw you nodding your head when I asked about
certifications.
She has focused on workforce development for the industry.
So thank you very much.
We will begin with Mr. Kill.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT H. KILL, PRESIDENT AND CEO, ENTERPRISE
MINNESOTA
Mr. Kill. Madam Chair, Ranking Member Blunt, and members of
the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify. My
name is Bob Kill. I'm the President and CEO of Enterprise
Minnesota, and we are the Minnesota affiliate of the
Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the acronym MEP.
We operate as a stand-alone, non-profit, consulting
organization that focuses on medium and small manufacturers to
help them compete and grow profitably. And as the MEP
affiliate, we pride ourselves in measuring the business results
achieved by our clients to assure their investment and the
investment of Federal dollars are used wisely. Additionally, we
undertake initiatives to bring visibility to the value of our
manufacturing sector, including our annual State of
Manufacturing Survey.
In our state, there are almost 8,000 manufacturers.
Manufacturers provide almost 15 percent of our jobs and 18
percent of the wages. Manufacturing jobs in Minnesota pay an
average weekly wage of $1,120, which is a 22 percent multiple
over the average weekly wage across all industries.
Yet with those statistics, in the fourth quarter of 2011,
there were over 4,900 unfilled jobs in our manufacturing
sector, almost 10 percent of all job vacancies. This means that
there is $5.5 million in average weekly wages that aren't being
paid due to vacant positions. And that number will continue to
grow, based on the results of our survey.
The State of Manufacturing Survey is our annual poll of 400
manufacturing executives, and we supplement the poll with 20
focus groups. And in the poll, the concern over attracting
qualified workers has more than doubled in the past year, with
31 percent of manufacturing executives saying it's a concern,
up from 14 percent in 2011. The 200 participants in the focus
groups further magnify this challenge, and the challenge is at
all levels within manufacturing, the entry level, two-year
technical, and also four-year degrees.
Rapidly changing technology presents an additional hurdle
and widens the gap between the sector's existing workers and
the skills that are needed in today's manufacturing. In our
state, we've tried to close that gap with a program called the
Growth Acceleration Program, acronym GAP, a program funded by
our state that helps small manufacturers accelerate business
improvements to create jobs.
GAP funding helps businesses buy down the cost of our
services by providing up to $1 of State money for every $3 a
company invests. To date, this program has helped 192
manufacturing companies create or retain over 1,700 jobs.
Because we are an MEP center, and we measure the results, it
has shown a realization of almost a 30-to-1 return spent on
GAP.
Of course, the other way to close the skills gap is to
increase the talent pool and, I think, strategically, is our
long-range challenge. The Chancellor of Minnesota State
Colleges and Universities, Steven Rosenstone, says that 85
percent of all new jobs created between today and 2018 will
require post-secondary education. But less than half of them
require a baccalaureate degree. Chancellor Rosenstone, new to
his position, has dedicated schools to finding the right path
for each student based on their passions and interests.
It is essential to attract more young people to
manufacturing by making them and their parents aware of the
great opportunities that exist and to create the true image of
today's advanced manufacturing. Building these public-private
collaborations between communities and schools and
manufacturers is vital to closing the skills gap.
At two colleges in Minnesota is the Right Skills Now
program that I think will be talked about a little bit later.
An important part of our role as an MEP center is to make sure
that manufacturers do their part by speaking their minds and
opening their doors to young people, parents, and the public
sector to show this firsthand career opportunity.
And they are doing their part. Over the past four years,
Enterprise Minnesota has arranged and facilitated close to 300
tours by elected officials and their staff. The power of the
Federal Government can be used to expose the teachers and
students and parents to these careers that exist. This
increasing visibility on a national basis is integral to the
future of manufacturing.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
Manufacturing is back in the positive spotlight, and we all
look forward to being a part of attracting the new workforce.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Kill follows:]
Prepared Statement of Robert H. Kill, President and CEO,
Enterprise Minnesota
Chairman Klobuchar, Ranking Member Blunt and members of the
Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of
Enterprise Minnesota at this Subcommittee on Competitiveness,
Innovation & Export Promotion hearing on ``Promoting American
Competitiveness: Filling Jobs Today and Training Workers for
Tomorrow.''
My name is Bob Kill, and I am the President and CEO of Enterprise
Minnesota. We are the Minnesota affiliate of the Manufacturing
Extension Partnership (MEP).
Enterprise Minnesota is a standalone non-profit business consulting
organization that helps medium-sized and small manufacturers in
Minnesota to compete and grow profitably. As an MEP center, we pride
ourselves in measuring the business results achieved by our clients to
assure their investment and Federal dollars are used wisely. To further
our mission we are committed to bringing together the public and
private stakeholders to further the success of manufacturing in our
state. We also undertake initiatives to bring visibility to the value
of Minnesota's manufacturing sector, including the annual State of
Manufacturing survey, now in its fourth year.
Manufacturing is vital to our communities and state. According to
our Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED):
There are nearly 8,000 manufacturers in the state of
Minnesota.
Manufacturing provides almost 15 percent of Minnesota's
private sector jobs and 18 percent of the wages.
Each manufacturing job supports 1-2 additional careers in
the state through supplier purchases and employee spending.
Manufacturing jobs in Minnesota pay an average weekly wage
of $1,120, which is a 22 percent multiple over the average
weekly wage of $915 across all industries.
In the fourth quarter of 2011, there were 4,925 unfilled jobs in
Minnesota's manufacturing sector, accounting for 9.8 percent of all job
vacancies in the state. This means that there is a collective $5.5
million in average weekly wages that could be paid to manufacturing
workers, that isn't being paid due to vacant positions in the industry.
That number of career vacancies continues to grow based on the results
of our State of Manufacturing survey. This gap will widen as more
workers retire. As a sector, manufacturing has among the state's oldest
employees.
The State of Manufacturing is our annual poll of 400 manufacturing
executives from a cross-section of Minnesota companies and locations.
The goal is to get an accurate assessment of the state of the Minnesota
manufacturing sector from the perspective of the industry's decision-
makers. We also supplement the poll with a series of focus groups held
across the state. In the poll, we found that concern over attracting
qualified workers has more than doubled in the past year, with 31
percent of manufacturing executives saying it is a concern for their
firm, up from 14 percent in 2011. Nearly 6 out of 10 (58 percent)
manufacturing executives also say it is a challenge to attract
qualified workers to their companies. This is a noticeable increase
from 2011, when 45 percent reported difficulty in attracting qualified
workers. Additionally, the 200 manufacturers that participated in the
20 focus groups magnified this challenge. We used the term qualified
rather than skilled workers as we find that the challenge is at entry
level, two year technical, with and without experience and also four
year degree positions.
The survey also revealed that growing companies exacerbate the
issue. In looking to the past 12 months, 27 percent of executives in
the State of Manufacturing survey reported adding to their workforce.
Over the next 12 months, larger companies, especially, anticipate
continued growth. Forty-six percent of executives at firms with $5
million or more in annual revenues and 44 percent of executives at
firms with more than 50 employees expect their workforce to grow over
the next year.
Rapidly changing technology presents another hurdle and widens the
gap between the sector's existing workers and the skills that are
needed in today's highly automated precision manufacturing
environments. In Minnesota, we've tried to close that gap through the
Growth Acceleration Program (GAP)--an effort funded by our state that
helps small manufacturers accelerate business improvements to grow and
create jobs. GAP funding helps businesses buy down the cost of business
services that we provide at Enterprise Minnesota by providing up to $1
of state money for every $3 a company invests, up to $50,000 per year.
To date, GAP has helped 192 manufacturing companies across Minnesota
create or retain over 1,700 jobs. Participating companies have realized
a $30+ return for every $1 spent on GAP, and some companies have
experienced a 40-to-1 return on investment.
Of course, the other way to close the skills gap is to increase the
talent pool. Chancellor of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
(MNSCU) Steven Rosenstone says that 70 percent of all careers in 2018
will require some post-secondary education; 85 percent of all new jobs/
careers created between today and 2018 will require post-secondary
education, with less than half of them requiring a baccalaureate
degree. Chancellor Rosenstone has dedicated his schools to finding the
right path for each student based on a deeper understanding of their
passions, interests and skills, as the kind of work that needs to be
done in Minnesota.
It is essential to attract more young people to manufacturing by
making them and their parents aware of the great opportunities that
exist in manufacturing, and to create a better image of what
manufacturing can offer as a career. Building public-private
collaboration between communities, schools and businesses is key to
closing the skills gap. An important part of our role as an MEP center
is the make sure that manufacturers do their part by showing up,
speaking their minds and opening their doors to young people, parents,
and the public sector to show firsthand the career opportunities. And I
can assure you, they are doing their part. There are far too many
examples to go into here but over the past four years we have arranged
and facilitated over 200 tours by elected officials.
The input of the Federal Government is not just legislative, but
also to use the bully pulpit to expose teachers, students, and their
parents to the exceptional careers that exist in manufacturing
companies. Increasing the visibility of these great careers from a
national basis is integral to the success of our businesses and our
local, state and national economy, and we firmly believe that these
public/private collaborations are the way to build that visibility
efficiently and effectively.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Manufacturing is
back in the ``positive spotlight'' and I look forward to being a part
of attracting our new workforce to the great careers available.
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you very much, Mr. Kill.
Mr. Nissanka.
STATEMENT OF DON NISSANKA, PRESIDENT AND CEO, EXERGONIX, INC.
Mr. Nissanka. Madam Chairwoman, Senator Blunt, thank you
very much for giving me the opportunity to talk today. My name
is Don Nissanka. I'm President and CEO of Exergonix in Lee's
Summit, Missouri.
Exergonix designs and manufactures innovative, lithium-
based, energy storage systems for a wide range of applications,
for military, telecommunications, and to support the great
storage requirements. We produce these systems in sizes small
enough for individual cell tower support in homes, as well as
large enough storage systems to support the utility industry
and electrical energy storage.
Our systems provide the missing link that makes renewable
energy cost effective and will allow nations around the world
to implement a worldwide, workable, smart and decentralized
utility grid.
I came to the U.S. about 25 years ago. I received an
excellent education from one of the outstanding universities in
Missouri, the University of Central Missouri, which provided me
a continuing series of jobs and training. Nearly a decade ago,
I decided I wanted to go out on my own. I built a company and
created new technology jobs in this country. I watched U.S.
companies shut down plants and move their businesses overseas
because they said they just merely wanted to be competitive. I
felt strongly that this was the wrong approach, and I decided I
needed to make a difference.
From that time, my main focus has been to develop high
technology companies that create good, high-paying jobs in the
United States. My competitive edge was technology, automation,
and specialty skills training. We were successful in doing this
with my first company, now called Dow-Kokam, which today
employs over 100 people in Missouri and Michigan and which will
soon hire several hundred more skilled workers to staff our new
highly automated manufacturing plant in Midland, Michigan.
But, as you know, it is becoming difficult in many parts of
the country to find enough well-trained workers with the skills
needed for today's advanced technology manufacturing. Across
the United States, there is a shortage of engineers,
scientists, and skilled manufacturing workers needed to build
the types of products that my company produces.
