Recently, I attended a briefing entitled “Made in America: Building a Thriving Workforce and Manufacturing Base” hosted by Third Way and featuring a keynote address from Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez. Perez spoke about the need to expand the workforce pipeline in manufacturing to fill the high number of positions coming available as older workers begin to retire. He pointed to the passage of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and the Administration’s efforts on apprenticeships, specifically the Registered Apprenticeship-College Consortium (RACC), as important policy initiatives that support the needs of workforce development in manufacturing fields.
Additionally, Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) spoke about his leadership on the “Manufacturing Jobs for America” campaign, an effort to bring together a bipartisan coalition of Senators around a broad slate of legislative proposals addressing issues that affect the manufacturing sector, including education and job training. He will be joined in this effort by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), co-chair of the Senate CTE Caucus, who also spoke at the briefing. She discussed the important role of CTE in preparing the manufacturing workforce, and highlighted her recent visits to CTE programs in Wisconsin, which included Bay Link Manufacturing program at Green Bay West High School. You can read more information about the role of CTE in manufacturing, and other critical industry sectors, in ACTE’s Sector Sheet series.
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