The Obama administration today announced $150 million in ready-to-work grants to help the long-term unemployed find jobs. The grants will go to cities, community colleges, businesses, workforce boards and others that partner to help match the unemployed to jobs and provide them with skills training.
Earlier this week, President Obama put the focus squarely on job training in his State of the Union address. Since that speech, on Tuesday, he fleshed out plans to give outdated federal workforce programs a facelift, signing a memorandum authorizing a government-wide review of federal job training programs.
The review is intended to develop an action plan to make the job training system more job-driven, integrated, and effective. The memo says the review will also seek to improve the metrics used to assess programs and providers, and to identify ways to ensure better alignment across job training efforts, including better coordination of federal skills, education, and apprenticeship programs.
"Despite recent employment growth, far too many hard-working individuals still have not been able to find a job or increase their earnings," Obama says in the document. "And many businesses report difficulty hiring workers with the right skills for jobs that they want to fill."
The White House on Thursday also announced plans to devote the final $500 million of a stimulus-funded community college grant competition program to boosting job-driven partnerships that focus heavily on working with businesses to tailor training programs for local job openings, among other steps. Consultation with stakeholders will identify the selection criteria for organizations receiving the remaining grants.
Related Links
White House Fact Sheet: Opportunity For All: Empowering All Americans with the Skills Needed for In-Demand Jobs
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/01/30/fact-sheet-opportunity-all-empowering-all-americans-skills-needed-demand
The Chronicle of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/article/Obama-Ramps-Up-Federal-Focus/144357/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en