What is important to note, when we move manufacturing jobs
overseas, what we have forgotten, unfortunately, is that we
take away the innovation that goes with each job. For example,
a person building a product on a manufacturing line also
improves that product on a daily basis. They find better
processes to manufacture, develop new complementing
technologies that help businesses grow, and they learn skills
as a specialist in what they do.
Technology advancement requires incubation of ideas and
exposure to basic principles at a grass-roots level early
enough to keep the creativity flowing. Today, our younger
generation of workers are not getting the exposure and the
background that is necessary for innovation early enough to
keep that creativity going. And, unfortunately, it's hurting us
because of it.
The U.S. was a technology leader in the 1980s, which is one
of the reasons I came to this country as a young man. I feel
strongly that we have to change the way we educate, train, and
employ our future leaders so they can be more competitive in
the development of new ideas.
When I started Exergonix in 2010, I wanted to take a
further step toward addressing this need in training and skills
for workers by creating a business-university partnership which
would allow students to develop skills leading them directly to
a job upon them graduating. Working closely with my good
friend, Dr. Charles Ambrose, the President of my alma mater,
the University of Central Missouri, we developed the concept
for the Missouri Innovation Campus.
The Missouri Innovation Campus is a collaboration between
business, education, and community leaders to give our students
the focused science, math, and technology training combined
with hands-on experience that will lead to jobs upon
graduation. And those trained students will ensure that our
advanced technology companies in the community will not have to
go elsewhere to find trained workers needed for successful
growth of our companies.
To implement our plan, last year, Exergonix acquired 85
acres of land in Lee's Summit. We will locate our headquarters
and manufacturing facility onto this site, and we are working
to bring other companies that are in the renewable energy
sector to become partners with us. Already we have an LED
lighting manufacturing company committed to be located there.
UCM will occupy 150,000 square feet of facility on the
site, and we have companies in the area becoming partners in
the initiative, including companies like Honeywell, ProEnergy,
Sprint, Cerner, and Smith Electric Vehicles, committing to hire
these graduates. Students will be able to go straight from
classes to their apprenticeship, and as part of this become
involved in the work we are doing.
I thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I just
wanted to share some of my ideas.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Nissanka follows:]
Prepared Statement of Don Nissanka, President and CEO, Exergonix, Inc.
Chairwoman Klobuchar, Senator Blunt, and members of the
Subcommittee: thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today.
My name is Don Nissanka, President and CEO of Exergonix in Lee's
Summit, Missouri. Exergonix designs and manufactures innovative lithium
ion based energy storage systems for a wide range of applications from
military to telecommunications to grid storage. We produce these
systems in sizes small enough for individual cell towers or homes all
the way to units large enough to be used by electric utilities. Our
systems provide the missing link that make renewable energy systems
cost effective and will allow nations around the world to implement a
workable, smart and decentralized power grid.
I came to the United States 25 years ago. I received an excellent
education from one of the outstanding universities in Missouri, the
University of Central Missouri, which provided me with a continuing
series of jobs and training throughout my career starting as an intern
at Gates Energy in the early 90s. Nearly a decade ago, I decided I
wanted to go out on my own, build a company and create new technology
jobs in this country. I watched U.S. companies shut down plants and
move their businesses overseas because they said they wanted to be more
competitive. I felt strongly that this was the wrong approach, and I
decided then I needed to make a difference.
From that time, my main focus has been developing high technology
companies that create good, high-paying jobs in the United States. My
competitive edge was technology, automation and specialty skill
training. We were successful in doing that with my first company--now
called Dow-Kokam--which today employs more than 100 people in Missouri
and Michigan and which will soon hire several hundred more skilled
workers to staff its new highly automated plant in Midland, Michigan.
But, as you know, it is becoming difficult in many parts of the
country to find enough well-trained workers with the skills needed for
today's advanced technology manufacturing. Across the United States,
there is a shortage of engineers, scientists and skilled manufacturing
workers needed to build the types of products my company produces.
When we move manufacturing jobs overseas, what we have forgotten--
unfortunately--is that we take away the innovation that goes with each
job. For example, a person who builds a product on a manufacturing line
also improves that product on a daily basis: they find better processes
to manufacture, develop new complementing technologies that help
businesses grow, and they learn skills as a specialist in what they do.
Technology advancement requires incubation of ideas and exposure to
basic principles at a grass-root level early enough to keep the
creativity flowing.
Today, our younger generation of workers is not getting exposed to
the backbone of innovation early enough to get that creative juice
going--and that hurts us. The U.S. was a technology leader in the 80s,
which is one of the reasons I came to this country as a young man. I
feel strongly that we have to change the way we educate, train and
employ our future leaders so they can be more creative in the
development of the next big idea.
When I started Exergonix in 2010, I wanted to take a further step
toward addressing this need for well-trained, skilled workers by
creating a business-university partnership which would allow students
to develop skills leading them directly to a job upon graduation.
Working closely with my good friend Dr. Charles Ambrose--President of
my alma mater, the University of Central Missouri--we developed the
concept for the Missouri Innovation Campus.
The Missouri Innovation Campus is a collaboration between business,
educators and community leaders to give our students the focused
science, math and technology training combined with hands-on experience
which will lead to jobs upon graduation. And those trained students
will ensure that our advanced technology companies in the community
will not have to go elsewhere to find the trained workers needed to
successfully grow our companies.
To implement our plan, last year Exergonix acquired 85 acres of
land in Lee's Summit--a suburb of Kansas City about an hour west of the
main UCM campus in Warrensburg. We will locate our headquarters and
manufacturing facility on this site, and we are working to bring to the
site other companies in the renewable energy sector such as electric
vehicle assembly, solar panel integration and other cutting-edge, green
technologies. Already we have an LED bulb manufacturer committed to
locating there, and we are looking at an advanced pneumatic generator
company also to locate into the campus. UCM will occupy a 150,000
square foot facility on the site, and we have other companies in the
area--including Honeywell, ProEnergy, Sprint, Cerner and Smith Electric
Vehicles--committed to hiring graduates. Students will be able to go
straight from class to their apprenticeship training at Exergonix or
another company on the site.
We are working with the University to rewrite the curriculum so
that it fits our employment needs. We will work with the University to
help cover student tuition costs--and the result will be students
walking out the door with their diplomas and into jobs for which they
already trained and qualified, but without the huge debt burden so many
graduates today are faced with. As you know, the student tuition debt
has surpassed the credit card debt in the country. Our Innovation
Campus idea is a win-win for everyone.
One of the exciting originalities of the Missouri Innovation Campus
is that UCM is working with local high schools, community colleges and
other universities to include their students in the program. Beginning
this fall, high school students will be able to enroll in the
technology training program--earning college-level credit and beginning
an apprenticeship with a local high-tech company. The result is that
these students will be able to move to solid, high-paying jobs in as
little as two or three years after finishing high school.
I am gratified that Missouri Governor Jay Nixon is supportive of
our project. He recently committed $500,000 to support the project
and--more importantly--established a $10 million fund to support
similar projects around the state. The partnerships funded under that
program will go a long way toward developing the skilled workforce that
Missouri needs to continue to grow its manufacturing, aerospace and
green energy industries.
This country has given me many opportunities. I want to make sure
that my daughter and her classmates have at least the same
opportunities I had--both to get a high-quality education and to be
able to turn it into a good-paying career. As the CEO of an advanced
technology manufacturing company, I believe the Missouri Innovation
Campus is exactly the type of program we need to ensure that we meet
this goal, and our Nation retains and creates as many jobs as possible.
Attached to my written testimony are a white paper by the
University of Central Missouri and a recent article by Governor Nixon
on the Missouri Innovation Campus. I ask that these be included in the
record.
Thank you. I'd be pleased to answer any questions you may have.
Attachments
White Paper from University of Central Missouri
A New Vision
Educational institutions exist to create opportunities for
individuals to advance their success, invest in their future and give
back to their community. So why are so many standing on the outside
looking in?
For Missouri to meet Governor Jay Nixon's goal for at least 60
percent of the population to have a college degree by the year 2020,
educational institutions must develop innovative solutions to the
biggest obstacles facing students today. Among them is an increasingly
large debt upon graduation.
Education is critical to the state's economy. An educated workforce
attracts new industry, opens new businesses and creates jobs, and it is
essential for educational institutions to graduate students who meet
the needs of these future employers. In-demand industries are
specifically in need of skilled workers with an educational background
in science, technology, engineering and health care.
Educational institutions have the tools to equip students for the
future. Businesses have the demand for a skilled labor force to grow
and expand in the state of Missouri, but until now, an artificial
division has separated these areas. The solution? The University of
Central Missouri and Exergonix, Inc.,--a new ``green'' technology
company in Lee's Summit--present the Missouri Innovation Campus to
serve as a model for the marriage of education and industry.
Missouri Innovation Campus
The Missouri Innovation Campus is a progressive initiative between
educational institutions, community organizations and businesses
partners to revolutionize the way students learn and work. Joining in
this initiative are the University of Central Missouri, Exergonix,
Inc., City of Lee's Summit, Lee's Summit R-VII School District, Lee's
Summit Chamber of Commerce, Lee's Summit Economic Development Council,
Metropolitan Community College-Longview, Cerner Corporation, Honeywell
and the state of Missouri.
Together, this partnership will help:
Students
Gain valuable, engaging experience in the applied sciences
Lessen the burden of student debt
Decrease the time it takes to earn a degree
Employers
Acquire skilled workers with competency in emerging
technologies
Encourage innovations in science, engineering, education and
nursing
The mission of the Missouri Innovation Campus is to help bridge the
gap between graduates and workforce demands. In addition to building
knowledge through their classroom experiences, students will have the
opportunity to experience a high-impact, real-world environment where
they can develop skills long before they complete their degrees. The
Missouri Innovation Campus will also provide an atmosphere for
educators to stay current in technology areas such as wind and solar
energy, electric vehicles, energy storage, LED lighting and more.
One of the greatest obstacles to growth and innovation is student
debt. The innovation campus will seek new ways to assist students
through student employment, tuition forgiveness, shared tuition and
low-interest loan programs. This will greatly lower their overall cost
and reduce the amount of debt they have upon graduation.
The Missouri Innovation Campus will be developed on property in
Lee's Summit near Highway 50 and Missouri 291 South.
Invest in Missouri
The estimated economic impact of the Missouri Innovation Campus is
significant to the Kansas City metropolitan area in terms of job
creation and capital investment in buildings and equipment. Creation of
a new model in higher education that is student-centered and meets
critical workforce needs is an investment in the future of the state
that could not only move Missouri to national prominence but accelerate
its ability to compete in a world market.
______
The Kansas City Star--Posted on Sun, Feb. 26, 2012
Missouri Innovation Campus will speed students toward degrees, jobs
By Gov. Jay Nixon, Special to The Star
Imagine students being able to complete their bachelor's degrees in
under three years--and graduate debt-free.
Imagine schools providing focused study, from middle school through
college, which prepares students today for careers of tomorrow.
