President Obama is thinking of finding new ways to train workers of the future. He said he wants to ensure that young people get the advanced skills employers are looking for in new hires.
Obama met with his Jobs and Competitiveness Council in Durham, N.C., on June 13 to discuss ideas on job growth and ways to help workers adapt to changing times. At Northern Virginia Community College last week, he endorsed a skills certification program that helps match qualified workers to jobs in manufacturing.
For most job vacancies, companies get four applications, but for vacancies in the sciences and high-tech fields, “the opposite is true,” Obama said while at energy-efficient LED manufacturer Cree Inc.
Obama announced that with the help of partners in education and industry “10,000 new American engineers” would be trained each year.
The president’s efforts come on the heels of a poor May jobs report by the Department of Labor, which has raised questions about whether the economy is recovering or not. The 54,000 new jobs, which were created in the private sector were less than the number of jobs lost, causing the unemployment rate to rise to 9.1 percent.
Obama also announced his endorsement of a collaborative effort by the private sector, colleges, and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), that will enable 500,000 students to get an industry-approved manufacturing certificate.
“If you’re a company that’s hiring, you’ll know that anyone who has this degree has the skills you’re looking for. If you’re a student considering community college, you’ll know that your diploma will give you a leg up in the job market,” Obama told students.
The NAM-endorsed Manufacturing Skills Certificate system was designed to address the limitations in manufacturing education and training.
Recent opinion polls indicate that the public is getting frustrated by the sluggish economy, and the pressure on the president to show jobs growth is mounting as the next presidential election gets closer.
Republicans have criticized the president’s policies, saying the president has failed to deliver jobs.
“If anything, things have gotten worse,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), in the most recent Republican weekly address.
Republicans’ job growth plan includes government spending cuts, tax code simplification and tax reductions, fewer business regulations, and expanded domestic oil and gas production.
Despite the criticism, Austan Goolsbee, the top White House economic adviser, sounded optimistic. “There are always bumps on the road to recovery, but the overall trajectory of the economy has improved dramatically over the past two years.”
At a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Obama said in response to a reporter’s question about jobs, “This month, you still saw job growth in the private sector, but it had slowed down. We don’t yet know whether this is a one month episode or a longer trend.”
Obama met with his Jobs and Competitiveness Council in Durham, N.C., on June 13 to discuss ideas on job growth and ways to help workers adapt to changing times. At Northern Virginia Community College last week, he endorsed a skills certification program that helps match qualified workers to jobs in manufacturing.
For most job vacancies, companies get four applications, but for vacancies in the sciences and high-tech fields, “the opposite is true,” Obama said while at energy-efficient LED manufacturer Cree Inc.
Obama announced that with the help of partners in education and industry “10,000 new American engineers” would be trained each year.
The president’s efforts come on the heels of a poor May jobs report by the Department of Labor, which has raised questions about whether the economy is recovering or not. The 54,000 new jobs, which were created in the private sector were less than the number of jobs lost, causing the unemployment rate to rise to 9.1 percent.
Obama also announced his endorsement of a collaborative effort by the private sector, colleges, and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), that will enable 500,000 students to get an industry-approved manufacturing certificate.
“If you’re a company that’s hiring, you’ll know that anyone who has this degree has the skills you’re looking for. If you’re a student considering community college, you’ll know that your diploma will give you a leg up in the job market,” Obama told students.
The NAM-endorsed Manufacturing Skills Certificate system was designed to address the limitations in manufacturing education and training.
Recent opinion polls indicate that the public is getting frustrated by the sluggish economy, and the pressure on the president to show jobs growth is mounting as the next presidential election gets closer.
Republicans have criticized the president’s policies, saying the president has failed to deliver jobs.
“If anything, things have gotten worse,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), in the most recent Republican weekly address.
Republicans’ job growth plan includes government spending cuts, tax code simplification and tax reductions, fewer business regulations, and expanded domestic oil and gas production.
Despite the criticism, Austan Goolsbee, the top White House economic adviser, sounded optimistic. “There are always bumps on the road to recovery, but the overall trajectory of the economy has improved dramatically over the past two years.”
At a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Obama said in response to a reporter’s question about jobs, “This month, you still saw job growth in the private sector, but it had slowed down. We don’t yet know whether this is a one month episode or a longer trend.”
