Obama Partners With Business Leaders To Expand Manufacturing Jobs
June 08 2011 - 5:29AM
Dow Jones News
President Barack Obama is partnering with the chief executive of
Motorola Solutions Inc. (MSI), a co-founder of Groupon Inc. and the
chairman of Accenture PLC (ACN) to help get community college
students into manufacturing jobs.
Obama is traveling Wednesday to Northern Virginia Community
College, where he is set to discuss the importance of manufacturing
in America--a key theme of his re-election effort, the White House
said. The manufacturing sector, until May, had seen job increases
since October 2010.
Obama is working with business leaders, community colleges and
manufacturing organizations to help prepare college students to
work in manufacturing jobs in steel mills, automobile plants and
computer fabrication facilities. A key part of the initiative will
be an effort by the Manufacturing Institute, a non-profit
affiliated with the National Association of Manufacturers, to
provide 500,000 community college students with industry-recognized
credentials.
While the plan is to tailor credential programs based on needs
of employers in a given area, there's no guarantee getting a
certificate will lead to a job.
"Now, that won't always be able to absolutely translate into a
one-for-one job," said Ron Bloom, assistant to the president for
manufacturing policy. Bloom said the probability of credentialed
students getting jobs is "obviously far, far better than if you're
simply training yourself abstractly without knowledge of what the
needs of the local employers are."
Obama will be getting help from some big names, including the
co-founder of the online coupon company Groupon and executives from
Snap-On Inc. (SNA), Motorola and Discovery Communications Inc.
(DISCA). The president has reached out in recent months to
prominent business leaders to help spread the word about some of
his economic initiatives.
It's unclear what impact the initiative will have. There are
13.9 million Americans who would like to work but can't get a job.
The unemployment rate edged up to 9.1% in May from 9%, stoking
fears that the U.S. economy would fall back into a recession.
Obama said Tuesday he wasn't concerned about a double-dip
recession but was worried about the slow pace of job growth. "We
are on the path of a recovery, but it's got to accelerate," the
president said. He also cautioned, "We're going to have some days
where things aren't going as well as we'd like."
-By Jared A. Favole, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9256;
jared.favole@dowjones.com
012 Golden (WI) (LSE:012)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2024 to Jun 2024
012 Golden (WI) (LSE:012)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2023 to Jun 2024