Imagine a campus where students get academic credit--and real-world
training--in state-of-the-art facilities supported by companies on the
leading edge of science and technology.
This bold new vision for the future of higher education is taking
shape today through the Innovation Campus of the University of Central
Missouri. The campus is the result of an unprecedented partnership
between the university, Lee's Summit School District, Metropolitan
Community College, local businesses, community leaders and the state.
This initiative could not come at a more critical time.
Today's students face a rapidly evolving, technology-driven global
economy. Before the end of this decade, the majority of all jobs in the
United States will require some kind of higher education.
To compete successfully for the best jobs in the new economy, our
children will need higher education and training that is focused,
efficient--and affordable. That's especially true in fields like
science, engineering, technology and health care, where rapid job
growth already exists.
But the current business model for higher education is not keeping
pace. The rising cost of higher education is pushing a college degree
out of reach for many.
Students who graduate are often saddled with thousands of dollars
of debt. That makes it harder for them to purchase cars and homes and
keep our economy moving forward.
At the same time, companies in high-growth sectors need a highly
skilled workforce to grow, innovate and compete. But here, as in many
parts of the nation, the gap between skills needed in the workforce and
skills graduates possess impedes growth.
By leveraging public and private resources, the Innovation Campus
holds tremendous potential to boost economic development.
Here's how it will work.
Starting this fall, the program will enroll up to 30 high school
juniors at Summit Technology Academy, a pre-professional technical
school that serves students from 16 area high schools. They'll be
prepared to study science and technology at the college level and
sharply reduce the time it takes to earn their degrees. With
opportunities to take dual-credit courses at Metropolitan Community
College, Advanced Placement and other programs, students can earn
college credits while still in high school.
Students will also be placed in apprenticeships and on-the-job
training programs with local business partners, including Cerner,
Exergonix, DST and Sprint. That provides students the opportunity to
hone their problem-solving skills in a real-world setting.
My administration is supporting this unprecedented partnership with
a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant to fund apprenticeships,
training and educational opportunities.
To participate, business partners must commit to creating jobs.
Innovation Campus students would be highly trained candidates for these
new positions once they've completed their bachelor's degrees and
apprenticeship training.
Beginning Thursday, my administration will make an additional $10
million available in competitive grant funds to adapt the Innovation
Campus model across Missouri. I encourage private businesses and all
Missouri public colleges and universities to look for ways to adapt the
lessons across our state.
As governor, I'm committed to making college education more
affordable and accessible to more families, to training Missourians for
the jobs and careers of tomorrow, and to growing our economy.
The Innovation Campus is a bold idea whose time is now.
Jay Nixon, a Democrat, is governor of Missouri.
2012 Kansas City Star and wire service sources. All Rights
Reserved. http://www.kansascity.com
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you very much.
Dr. Lambert.
STATEMENT OF LEE LAMBERT, PRESIDENT,
SHORELINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Dr. Lambert. Madam Chair Klobuchar, Ranking Member Blunt,
my name is Lee Lambert, President of Shoreline Community
College, which is located 10 miles north of downtown Seattle.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
Community colleges are in a unique position to connect the
needs of business and industry with the men and women who come
to us for employable skills. Shoreline Community College has
been at the forefront of implementing the Manufacturing Skills
Certification System endorsed by the National Association of
Manufacturers. Today, we are leading the way to implement the
Right Skills Now program recently touted by President Obama.
Our campus is also one of two national innovation centers
connected to the National Coalition of Certification Centers,
or NC3 for short. Our success is built on partnerships. Let me
illustrate how we do this.
I'll start with our Professional Automotive Training
Center, because it is the blueprint for all of our efforts. The
center is one of the premiere automotive technician programs in
the United States. That's not our marketing slogan. It is
something our partners tell us.
The center is home to General Motors, Chrysler, Honda, and
Toyota's new technician training for the area new car dealers.
The Puget Sound Auto Dealers Association is co-located on our
campus. In addition to the four, other manufacturers, dealers,
and suppliers send about 10,000 incumbent workers a year to the
center for skills upgrade training. We also created an entry-
level General Service Technician program in response to
industry needs.
Through the Automotive Youth Educational System, a program
of the National Institute of Automotive Service Excellence, we
connected with high school students. We also bring high school
automotive instructors from across the Pacific Northwest to the
center to train on the latest technologies.
Every student in our factory-sponsored program is placed
with a local automotive dealer. Students cycle between the
college and the work place, immediately practicing what they've
just learned. Many graduate with a two-year Applied Associate
in Arts and Sciences degree, along with manufacturer-specific
training certificates. And these students are getting good
jobs, with placement rates of virtually 100 percent.
How did we do all this? We asked each of our partners what
we can do for them, not what they can do for us. We are using
the same approach with the aerospace industry. Our campus is
just 15 miles from Boeing's Everett plant, home of the
production lines for the 747, 767, 777, and 787 airplanes.
The aerospace industry is facing serious workforce
challenges. So we met with Boeing and some of the 600 or so
supplier firms in the state to ask what they need. Our CNC
machining program is a NIMS accredited program and trains
students to use $100,000 computer numerical control machines
the size of a room to produce the precision parts needed to
build airplanes.
We listened to industry and responded. Our lead instructor
designed a short-term aerospace-specific course. That course is
now adopted by 10 other community colleges in the State of
Washington to help students get jobs and help industry get
trained workers.
These two programs share a number of important traits. Both
use industry-based curriculum. In some cases, the curriculum
comes directly from industry. Both use third-party assessments.
Of course, our students get grades, degrees, and certificates
from the college, but they also receive industry-endorsed
certifications.
Our GST and CNC programs use I-BEST, or Integrated Basic
Education and Skills Training. Washington community colleges
invented this nationally recognized program which adds another
instructor to the classroom to help students with English
language or math. Shoreline is the largest I-BEST program in
the State of Washington.
Both use the Career Navigator program. This is a
partnership with the Aspen Institute, the Seattle-King County
Workforce Development Council, and Pacific Associates. The
Career Navigator matches students with employers to ensure both
get what they need. The program is getting phenomenal results,
with virtually every student finding a family wage job in our
region. We found a model that works, putting people in jobs
that industry needs filled.
So thank you for your time. I would be happy to answer any
questions.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Lambert follows:]
Prepared Statement of Lee Lambert, President,
Shoreline Community College
Madam Chairwoman and members of the Committee, my name is Lee
Lambert, President of Shoreline Community College. Thank you for the
opportunity to address this topic that is so important to our citizens
and their ability to compete in an increasingly globalized economy.
Community colleges are in a unique position to connect the needs of
business and industry with the men and women who come to us for
employable skills. Shoreline Community College has been at the
forefront of implementing the Manufacturing Skills Certification System
endorsed by the National Association of Manufacturers. Today, we're
leading the way to implement the Right Skills Now program recently
touted by President Obama. Our campus is also one of two national
innovation centers connected to National Coalition of Certification
Centers.
Our success is built on partnerships. Let me illustrate how we do
this:
I'll start with the Professional Automotive Training Center because
it is the blueprint for all our efforts. The Center is the premier
automotive technician program in the U.S. That's not our marketing
slogan; it is something our partners tell us.
The Center addresses the needs of students, the state, auto
manufacturers, industry suppliers and auto dealers. We train
technicians for dealers selling new GM, Chrysler, Honda and Toyota
vehicles. The Puget Sound Auto Dealers Association is on our campus.
Other manufacturers and suppliers send about 10,000 incumbent workers a
year to the Center for skills-upgrade training.
We also reach out to the K-12 system. Through the national
Automotive Youth Educational System, we connect with students in high-
school automotive programs. We also bring high-school automotive
program instructors from across the Pacific Northwest to the Center
every summer to train on the latest technology.
Every student in the factory-sponsored programs is also placed with
a local automobile dealer. Students cycle between college and the
workplace, immediately practicing what they've just learned. Many
graduate with a two-year Applied Associate in Arts and Sciences degree
along with manufacturer-specific training certificates.
And these students are getting jobs, good jobs, with a placement
rate of virtually 100 percent.
How did we do all this?
We ask each of our partners what we can do for them, not what they
can do for us.
We are using the same approach with the aerospace industry.
Our campus is just 15 miles from Boeing's Everett plant, home of
the production lines for 747, -67, -77 and -87 airplanes. The aerospace
industry is facing serious workforce challenges. So we met with Boeing
and some of the 600 or so supplier firms in the state to ask what they
need.
Our CNC machining program trains students to use $100,000,
computer-controlled machines the size of a room to produce the
precision parts needed to build airplanes. We listened to industry and
responded. Our lead instructor designed a short-term, aerospace-
specific course. That course is now adopted by 10 other colleges to
help students get jobs and help industry get trained workers.
These two programs share a number of important traits.
Both use industry-based curriculum. We teach what the industry
needs an employee to know. In some cases, the curriculum comes directly
from industry.
Both use third-party assessments. Of course, our students get
grades, degrees and certificates from the college. But, they also
receive industry-endorsed certifications that show they have the
knowledge, skills and abilities to do the job.
Both use I-BEST, or Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training.
Washington community colleges invented this nationally recognized
program which adds another instructor to the classroom to help students
with English language or math. Shoreline is the largest I-BEST provider
in the state.
Both use the Career Navigator program. This is a partnership with
the Aspen Institute, the Seattle-King County Workforce Development
Council and Pacific Associates. The career navigator matches students
with employers to ensure both get what they need. The program is
getting phenomenal results with virtually every student finding a
family-wage job in our region.
We've found a model that works, putting people in jobs that
industry needs filled. Now we're working to apply in other areas just
as fast as we can.
Thank you for your time.
Supplement--Background for Testimony References
NAM-endorsed Manufacturing Skills Certification System
Overview
Companies continue to report they cannot find individuals
with the skills required for today's advanced manufacturing
workplaces. The Manufacturing Institute responded by creating the
NAM-Endorsed Manufacturing Skills Certification System to directly
address the deficits in manufacturing education and training. The
system includes nationally portable, industry-recognized
certifications that are combined with for-credit education
programs. These education pathways are directly aligned to career
pathways in manufacturing. Students progressing through the
programs earn college credit toward a degree, a national
certification with labor market value and the hands-on technical
experience.
Key points
Stackable credentials
The foundation is the National Career Readiness Certificate
(NCRC), issued by ACT (formerly American College Testing
Program). It is a portable and evidence-based predictor of
workplace success across all industry sectors. The NCRC
measures the following skills:
Problem solving, critical thinking, Reading and using
written, work-related text, applying information from
workplace documents to solve problems, applying
mathematical reasoning to work-related problems, setting up
and performing work-related mathematical calculations,
locating, synthesizing, and applying information that is
presented graphically, comparing, summarizing, and
analyzing information presented in multiple, related
graphics.
Support for industry
The system includes support materials and processes to help
employers make the best decisions regarding human resources,
including:
Personal effectiveness: Will they show up on time, ready
for work, and be able to work in teams?
Essential academic skills in reading, writing, math, and
using and locating information: Can they communicate
effectively and interpret key instructions?
