The White House on Wednesday held a summit to raise awareness about career pathways and to tout some of the Biden administration’s workforce development efforts — with a big shoutout to community colleges.
About 200 education and workforce leaders — including staff and college-member representatives from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) — attended the summit, which kicked off with the administration’s announcement that more than $80 billion from the president’s American Rescue Plan has been committed to strengthening and expanding the U.S. workforce, particularly through national initiatives centered on infrastructure, advanced manufacturing and clean energy.
Community colleges were noted as important partners in providing affordable training to prepare Americans for high-quality jobs that don’t necessarily require a baccalaureate. The administration cited growth in free community college programs as well as registered apprenticeships.
First Lady Jill Biden, who continues to teach English at Northern Virginia Community Colleges, said the president placed “community colleges front and center in his workforce strategy,” which drew applause from the audience. She called out key partners in those efforts, including AACC President and CEO Walter Bumphus, Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) President and CEO Jee Hang Lee and Martha Kanter, a former U.S. undersecretary and community college chancellor who now leads College Promise, a national non-profit initiative.
Despite stymied efforts to pass national legislation to make community colleges free for students, it’s still happening at the state and local levels, and continues to gain momentum, Biden said. She noted that 34 states and Washington, D.C., now have a free community college program, with more than 400 colleges, cities and states now offering tuition-free college and job training. Several of the newest free community college plans were launched with support from American Rescue Plan funds, she said.
“We must keep fighting for free community college,” Biden said.
Highlights from various departments
Secretaries of various departments — including Commerce, Transportation, Labor and Education — were on hand to discuss efforts at their agencies regarding the administration’s workforce initiatives. For example, Commerce’s programs to expand broadband required a skilled construction workforce, with training provided through community colleges, registered apprenticeships and other programs. Department officials also observed that 80 community colleges across 22 states have created or expanded programming to train semiconductor workers for advanced manufacturing jobs spurred by the president’s CHIPS and Science Act.
The summit also served as a platform to announce or share accomplishments of related efforts to assist college students. For example, a group of foundations — Scholarship America, ECMC Foundation, GoFundMe.org, Trellis Foundation, Ascendium Education Group and the Crimsonbridge Foundation — said that next year they will launch a new national emergency aid program to assist students, including students who are single mothers.
Meanwhile, ACCT, with support from Ascendium, will start an initiative to help community colleges create new registered apprenticeship programs in occupational sectors that have not traditionally used apprenticeship, with 20 community colleges participating in the program.
Several federal agencies, such as the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Defense, also announced efforts to focus more on acquired skills than on degrees that aren’t required for certain jobs. DOE, for instance, said that it will modify its IT contract to remove degree requirements for cyber and IT jobs, which will affect more than 1,000 full-time-equivalent positions by December.
The White House also put a spotlighted on it Workforce Hubs, which focuses on a comprehensive, regional approach to economic and workforce development. Community colleges were cited in these partnerships, including Columbus State Community College (Ohio), Augusta Technical College (Georgia), Aiken Technical College (South Carolina) and the Community College of Allegheny County (Pennsylvania).
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