Core manufacturing competencies: Do they understand the
basics of safety, quality assurance and continuous
improvement, or lean?
Key technical skills for the production line: Do they
have high-tech skills consistent with the needs of the
manufacturing processes?
Support for education
Integrating the skills certifications into education
pathways implies that they should become part of degree
programs of study, so that a worker can progressively pursue
stackable credentials and ``bank'' credits, engaging in a
lifetime of learning. This upwardly mobile ladder directly
demonstrates how learning is a continuum throughout a worker's
life as more competencies are acquired and documented with a
recognized credential. System support includes:
Planning and Research: Use data-driven decision making to
determine high-growth industries/high-demand occupations,
target critical career pathways for development and map
manufacturing-related assets and resources.
Design and Development: Based on targeted career pathways
and programs of study, engage industry leadership to build
employer demand and recruit supportive faculty to audit
programs against certifications requirements.
Implementation: Take action to fill skill gaps in
curriculum, provide professional development, develop
systems to award certifications and recruit students into
target manufacturing-related programs of study.
Reassess for Continuous Improvement: Report on outcomes,
repurpose for continuous improvement and plan for
sustainability.
Shoreline Community College involvement
Participant in creating the NAM-Endorsed Manufacturing
Skills Certification System
Applying the NAM-Endorsed Manufacturing Skills
Certification System to college-level programs such as CNC
Machinist and Automotive Technician.
Working to expand application to additional programs
such as Clean Energy Technology and Biotechnology.
Links
http://www.themanufacturinginstitute.org/Education-
Workforce/Skills-Certifi
cation-System/Skills-Certification-System.aspx
http://www.act.org/certificate/
Right Skills Now
Overview
Right Skills Now is an acceleration of the NAM-Endorsed
Manufacturing Skills Certification System. Right Skills Now fast-
tracks and focuses career training in core employability and
technical skills by ``chunking'' relevant curriculum that leads to
interim credentials in critical machining skills. While the initial
model focuses on machining skills, for which there is immediate
demand, the program can accelerate skills development in other
foundational skills areas for advanced manufacturing like
production or welding.
Key points
Providing workers and students with fast-track skills for
employment.
Providing manufacturers with just-in-time talent from the
lab/classroom to the shop floor.
Accelerating and expanding lifelong learning opportunities
for a flexible, technical workforce.
Shoreline Community College involvement
Developed CNC Machining program recently endorsed by Right
Skills Now.
Disseminated endorsed CNC Machining program to 10
additional colleges in Washington state.
Links
http://www.themanufacturinginstitute.org/Education-
Workforce/Right-Skills-Now
/Right-Skills-Now.aspx
http://www.shoreline.edu/AcademicsNews/blog/
default.aspx?id=104&t=Shoreline
-leads-state-nation-with-job
NC3 (National Coalition of Certification Centers)
Overview
The National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3) was
established to address the need for strong industry partnerships
with educational institutions in order to develop, implement and
sustain industry-recognized portable certifications that have
strong validation and assessment standard.
Key points
NC3 is currently focused in three broad areas
Transportation
Diagnostics, diesel, under-car, vehicle management,
multimeter, torque
Energy
Multimeter, torque
Aviation
Multimeter, torque
Shoreline Community College involvement
A founding member of NC3
President Lambert is incoming Board Chairman
Shoreline host of NC3 national train-the-trainer
conference
Links
http://www.nc3.net/
http://www.shoreline.edu/OnCampus/blog/
default.aspx?id=290&t=Shoreline-
hosts-NC3-industryeducation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbRFInPfWhs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shorelinecommunitycollege/
sets/7215762948605
0287/
Innovation Center
Overview
Shoreline is working with NC3 and its corporate partners
such as Snap-on Industrial to create a space for industry-endorsed
certifications to not only be delivered, but also be developed.
Key points
Snap-on Innovation Center at Shoreline Community College
is a focal point for delivering and developing industry-endorsed
certifications and training.
Shoreline Community College involvement
Shoreline is home to one of only two Innovations Centers
under the sponsorship of Snap-on Industrial.
Links
http://www1.snapon.com/Education
http://www1.snapon.com/industrial/Education/
Certification.nws
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shorelinecommunitycollege/
sets/7215762948605
0287/
Professional Automotive Training Center
Overview
Today's automotive technician is not just a ``mechanic.''
The electronic and mechanical sophistication of today's vehicles,
along with hybrids and full-electric vehicles means these jobs are
highly technical.
Key points
Program ranking
Toyota ranks the Shoreline program as best in the U.S. for
five of the past six years.
Honda ranks the Shoreline instructor as No. 1 in the U.S.
GM gives Shoreline instructor highest ``World Class
Technician'' rating
Shoreline offers a number of programs including:
Manufacturer-specific training for technicians headed for
new car dealerships in Honda, Toyota, GM and Chrysler.
About 90 students a year
Non-manufacturer specific, short-term training
appropriate for employment in independent repair shops and
other vehicle service businesses.
About 30 students a year
Incumbent worker skill-upgrade training in manufacturer-
, supplier- or dealer-supported regional centers housed on
campus. Skills areas range from dealer-based technicians to
under-car services to dealership business training in credit
and other back-office services and more.
About 10,000 workers a year
High-school outreach to support students and instructors
in high-school programs
Primarily through AYES, an industry-supported outreach
program aimed at early identification of automotive
industry career paths.
Puget Sound Auto Dealers Association
Significant support for students and program
Member participation in capital projects
Offices on campus
Shoreline Community College involvement
Shoreline invented this collaborative model
Links
http://new.shoreline.edu/auto/
http://youtu.be/BT3OkufOIJ0
https://www.ayes.org/Home.aspx
http://www.psada.com/
Aerospace industry
Overview
The aerospace industry is facing significant labor
challenges as the existing workforce nears retirement at the same
time new technology and increased production are making increased
demands for trained workers. The State of Washington and various
stakeholders are making numerous efforts to address the issue.
Key points
Boeing and aerospace supplier firms are active
participants in creating industry-based curriculum
Community and technical colleges are collaborating in new
ways and greater levels to meet the industry's needs.
Shoreline Community College involvement
Shoreline has been a leading partner in the Aerospace
Curriculum Alignment Team, a collaborative group of more than 15
community and technical colleges, government, businesses and labor.
Shoreline's CNC machining instructor created a two-quarter
certificate based on industry needs that is now part of the Right
Skills Now program and adopted by 10 additional colleges in
Washington
Shoreline offers one-, two- and three-quarter certificates
in three program tracks each quarter.
Programs are offered nights and weekends
The two- and three-quarter certificates are NIMS certified
and part of the NAM-endorsed Manufacturing Skills Certification
System
CNC program placement rate is virtually 100 percent
Industry-based curriculum
Overview
More than just teaching what an employer needs a worker to
know, industry-based curriculum is an integration of the
educational and work settings. The underlying concept is that
knowledge is easier to acquire and retain when presented in a way
that provides relevance to the student's goals. While it is easy to
say, such integration can be difficult to do and requires committed
focus on the needs of the student and industry partners.
Shoreline Community College involvement
Shoreline uses industry-based curriculum in a number of
programs, including:
Automotive
Instructors in the Toyota, Honda, GM and Chrysler
programs use curriculum provided by the manufacturers.
Aerospace
The two-quarter CNC machining certificate was designed
with input and participation from aerospace partners. The
program meets specific knowledge, skills and abilities
outlined by the industry.
Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST)
Overview
In Washington, 400,000 working adults do not have a high
school diploma and an additional 1 million adults lack education
beyond high school. Only 13 percent of English as a Second Language
(ESL) students and less than a third of adult basic education (ABE)
students continue on to college-level work. I-BEST pairs workforce
training with ABE or ESL so students learn literacy and workplace
skills at the same time.
Key points
A 2009 study by the Community College Research Center at
Columbia University found:
``. . . students participating in I-BEST achieved better
educational outcomes than did other basic skills students,
including those who enrolled in at least one non-I-BEST
workforce course. I-BEST students were more likely than others
to:
Continue into credit-bearing coursework;
Earn credits that count toward a college credential;
Earn occupational certificates;
Make point gains on basic skills tests.
On all the outcomes examined, I-BEST students did moderately or
substantially better than non-I-BEST basic skills students in
general.
Shoreline Community College involvement
Shoreline currently offers four I-BEST programs involving
about 600 students, making Shoreline the largest I-BEST provider in
Washington. Programs include:
Automotive General Service Technician: In this three-
quarter program, students learn the basic automotive technology
fundamentals and maintenance procedures to prepare for entry-
level positions in the service industry.
Manufacturing/CNC Machinist: This one-, two- and three-
quarter program prepares students for entry into the high
demand job market as a CNC (computer numerical control)
Machinist.
Certificate in Office Technology: This two-quarter
certificate program prepares students to work in a variety of
office positions such as receptionist, office clerk, or data
entry clerk.
Nursing Assistant Certified: This one-quarter certificate
program prepares students for entry into one of the highest
demand positions in the health care field. Nursing assistants
work with registered nurses and LPNs in hospitals, assisted
living facilities and nursing homes.
Links
http://new.shoreline.edu/transitional-programs/ibest/
default.aspx
http://www.sbctc.ctc.edu/college/
e_integratedbasiceducationandskills
training.aspx
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shorelinecommunitycollege/
sets/72157625925620507/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shorelinecommunitycollege/
sets/72157625925608723/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shorelinecommunitycollege/
sets/72157625925600279/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shorelinecommunitycollege/
sets/72157626050975718/
Career Navigator
Overview
Through a grant from the Aspen Institute, Shoreline
Community College partnered with the Seattle-King County Workforce
Development Council to create the Automotive Career Pathways
program. This program features a highly effective career navigator
to provide students with the best career guidance, support while in
the program and connection to jobs and continued training after
graduation. The navigator works on site with students, but is
employed by a WorkSource partner to bridge the gap between the
college and the workforce systems. Each student forms a personal
connection with the navigator, who:
Facilitates the college enrollment and registration
process.
Helps the student identify financial aid from multiple
sources and access these resources.
Can help to cover emergency expenses that might otherwise
derail a student's training.
Connects students with others services available in the
community for multiple needs.
Work with the student as he or she graduates and gains
employment, ensuring that the graduate can keep learning and
advancing in the field.
An evaluation by the Aspen Institute showed that students who
enrolled in navigator services were more likely to finish, and
afterward, more likely to be employed, working in the expected
field and working full-time.
The model of industry investment and direction, plus quality training
based on high standards, plus meeting the non-educational needs of
students so they succeed is one that can be replicated throughout
the country in multiple industries.
Shoreline Community College
Original grant partner
Program success has prompted the college to continue to
fund the program from local funds.
Links
http://www.seakingwdc.org/industry/automotive.html
http://www.shoreline.edu/AcademicsNews/blog/
default.aspx?dtf=2011060100000
0&dtt=20110630235959
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you very much.
Ms. Pfarr.
STATEMENT OF MONICA PFARR, CORPORATE DIRECTOR, WORKFORCE
DEVELOPMENT, AMERICAN WELDING SOCIETY
Ms. Pfarr. Senator Klobuchar and Ranking Member Blunt,
thank you very much for this opportunity.
The American Welding Society is an organization of 70,000
members with a mission to advance the science, technology, and
application of welding and allied joining and cutting
processes.
Senator Klobuchar. Ms. Pfarr, if you could just wait one
minute--a vote has been called, so I'm going to go quickly over
there and come back. Senator Blunt will leave maybe when I come
back, but if it takes too long----
Senator Blunt. I'd rather listen.
Senator Klobuchar. He will listen. We'll call a recess
briefly, and then I'll be back to ask questions. All right.
Thank you.
Senator Blunt [presiding]. All right.
Ms. Pfarr. Through our AWS Foundation, we support programs
that ensure the growth and development of the welding industry
through strengthening research and educational opportunities in
welding and related industries. We collaborate with other
organizations, like the Weld-Ed Center, funded by the National
Science Foundation's Advanced Technological Education Program,
to complete our workforce research and outreach.
A common perception for over a decade has been that welding
and U.S. manufacturing, in general, is dying. Let me point out
a few facts that may help change that perception.
Over 90 percent of the total U.S. durable goods
manufacturing uses welding as a critical enabling technology.
Welding related occupations provide employment for 986,000
individuals in the United States. Despite being an important
part of our economy, the welding industry is faced with some
serious challenges.
The average welding professional in the United States is 56
years of age. There is a need for 238,000 new and replacement
workers by 2019. Almost daily, newspapers and broadcasts across
the nation report very similar headlines. Employers are hiring
welding professionals, but they can't find the skilled welders
they need. They're offering signing bonuses to qualified
welding new hires.
These headlines showcase both the positive and the negative
landscape within the welding industry. The lack of skilled
applicants is really threatening to derail the growth that
we're starting to see in the U.S. economy. The American Welding
Society is committed to take a leading role in addressing that
challenge.
Through our workforce development efforts, we are engaged
in educational outreach to youth, their parents, transitioning
workers, and even teachers and career counselors. We have
numerous programs designed to engage and educate our target
audience about the many advanced and highly technical career
opportunities that are available within the welding industry.
One of our most recent and highly visible projects is our
new Careers in Welding Trailer, a 53-foot single expandable
trailer with 650 square feet of exhibit space. Jointly
sponsored by the American Welding Society and Lincoln Electric,
it contains five Lincoln virtual reality arc welding
simulators. These units feed computer generated data with a
welding gun and helmet equipped with internal monitors.
Participants practice arc welding in a virtual world. A video
gaming component awards each weld a score.
Additionally, the trailer contains interactive educational
exhibits, including a display wall featuring 11 industry
segments that use welding, fun facts, industry artifacts, and
tablets with welding trivia questions. The career wall in the
trailer displays the many career pathways that are available in
welding, along with the education required, associated industry
certifications available, and potential salary ranges. And the
scholarship wall details information about the almost $400,000
in scholarships awarded annually by the American Welding
Society Foundation.
The Careers in Welding Trailer debuted in October 2011 at
the FFA National Conference in Indianapolis, where over 5,000
students virtually welded in 2\1/2\ days. The trailer embarks
on a 20-week tour this May, exhibiting in events including the
Indianapolis 500, youth organizations like FFA and Skills USA,
farm shows, air shows, and State fairs, including Texas, New
York, Ohio, and Iowa.
Another exciting and recent achievement was the approval of
a Boy Scouts Welding Merit Badge. The American Welding Society
and its dedicated volunteers were instrumental in the
development of the badge, approved by the Boy Scouts just this
past fall. The welding badge is part of the Boy Scouts new
science, technology, engineering, and math curriculum designed
to help Scouts develop critical skills that are relevant and
necessary in today's competitive world. The first Scouts were
just awarded the Welding Merit Badge this past March in Kansas
City.
The American Welding Society is the leader in certification
programs that assist the welding industry in identifying
qualified welding personnel and provide opportunities for
welding professionals to demonstrate their qualifications to
the industry. We currently have over 30,000 individuals that
hold an AWS certification.
Some of our certifications require industry work
experience, while others can be aligned directly with
educational programs and integrated into high school and
community college programs of study. The integration allows an
individual to achieve a portable, industry-recognized
certification in addition to his or her education. Many of our
certifications are stackable and thus offer opportunities for
advancement in education and within the industry.
We collaborate with the NAM and other organizations to
promote nationally portable industry-recognized credentials
within the manufacturing, education, and industry areas. We
believe this will truly help address the skill shortage.
Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Pfarr follows:]
Prepared Statement of Monica Pfarr, Corporate Director, Workforce
Development, American Welding Society Foundation
Senator Klobuchar, Ranking Member Blunt and members of the
Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the
American Welding Society at this Senate Subcommittee hearing on
Promoting American Competitiveness: Filling Jobs Today and Training
Workers for Tomorrow.
My name is Monica Pfarr, and I am the Corporate Director for
Workforce Development for the American Welding Society. Our
organization of 70,000 members has a mission to advance the science,
technology and application of welding and allied joining and cutting
processes, including brazing, soldering and thermal spraying. Through
our AWS Foundation, established in 1989, we support programs that
ensure the growth and development of the welding industry through
strengthening research and educational opportunities in welding and
related industries. We collaborate with other organizations, including
the Weld-Ed Center, funded by the National Science Foundation's
Advanced Technological Education program, to complete our workforce
research and outreach.
Welding, the fusing of the surfaces of two workpieces to form one,
is a precise, reliable, cost-effective, and ``high tech'' method for
joining materials. No other technique is as widely used by
manufacturers to join metals and alloys efficiently and to add value to
their products. Most of the familiar objects in modern society, from
buildings and bridges, to vehicles, computers, and medical devices,
could not be produced without the use of welding.
Welding goes well beyond the bounds of its simple description.
Welding today is applied to a wide variety of materials and products,
using such advanced technologies as lasers and plasma arcs. The future
of welding holds even greater promise as methods are devised for
joining dissimilar and non-metallic materials, and for creating
products of innovative shapes and designs.
The common perception for over a decade has been that welding, and
U.S. manufacturing in general is dying. Let me point out some facts
that may help change that perception:
The United States is the world's largest manufacturing
economy, producing 21 percent of global manufactured products;
Over 90 percent of the total U.S. durable goods
manufacturing uses welding as a critical enabling technology;
Welding-related occupations provide employment for 986,000
individuals in the U.S.
Despite being an important part of the U.S. economy, like
manufacturing, the welding industry is faced with some serious
challenges:
The average welding professional in the U.S. is 56 years of
age;
There is a need for 238,000 new and replacement workers by
2019;
There is a misperception that welding is a dying industry
with no future for those that choose the field.
Almost daily, newspapers and news broadcasts all across the Nation
report very similar headlines--``Employers are hiring welding
professionals''; ``Employers cannot find the skilled welders they
need''; ``Employers offer signing bonuses to qualified welding new
hires''. These headlines showcase both the positive and negative
landscape within our industry.
The U.S. economy is improving, evidenced by the growth we are
seeing in hiring. But the lack of skilled applicants is threatening to
derail this growth. The lack of skilled applicants is a challenge we
must address, and the American Welding Society is committed to take a
leading role.
Through our workforce development efforts, the American Welding
Society is engaged in educational outreach to youth, their parents,
transitioning workers, and even teachers and career counselors. We have
numerous programs designed to engage and educate this target audience
about the many advanced and high-tech career opportunities available
throughout the welding industry.
One of our most recent and highly visible projects is the ``Careers
in Welding'' trailer, a 53 foot single expandable trailer with 650
square feet of exhibit space. Jointly sponsored by the American Welding
Society and Lincoln Electric, it contains five Lincoln VRTEX 360
virtual reality arc welding simulators. These units feed computer
generated data with a virtual welding gun and helmet equipped with
internal monitors. Participants practice arc welding in a virtual
environment. A video gaming component awards each ``weld'' a score.
Additionally, the trailer contains interactive educational exhibits
including a display wall featuring eleven industry segments that use
welding, fun facts about welding, industry artifacts, and tablets with
welding trivia questions. The career wall displays the many career
pathways available in welding, along with the education required,
associated industry certifications, and potential salary ranges. The
``Day in the Life of a Welder'' exhibit contains videos depicting real-
life environments in which welders work. A life-size welder wearing
personal protective equipment highlights welding as a safe profession.
And, the scholarship wall details information about the almost $400,000
in scholarships awarded annually by the American Welding Society
Foundation.
The trailer was built by MRA Experiential Tours located in Madison
Heights, Michigan. MRA hired two welding technology interns from nearby
Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan to work on building
the trailer. In addition to the invaluable industry work experience,
each student received a $500 scholarship and are interviewed in a video
featured inside the trailer.
The ``Careers in Welding'' trailer debuted in October, 2011 at the
FFA National Conference where over 5,000 students virtually welded in
2\1/2\ days. The trailer embarks on a twenty week tour this May
exhibiting at events including the Indianapolis 500, youth
organizations like FFA and Skills USA, farm shows, air shows, and
several state fairs including Texas, New York, Ohio, and Iowa.
Another exciting and recent achievement was the approval of a Boy
Scouts welding merit badge. The American Welding Society and its
dedicated volunteers were instrumental in the development of the badge,
approved by the Boys Scouts in Fall, 2011. The welding badge is part of
the Boy Scouts new science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)
curriculum, designed to help scouts develop critical skills that are
relevant and necessary in today's competitive world. Requirements
include learning welding safety and designing and completing a welding
project. The first scouts were awarded the badge in March, 2012.
The American Welding Society is the leader in certification
programs that assist industry in identifying qualified welding
personnel and provide opportunities for welding professionals to
demonstrate their qualifications to the welding industry. Currently,
over 30,000 individuals hold an AWS certification. Some of our
certifications require industry work experience while others can be
aligned directly with educational programs and integrated into high
school and community college degree programs of study. This integration
allows an individual to achieve a portable, industry-recognized
certification in addition to his/her education. Many of our
certifications are stackable, and thus offer opportunities for
advancement in education and within the industry.
The American Welding Society is collaborating with NAM and other
national organizations to promote nationally portable, industry-
recognized credentials within the manufacturing education and industry
arenas. We believe this approach will help address the skills shortage.
In conclusion, the American Welding Society and its members are
committed to engaging and educating the next generation of welding
professionals. We are focused on providing skilled, certified
applicants for the employers of our industry.
We look forward to working with all of you as we continue these
critical efforts.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
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Senator Blunt. Thank you, Ms. Pfarr.
Ms. McNelly.
STATEMENT OF JENNIFER M. McNELLY, PRESIDENT,
THE MANUFACTURING INSTITUTE
Ms. McNelly. Chairman Klobuchar, Ranking Member Blunt, and
distinguished members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the
opportunity to testify. And I am truly honored to be here with
my colleagues, because I think the diversity of the panel
actually represents the reality of the challenges we as a
Nation face in increasing the skills of our Nation's workforce.
I'm Jennifer McNelly, President of the Manufacturing
Institute, the non-profit affiliate of the National Association
of Manufacturers. The United States is the world's largest
manufacturing economy, producing 21 percent of global
manufactured products. Manufacturing supports an estimated 17
million jobs in the U.S., about one in every six private sector
jobs.
In 2010, the average U.S. manufacturing worker earned well
above the national average in pay and benefits. While
manufacturing remains an important economic force in regions
across the country, it confronts serious challenges: structural
costs, the absence of a coherent and coordinated national trade
policy, and lack of a national innovation strategy.
And while these issues and others may play out on the front
pages of the newspapers, a more serious threat looms, a threat
that not only impacts manufacturing, but also companies in
every sector of our economy: the deteriorating condition of our
workforce. Our most recent skills gap survey released last
October with unemployment just over 9 percent identified
approximately 600,000 open positions due to the lack of a
skilled workforce. Eighty-two percent of our Nation's
manufacturers reported a moderate to serious shortage in
skilled production labor, all impacting manufacturers' ability
to grow at a time when we as a nation need job growth.
As a nation, we've created an education system that's
almost completely separate from the economy. Traditionally, it
was the job of schools to educate children and companies to
train employees. To be competitive today, companies need
employees who can contribute right away. The only way to
address this skills gap and support the economic recovery is to
align education, economic development, workforce, and business
agendas.
As representatives of the manufacturing industry, we have a
solution that fits the needs of our businesses while working
within the existing structures of secondary and post-secondary
education. Our solution, the NAM-endorsed Manufacturing Skills
Certification System, is grounded in the basic skills
identified by manufacturers as required to work in any sector
of the manufacturing economy and validated by nationally
portable, industry-driven credentials.
We're working to align the certifications into high schools
and community college programs. And while on the face of it,
the idea of skill certifications may not seem transformational,
it is, in fact, reforming education, defining the outcome of
success, not from completion, but from achievement of an
industry-based standard.
For manufacturers, we are applying the same rigor and
standards we use in our factories and facilities to our most
important supply chain, our human capital. However, success is
not attained merely by designing a system. It must create
results.
Last summer, we created a fast-track program to meet
immediate needs of employers in Minnesota. They needed
qualified machinists or doors would close. So partnering with
two community colleges, Dunwoody College of Technology and
South Central College, we developed a program referred to as
Right Skills Now that trains machinists in 16 weeks to a
national certification. Early success of the program has led to
replication in Nevada and Washington. The Institute is also
replicating the model in production and welding.
As manufacturers, we measure what matters. For the past
several months, we've been working with Magnet, the Northeast
Ohio Manufacturing Extension Partnership Organization, to track
through their very rigorous evaluation process the economic
impact and value of these certifications. Preliminary data is
promising. With five companies, it's already showing results to
the company's bottom line: $250,000 in increased sales, $6
million in investments in plants and equipment, 10 jobs
created. In addition, the company avoided the potential loss of
sales valued at over $2 million because they could hire
individuals with the right skills.
These economic outcomes are what we need to support and
continue our Nation's recovery and put individuals back to
work. We also need to look to align Federal workforce training
to industry demands. That's why the NAM supports S. 1243, The
America Works Act, that would provide this prioritization. For
employers, a focus on nationally portable, industry-recognized
credentials provides a level of quality in potential hires that
does not exist today. For employees, it ensures that they
obtain the skills in demand for the work place. For government,
it ensures Federal investment is used efficiently.
Madam Chairman, for many years, post-secondary success was
defined as a four-year degree when a valid, industry-based
credential can be the gateway to a well-paying job and a great
career. As a nation, we need a new strategy for our
manufacturing workforce, grounded in industry standards, with a
new and renewed cooperation with industry, education, economic
development, and the publicly funded workforce investment
system. It's good for manufacturing and good for the nation.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. McNelly follows:]
Prepared Statement of Jennifer McNelly, President,
The Manufacturing Institute
Chairman Klobuchar, Ranking Member Blunt, and distinguished Members
of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear today to
testify on behalf of The Manufacturing Institute at this hearing on
``Promoting American Competitiveness: Filling Jobs Today and Training
Workers for Tomorrow.''
My name is Jennifer McNelly, and I am the President of the
Manufacturing Institute. We are the non-profit affiliate of the
National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and our mission is to
support the Nation's manufacturers through solutions and services
focused on education, workforce development and innovation
acceleration.
For a generation now, the common perception has been U.S.
manufacturing is dying. So it comes as a shock to most people when you
point out the actual facts:
The United States is the world's largest manufacturing
economy, producing 21 percent of global manufactured products;
Manufacturing supports an estimated 17 million jobs in the
U.S.--about one in six private-sector jobs;
In 2010, the average U.S. manufacturing worker earned
$77,186 annually, including pay and benefits. The average non-
manufacturing worker earned $56,436 annually.
While manufacturing remains an important economic force in regions
across the country, it now confronts some serious challenges,
including:
A significant increase in the structural costs facing the
industry, caused by both worldwide demand for energy and raw
materials and government policies on health care and tax rates;
The absence of a coherent and coordinated national trade
policy; and
The lack of a national innovation strategy.
While these and other issues play out on the front pages of
newspapers and websites, there is another challenge looming in the
background, one that threatens not only manufacturers, but also
companies in every sector of the economy: the deteriorating condition
of our workforce and, in particular, the next generation work force.
Our most recent Skills Gap survey, released last October, when the
unemployment rate was over 9 percent, identified approximately 600,000
open positions due to the lack of a skilled work force. In fact, 82
percent of manufacturers reported a moderate-to-serious shortage in
skilled production labor. All impacting manufacturers' ability to grow
at a time when we need job growth.
The U.S. is betting its entire economic future on our ability to
produce leading-edge products. Whether it's in IT, biotech, aerospace,
construction . . . it doesn't matter. We'll be the ones to constantly
create new and better things. This future promises to be bright, but
only if we have the workforce capable of pushing that leading-edge. And
right now, that doesn't look like a very good bet.
We have created an education system that is almost completely
separate from the economy at large. Traditionally, it was the job of
schools to educate children and create responsible citizens and it was
the job of companies to train employees. Jobs for individuals with
almost any education level were plentiful because companies would spend
the time and resources to turn them into productive employees. Today,
companies cannot afford the luxury of time-intensive training programs
for their workers. They need employees who have the knowledge and
skills to contribute right away.
The only way to address this monumental challenge and support the
economic recovery is to align education, economic development,
workforce and business agendas to work in concert and develop the
talent necessary for success in the global economy.
As representatives of the manufacturing industry, we think we've
found a solution that fits the needs of our businesses while working
within the existing secondary and postsecondary education structure.
Our solution, called the NAM-Endorsed Manufacturing Skills
Certification System, is grounded in the basic set of skills identified
by manufacturers--the employers themselves--as required to work in any
sector across the manufacturing industry.
The system is a series of nationally portable, industry-recognized
credentials based specifically on those employer-identified skills.
These credentials, and the training required to obtain them, certify
that an individual possesses the basic skills necessary for a career in
manufacturing and ensures that they are useful nationwide and across
multiple manufacturing sectors.
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Where our system takes the next step, though, is by organizing,
aligning and translating those stackable credentials into corresponding
educational courses that can be integrated into high-school and
community-college degree programs of study. So, an individual can see
that if he or she takes the following classes, he or she will have the
skills to earn a nationally portable, industry-recognized certification
and be qualified to work in the following jobs at the following
salaries. We were pleased to have the President of the United States
highlight our system last summer.
Our system is integrated into the for-credit side of colleges, so
even if a student takes only three or four courses, achieves a
certification and heads into the work force, they have ``banked'' those
credits. When they return to achieve the next level certification, they
will be working toward a degree as well.
This also creates more on and off ramps in education, which
facilitates individuals' ability to obtain schooling when their
professional career requires it and also positions them to earn while
they learn, applying what they learn in class at night on the job the
next day. For many years, postsecondary success was defined as a 4-year
degree, when a valid, industry-based credential can provide the
knowledge and skills for a well-paying job and a solid middle-class
lifestyle, establishing a strong base with a potential to grow.
While on its face, the idea of a skills certification system may
not seem transformational, it is in fact reforming education, defining
the outcome of success from completion to achievement of an industry
standard.
For manufacturers we are applying the same rigors standards we use
in our facilities to our most important supply chain, our human
capital.
However, success is not attained merely by designing a system. It
must create results. Due to the success of our program in over 20
states, we were asked last summer to come in and create a ``fast
track'' system in Minnesota. Employers there needed skilled individuals
immediately, not a year from now. So partnering with two Minnesota
colleges, Dunwoody College of Technology and South Central College, we
developed a program called ``Right Skills Now'' that trains machinists
in as little as 16 weeks. Early success of the program has led to
replication in Nevada and Washington. The Institute is also replicating
the model in production and welding.
We are helping to ensure that employers hire individuals with the
Right Skills, and workers enter training programs that ensure they
complete with the Right Skills for employment.
But as manufacturers we measure what matters.
For the past several months we have been working with MAGNET, the
Northeast Ohio MEP, to track, through their rigorous evaluation
process, the economic impact, the value of these certifications to
employers hiring these individuals. Preliminary data is promising. With
5 companies, it already is showing results for the companies including:
$250,000 in increased sales; $6,000,000 in investment in plants and
equipment; and 10 jobs created. In addition, companies avoided the
potential loss of sales valued at over $2,000,000 because they could
hire individuals with the right skills, now.
These economic outcomes are what we need to support and continue
our Nation's recovery and put individuals back to work.
In addition to private-sector alignments, we need to look at
Federal workforce training opportunities that often do not address the
skills that are in demand by employers. Programs such as the Workforce
Investment Act need to be focused toward a goal of training workers to
credentials that are in demand in the private sector. That is why the
NAM supports S. 1243, the America Works Act, that would provide this
prioritization.
For employers, a focus on a nationally portable, industry-
recognized credential system provides a level of quality in potential
hires that does not exist today, greatly reducing the risk associated
with hiring new employees. For employees, it ensures that they are
obtaining the skills in-demand in the workplace and can work in
multiple sectors, and for government it can ensure that Federal funds
being used for worker training are used more efficiently.
Conclusion
Madam Chairman, for many years, postsecondary success was defined
as a 4-year degree, when a valid, industry-based credential can be the
gateway to a well-paying job and a solid middle-class career.
As a nation we need a new strategy for our manufacturing work
force, grounded in industry standards, with new and renewed cooperation
with industry, education, economic development, and the public
workforce investment system.
It is good for manufacturing and good for the Nation.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. We look forward to
working with you to build the next generation manufacturing work force.
Senator Blunt. I need to go vote. Could I ask a couple of
questions real quickly so I could--thank you for your
testimony. One is on the skill certification concept that
you've talked a lot about--did you hear anything in the first
panel that was troubling for you?
Ms. McNelly. No, sir. I did not. In fact, we work very
closely with our Federal agencies in support of that.
Senator Blunt. And you feel good about--I mean, both panels
now--and, particularly, the Department of Education--talked
about the skill certification, and you think that --you're
comfortable that you're both headed in the same direction in
terms of what's needed there?
Ms. McNelly. I think we can always use additional
leadership on getting to alignment of the skills certifications
into education pathways. I think there is a reality that we
face, a challenge in how our Nation's community and technical
colleges are viewed in terms of success and completion.
Right now, if somebody completes a program of study but not
necessarily an associate degree, that could be counted as a
negative against the college. But if, in fact, we could look to
industry credentials as an additional metric for success, I
think that would be a win-win for employers.
The other thing is, traditionally, job training has sat on
the not-for-credit side of community colleges. And in our view,
if industry values it, and it is capstoned with an industry-
based credential, that should, in fact, have academic value to
allow that student to continue to pursue an associate degree
program. So it needs to move back into the education pathway as
well.
Senator Blunt. OK.
And, Mr. Nissanka, I think I'm going to have to read your
answer in the record of the hearing, but I'm going to ask the
question anyway. What have you been able to do with the
Missouri Innovation campus idea to link up students before they
graduate with a job that graduation will prepare them to do?
And I'm going to have to go, but I will check on the
answer.
Thank you, Chairman.
Senator Klobuchar [presiding]. Thank you very much, Senator
Blunt.
Go ahead.
Mr. Nissanka. Senator, what we are doing is basically
starting at a high school level, getting students involved in
these activities on a day-to-day basis. They get to train with
the company on things that we need done, and then, primarily,
they get college level credit that can be now applied when they
go into and enroll on a college level.
After that, we would basically drive the curriculum
alongside the requirements of the company. And then we would
basically have that position there for the individual once they
graduate from college.
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you very much.
Mr. Kill, back in February, I attended the unveiling of
your annual The State of the Manufacturing Survey in Minnesota.
There were hundreds of people there. And would you talk a
little more about this poll, what it's designed to measure, why
you've chosen to put some resources into it, and really what it
showed, particularly with executives who are struggling to find
qualified and skilled workers?
Mr. Kill. We believe a second part of our role as an MEP
center is to bring visibility to the kinds of careers----
Senator Klobuchar. Do you have your--is it on? There you
go.
Mr. Kill.--the kinds of careers that manufacturing
provides. And the greatest way to do that is to bring
visibility to connect all these different resources. We've done
the poll 4 years in a row. The participation of manufacturers
has gone from about 35 percent of the attendees to 65 percent.
This year, over 1,000 people attended the unveiling of the
results. And it is really designed to focus on trends, and as
each year goes on, we can look deeper and deeper into the
statistics behind it.
It has been a great enabler of interested parties coming
together to really address what is becoming the number one
issue, and that is attracting a new generation of employees to
manufacturing. And I think the poll has clearly raised that
visibility and will continue to as we move forward.
Senator Klobuchar. What do you think--you know, one of the
things that is helpful is to have you here and several of our
other witnesses that are on the ground working on this. What do
you think has been working in Minnesota, your top things in
terms of--we know we have issues with openings in jobs--but in
terms of getting workers interested in those jobs and students
interested in those degrees?
Mr. Kill. Well, we have to have manufacturers involved
telling the story, not about what it's like to be a welder, but
demonstrating the kinds of products that are important to know
welding for. So when you show the end product to people, the
participation of young people rises incrementally.
I spent a lot of years in manufacturing and never thought
that the public-private collaboration was powerful, and I've
changed my mind over the last 5 years. And that's what we
really have to focus on. The communities, the manufacturers,
the economic development folks, the parents--we have to all do
our outreach to make sure that people have a choice that they
base on their passion and interest, and I think manufacturing
will come out ahead.
It is really interesting to watch young people when they
see the kinds of things that go on behind the walls. Our
community colleges, as you're familiar with, like Alexandria
Vo-Tech South Central in Mankato, that are in greater Minnesota
away from the metropolitan area have done phenomenal jobs. It's
now up to the manufacturers to do their part also to tell the
story of the kinds of careers they can provide. And I think
they're starting to realize they have to do that, and they are
doing that.
Senator Klobuchar. When I think about it, I think of the
products that--when I go to these places, high schools--the
pool ball racker or the robots playing basketball at the first
robotics--that's one I won't forget. So I think that, at least
from my perspective, seeing these products and the fruits of
the labor, I think, gets people pretty excited about the
career.
Mr. Nissanka, in your testimony, you talked about outreach
to other companies to co-locate at your training site and
participate in the workforce development and apprenticeship
program. Can you expand on your experience finding interested
companies and if you've experienced any resistance along the
way?
Mr. Nissanka. I think it's on the contrary, Chairwoman. I
think what we've found is that once we started the program,
we've had a number of companies that were not in the tech park
that have come to the program and basically decided that they
wanted to locate with us, not to just be within the site, but
also to bring in their training needs right onto the Innovation
campus.
Senator Klobuchar. How about other things they could do,
like donate--companies, if they're interested, donating
equipment, donating staff, instruction? Do you think that would
be helpful?
Mr. Nissanka. What we found is that, you know, everybody
has a different type of skill that they need, and if we can
bring all of these under one campus in a location where the
curriculum ties to what their needs are, companies are willing
to put their equipment right into that facility alongside with
the campus and start creating those jobs for the future.
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you very much.
Dr. Lambert, one thing that we haven't talked as much about
that I think is incredibly important--and it's come to the
national light, finally--I remember going to these hearings of
the Joint Economic Committee on which I served and looking at
those unemployment figures and looking at how they were so
significantly higher for veterans, particularly those that have
come home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And it seems
to me like it should be the opposite.
Many returning veterans already have technical skills. I
think their issue--especially National Guard, Reserve, in
Minnesota--they left jobs, and when they came back, those jobs
weren't there during the downturn. And I think it's very
important to look at what we can do to ease the transition for
our soldiers from the battlefield to community and technical
colleges.
Could you talk about anything that Shoreline is doing to
assist veterans in their education?
Dr. Lambert. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Shoreline Community College is a Center of Excellence for
veterans. We received a grant from the Department of Education
to create that center. And what we're finding is it's so
important to create a wrap-around environment that helps
support the veteran's transition, because they're coming from
an environment where they get--a lot of what they do is
provided for. So what we're learning is we've got to mirror
that type of environment so that we make that transition easy
into our post-secondary programs.
You know, normally, when you come to us, there isn't
someone there that's going to help you navigate the system
completely. But for the veterans, that's an expectation. So we
built that program with inserting a counselor who is
knowledgeable about veterans' issues, that works directly with
the veterans.
We've set up a Veterans Student Center that's completely
built and geared toward the veterans and the kinds of issues
that they face on a day-to-day basis--and then trying to
elevate just the significance--the importance of their
contributions. I'm also a veteran, so I understand it as a
veteran. And my father was a veteran before me. So I take this
very seriously in terms of what we can do to support our vets.
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you very much.
Ms. Pfarr, AWS has various certification programs, and you
talked a lot about certification today. Some are paper, while
others are performance-based. Could you talk about how this
certification works and what more needs to be done to ensure
that we continue to build a strong credentialed workforce?
Ms. Pfarr. Well, you're absolutely right. Some of our
credentials are a traditional pen and paper test, while others
are performance-based, like our AWS Certified Welder Program.
It is a performance-based. You must prove that you have the
skill and the ability to weld on a particular process, on a
particular material.
We are working with the National Association of
Manufacturers, with community colleges, with industry to really
implement these certifications into educational programs so
that a student graduating from a one-year or two-year program
also graduates with that industry-recognized credential, with
that certification. So we're working very closely with our
partners to implement that.
I mentioned in my testimony that we have 30,000 people in
the U.S. today that hold an AWS certification, and we're seeing
that continue to grow. So we believe that the efforts that are
already underway are going to help ensure that we have a
skilled technical workforce moving forward.
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you very much.
Ms. McNelly, could you talk a little bit about the question
I asked earlier when we had our leaders from Commerce and Labor
and Education up here in terms of this perception of
manufacturing jobs among young workers and their parents as
well, and how do we shift the thinking so that people begin to
see these jobs as advanced, innovative, and high skill, and
also can lead to further jobs, further degrees?
Ms. McNelly. I'm happy to do that, and I think this also
will wrap in support for our transitioning military as well as
our transitioning adults. And I will say, as Mr. Kill has
noted, we as manufacturers have not been very good about
telling our own story. We have been busy making things.
Therefore, what we now recognize is we, in fact, need to be
active in the development of education and industry-based
partnership. So through our Dream It-Do It campaign, a national
campaign that runs across the country in our certification
efforts, in 36 states, we are now helping industry to, what I
would say is, amplify their voice.
Last week, we were actually at a conference with ACT, whose
foundational credential, the National Career Readiness
Certificate, is part of the Right Skills Now program that we
talked about. And we had a young student on stage who actually,
as part of the program in Minnesota, had just completed his
first NIM certification. And I asked him the question, ``So,
tell me, how did you end up in the program?'' And, hands down,
it was the influence of his mother. He was there because mom
said, ``You're going.''
And I think we need to recognize and respect that next
generation careers often come from the greatest influences,
which is family and friends. And through our collective work,
we need to help parents understand that there are good family
sustaining, life-time careers that can happen in manufacturing,
and it's not just about training for a job.
This question came up with the previous panel as it relates
to always having the skills necessary to be competitive. Our
approach in grounding to industry-based standards is to ensure
that it constantly reflects the immediate requirements in
welding. It's not about the education program, but about the
changes in welding technology that then give a benchmark to
education to constantly update, too. So using that industry-
based standard ensures that the education programs equally stay
real-time to changes in technology in the work place.
The other thing that industry-based standards do is--and
I'll talk to our transitioning military. Right now, it's not
easy to transition them into jobs because they speak two
different languages. They speak a military language, and we, as
business, speak a business language. And what an industry-based
credential does is neutralize the language differences.
So for an individual that is, in fact, in the military that
is performing a welding function, it should be our obligation
to certify that individual to an AWS standard before they
transition out, so when they walk into employment, it's not ``I
had an MOS code,'' but it's ``I had a set of competencies that
I know you need today.'' So we are actively working with our
credentialing partners in each branch of the military service
to accelerate that transition that codify what an individual
can do.
The same thing applies for our transitioning workforce who
may have been in a very low-skilled, rules-based manufacturing
environment and now needs new skills. If they know health and
safety, let's not put them through a training at Lee's program
that reteaches them health and safety. Let's get them the
technical skills. And the only way to make that transition
unique to the individual and the education institution is an
industry standard that clarifies what an individual can do and,
therefore, what an education partner needs to train to.
Senator Klobuchar. Very good. I like that Dream It-Do It.
Ms. McNelly. Yes, we do, too.
Senator Klobuchar. It's very good. I was thinking when we
did this event at Dunwoody, the president of Dunwoody took me
around. And what they kept talking about--and really could tell
the students are proud of--that they would say the target
field, which is this beautiful new ball park for the Twins--OK.
They're not having the best season, but the ball park is so
beautiful, and everyone's very proud of it.
And they say it wouldn't have been built without Dunwoody,
because the height of the construction company that had the
contract graduated from there. And they had other relations
with contracts and people that worked on it from their school.
And just being able to see that product and having something
like that to look at, I think, is inspiring for students to see
and understand that people that get these kinds of degrees can
go on and have really good jobs.
And I think that's our job as educators, and I think more
and more I like the points that were made--a business is going
to have to come up to the front, because now that we have more
people looking for jobs, and it's harder to fill those jobs,
they're going to have to play that role as well.
Would anyone else like to comment on the issue I raised, I
think, specifically on--anyone that's looked at how Germany
does it and how we look at our high schools in terms of getting
kids interested in manufacturing and also in science,
technology, engineering, and math.
And let me say one of the things I've heard at these high
schools is they want to make clear that this track is not just
one single track. It can go to a community college, it can go
on to engineering, and that the kids that are interested are
mixed in together to a certain extent when they're actually
doing these projects together, because that's the team approach
that happens when you're actually on the floor.
Correct me if I'm wrong, because I'm not a manufacturer.
But you need people that can run the stuff, make the stuff, fix
the stuff, with all varying degrees of abilities. So that
doesn't necessarily mean while kids might be taking AP classes
for one thing in this, when they're actually doing these
projects and making things, they can work together and sending
that message that it can turn into different tracks and the
tracks can change.
So that's what I would love to hear from you guys about in
terms of how you think we can do that more at the high school
level. And these things are a little more expensive, you know,
because they've got to get the equipment, and they can also
then maybe go over--bus over to the community college and do it
there. But any thoughts on how that works or what you've seen
in your states?
Mr. Kill?
Mr. Kill. Madam Chair, a new high school that's going up in
a community of about 15,000--and, initially, a large amount of
space was going to be dedicated to the arts, because the town
said we don't have a theater. The manufacturers working with
the community college--and the city is Alexandria--got a little
vocal.
And now as you walk into the front door, there will be
advanced manufacturing on display. Manufacturers have committed
to keeping it with the latest equipment. Haas has also joined
in making sure that the latest equipment is there. I think this
is how you showcase and influence those decisionmakers--the
family.
I'd like to make another point about the Right Skills Now
program, because I was a late comer to it, though I heard the
announcement when Ms. McNelly was in Minnesota along with other
people. Some early statistics--one of the campuses that closed
their manufacturing route has reopened it under the Right
Skills Now, with 19 enrollees ranging from 18 to 61 years of
age, so it's not just tapping new people.
Senator Klobuchar. That's a good point to make.
The parents may not have played as much a role in the 61-
year-old's decision.
Mr. Kill. So the average age is 30 years of age, and only
half the people reside within 20 miles of the community. So
this program--the great connection between the college, a
number of other organizations from outside of our state, and
the manufacturers, I think, is proving that there's some grass
roots ways to attract a broad range of students from young to
old.
Mr. Nissanka. And, Madam Chair, I'd like to add to what Mr.
Kill was actually saying. One of the things that we've seen in
industry is that we've got to now tie curriculums that are
being taught even through high school and through college to
what the requirements are in industry. Training has become the
biggest issue for me to put up a manufacturing plant and bring
those individuals and be very productive and competitive.
So one of the biggest things that we have been doing with
the University of Central Missouri is we want to change the
curriculum that they are teaching. We have got to align the
talents of the individuals with what the industry needs. And
what we are doing is we are writing the curriculum around the
specific jobs, and then we are tailoring that with the right
individual that wants to do that job.
And what we've seen is--we've seen a significant amount of
reaction from students who want to be in the green tech
industry who have not had exposure to these specific jobs that
we are looking for and are interested in it. Today, a lot of
these kids--my daughter, particularly, learns from looking at
the Internet, you know. When she has a----
Senator Klobuchar. Really?
Mr. Nissanka.--research paper, guess what? If she has a
research paper, she's on there going through everything on the
Net to get all the facts that she needs. So I think what we
have to do is enable the students and give them as much of
these experiences ahead of time so that they can actually
decide where they want to be when they graduate.
Senator Klobuchar. Thank you. Very good. I have a daughter
who is 16, so I could completely relate. Her most disastrous
moment during my campaign in 2005 was when--a true story--I was
asked on a radio show what--if I knew what LOL meant, you know,
laugh out loud. And I didn't know what it meant, and she just
said, ``Mom, that was the most embarrassing thing that's ever
happened to our family.''
[Laughter.]
Senator Klobuchar. OK. Dr. Lambert.
Dr. Lambert. Yes. Madam Chair, last year, in working with
Boeing and some of the other aerospace companies in our area,
we worked on creating a Career and Job Fair. And we held this
job fair up in the north end of King County-South Snohomish,
and we bused in students from the local high school as well as
folks--and the response was overwhelming.
So we know that one of the things we have to do is work
together and start to build an awareness campaign that is more
local in its focus and highlights certain sectors. So I think
that shows some promising signs.
Another point I want to illustrate is this piece about
faculty. Faculty are so critical to the success of the
students. But one of the things that's challenging us around
the faculty is making sure they stay current to the latest
technology.
Senator Klobuchar. Yes, yes.
Dr. Lambert. And so I don't want that to get lost, because
the challenge has multiple layers to it, not just reaching into
the high schools, the middle schools, or working with parents.
It's faculty development. It's equipment. It's having the right
kind of funding. It's making sure we're connected to the
employer networks. So we're working on all these dimensions
through the National Coalition of Certification Centers, as
well as with the Manufacturing Institute as part of our
partnerships.
Senator Klobuchar. Very good. One thing--when you were
talking about the veterans before, one of our job fairs that
our companies did in Minnesota, which is incredible--is they
sent people to the bases in Kuwait while they were still over
there. And I'm sure other states have done that. I won't act
like we're the only one.
But I do think we're the only one that had a 13,000-steak
dinner--I'm not kidding--by our local restaurants that the
families ate at home, the families of the troops, at the same
time the troops ate them, and they talked via a video. It was
an amazing sight.
But part of this was these employers are now--big major
employers are now sending people--because they do need
workers--directly to those bases to talk to them about their
jobs, so that when they come home, they are going to have a
contact and a potential job. So it's a side thing of what you
talked about before, but integrates your job fair idea. So very
good.
Did you want to--Ms. Pfarr?
Ms. Pfarr. Yes, I would like to--thank you. I just wanted
to say that that's really the purpose or the goal of our new
Careers in Welding Trailer--is to get students, young people,
parents in rural communities and communities who may not be
exposed to manufacturing and welding careers--get this trailer
with virtual simulators out where they have the opportunity to
view it, to take a video game type of--piece of equipment and
allow kids to try welding in an environment that's very
familiar to them.
It really--it's a computer. But it looks like it's a real
welder. They're only virtually welding. And it gives them a
score at the end, and they very excited about that. It's
something that they are used to and comfortable with.
We have engaged a lot of kids into thinking about a career
in welding who had never even been exposed to welding before.
And so that's really--like I said, the goal of this trailer is
just to get out there and inform the masses, if you will.
Senator Klobuchar. Incredibly smart. Yes, I had this kid in
one of the high schools--I think Apple Valley--that was showing
me on his screen this car he had designed, and he would not
stop. I mean, he just kept going--``Now you've got to see this
other part. This is really complicated''--and kept showing me
the new iterations of what he had done with the car. So doing
that, like you said, in a space that they are comfortable with,
I think, makes it more exciting as well in high school--and
getting the teachers that can do that. Very good.
Do you want to end here, Ms. McNelly?
Ms. McNelly. I would love to. And, actually, I'm going to
bring up something that didn't quite get talked about but did
indirectly, which is--the panel before us actually represented
four different Federal agencies, four different funding
streams. And the individuals you see at the table--each tap
into those in different ways, shapes, and forms.
And what is--though we can sit at a table together and say
we can do this collectively, sometimes partnership is
difficult, because each of those funding streams have different
accountability, which means how Dr. Lambert can use those
resources within his labs to train and certify individuals may
not necessarily match up to the bureaucracy of reporting that
is associated with the Workforce Investment Act or the Carl
Perkins Act.
And I do think that we have opportunity, and we are at a
unique time in this nation to look at the impact that that has
in the end on the employers that sit at this table and the
workers that we're trying to move back into good jobs. And from
our perspective, 1243 and the America Works Act really puts our
businesses and our individuals in the forefront of what we as a
Nation need to accomplish.
So we hope that you take serious consideration in looking
at that, because all of us right now have to figure out a
difficult way around these opportunities that are huge Federal
investments, be it within the Manufacturing Extension
Partnership and what we're investing in community colleges and
access to workers through the Workforce Investment Act. And
partnership isn't easy, because they all look for
accountability differently.
So we appreciate the opportunity to be here today and to
give voice to this very important partnership that we continue
to collectively push forward on.
Senator Klobuchar. Well, very good. And I appreciated how
you all talked about working together with our government
agencies in a positive way. I know there's always problems and
frustrations and rules, as Senator Ayotte has pointed out.
But I also think that we have to work on this together,
because there is going to--this is so incredibly important for
the future of our country and for making things in America and
nation-building in our own Nation and this idea that we're
going to make stuff again and invent things and export to the
world. So as we're dealing with these mega issues, which are
going to start, believe me, by the end of the year with the
budget, as well as into next year with tax reform, we can't
have infighting. We're going to have to work as a team, those
of us who believe in this job training and education as part of
moving forward.
So I wanted to thank all of you for being here. We had some
great senators here to hear what you had to say, and we had
some really good staff here as well. I wanted to specifically
thank my staff who put this hearing together. Kate Geldaker--it
is her birthday. Right, Kate? We don't usually sing Happy
Birthday. Elizabeth Frosch, who does our education work and did
a great job on this, and Paul Zygmunt, who does our business
work and is back at the office right now in a meeting--but I
want to thank them and all the staff on the Commerce Committee
as well, Senator Blunt's staff and others that worked on
putting this together.
Thank you very much, and we will keep the record open for 2
weeks. And the hearing is adjourned.
Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 12 noon, the hearing was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
Response to Written Question Submitted by Hon. Amy Klobuchar to
Hon. Martha Kanter
Question. Can you explain why the Department of Education has
reduced funding to the McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement program,
which supports low-income, first-generation and otherwise
underrepresented students in obtaining doctoral degrees?
Answer. Congress provides one appropriation for all the TRIO
programs, including the McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement (McNair)
program. Each year the Department distributes the appropriation to each
of the TRIO programs to provide the most benefits to students and
taxpayers. This year, the Department reallocated $10 million from the
McNair program to the Upward Bound Math and Science (UBMS) program to
support efforts to improve science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics education and to help the Nation advance toward meeting the
President's goal of leading the world in college attainment by 2020. By
moving these funds into UBMS, we can serve an additional 900 low-
income, first generation students though the TRIO programs without a
single additional dollar of Federal money. Total funding for the TRIO
programs remains the same, and we remain committed to all of the TRIO
programs. Even with the funding change, we still expect to support over
150 McNair projects in Fiscal Year 2012.