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Blog Category: Skills

Staying Ahead of Technology: Innovating on Education to Close the Technical Skills Gap

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Adam Enbar, CEO of The Flatiron School

Guest blog post by Adam Enbar, CEO of The Flatiron School.  In the last several years, The Flatiron School has made a name for itself training passionate, creative students for careers in web and mobile development. The school maintains a 99% job placement rate at companies that employ technical talent, including Etsy, Boeing, and Google.

In the United States, there are currently half a million open “tech jobs,” and that number is only expected to grow over the next 10 years. These are good jobs—with reported median salaries of more than $90,000. The key to matching job-seekers of this and future generations with these positions lies solely in access to passionate teachers and a relevant technical education.

To this end, new educational models are created every day. In general, there are four ways new models can help students get the skills they need to succeed. They can help more people access technical training, align their curriculum with the realities of today’s job market, inspire K-12 students with the power and potential of technology, and aim to improve people’s lives through education.

Expanding Access to Education

Half the challenge of encouraging people to pursue a technical education is increasing access to education in general. As the cost of higher education rises at a record pace, an increasing number of people are being left out of the opportunity to pursue any sort of advanced skill training.

The success of the GI Bill underscores the need for a larger idea of what it means to obtain an education. People come from different backgrounds and learn differently. As educators, we should accommodate these differences and advocate for more options for learning. As employers, we should do the same—more accessible education means a more skilled labor force and a more diverse talent pool.

Over recent years, government at all levels has stepped in to remedy this problem. In his 2015 State of the Union, President Obama outlined a plan to provide free Community College education to anyone who needs it. At the local level, New York City’s Tech Talent Pipeline initiative, which kicked off with the NYC Web Development Fellowship, offers free, outcomes-oriented technical training to low income New Yorkers without a college degree.

U.S. Department of Commerce Seeks National Partner to Help Lead New Program to Boost Job Talent Development Across America

Are you ready to join us?

Through the “Accelerating Industry-Led Regional Partnerships for Talent Development” Federal Funding Opportunity (FFO) published today, the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) is now accepting proposals for a national partner to help develop and implement a new learning exchange program that will focus on building critical public-private partnerships to accelerate job skills development across America.

The availability of a skilled workforce is often cited as a primary factor considered by businesses in their investment decision process. The learning exchanges created through this initiative will help meet the skills needs of businesses by identifying, promoting, and expanding on successful industry-driven regional partnerships for talent development. By encouraging such partnerships, the program will help build regional pools of workers with the skills that are in demand by employers in their communities, leading to job creation and increased business investment.

Ensuring that our regions have the skilled workforce they need to keep our businesses strong and our economy growing is a major priority for the Administration and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

At Commerce, Secretary Pritzker, who has met with nearly 1,200 CEOs and business leaders who agree that workforce skills development is an issue that must be addressed, has made improving the linkages between training programs and employer needs a top priority in the Department’s “Open for Business” agenda.

We need dedicated partners to help us accomplish our goals.

So are you ready to join us?

Visit http://www.eda.gov/challenges/rnta-talent/ to get additional information on how to apply for this Federal Funding Opportunity.  

Applications must be submitted electronically via grants.gov and are due by 11:59 p.m. EST. on January 9, 2015

Secretary Pritzker Meets With Gaming Industry CEOs in Silicon Valley

Secretary Pritzker visiting Silicon Valley and the Gaming Industry

On Monday, U.S Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker met with various gaming industry CEOs at Electronic Arts in Silicon Valley to learn more about the creative job skills and talent required to maintain American competitiveness, as well as the gaming industry’s overall contribution to the economy. She also toured Electronic Arts and GlassLab. Electronic Arts (EA) is a developer and publisher of computer and video games with several subsidiaries which includes sports role-playing, racing and combat, online communities and original franchises like Tetris, Scrabble and Monopoly. Glasslab is a research and development effort that focuses on educational games and game-based assessment design in the United States.

During the discussion, Secretary Pritzker emphasized the important role that the Department of Commerce plays in creating the conditions that support the growth of the country’s most competitive industries, and empowering private sector companies to out-innovate anyone in the world. She also expressed her desire to learn more about the contributions that the gaming industry has brought to the economy, the jobs it has created, and the ability to remain globally competitive.

The United States gaming industry has enjoyed enormous success over the last decade, and the jobs it supports are now a crucial part of the country’s economic growth. In fact, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) recently produced a 2014 report on video games in the 21st century which measures the economic contributions made by the gaming industry during the period of 2009-2012. According to ESA’s report, the game software publishing industry has employed 42,000 people in 36 states. The report also highlights that U.S total employment, both direct and indirect, that depends on this industry now exceeds 146,000. The value that this industry has added to the U.S GDP is over $6.2 billion.

Commerce Joins Federal Partners to Present Job Training Programs Review

Commerce Joins Federal Partners to Present Job Training Programs Review

Guest Blog Post by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker

A strong, skilled American workforce is essential to ensuring that U.S. businesses are able to compete in the global economy. In the 2014 State of the Union Address, President Obama asked that I join Vice President Biden, Secretary Perez, and Secretary Duncan to lead a review of federal training programs, to ensure that these programs prepare workers for the jobs that are available right now. On Tuesday we presented our findings and recommendations to the President at an event at the White House. President Obama also signed H.R. 803, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which will help improve business engagement and accountability across federally-funded training programs.

As a business leader of 27 years, I know the importance of hiring skilled workers. In our “Open for Business Agenda,” the Department of Commerce is making workforce development a top priority for the first time ever. While the Department does not directly fund job training programs, many of our initiatives support efforts to match workers to local industry needs. The Economic Development Administration (EDA) and National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) in particular have taken significant leadership roles in the Department’s skilled workforce policy. For example, the Economic Development Administration (EDA) funds critical efforts that help communities address local economic needs, including workforce needs. In addition, the NIST Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) works with manufacturers around the country to help them improve their processes and create and retain jobs.

Commerce is coordinating with other federal partners to leverage support for job-driven training initiatives. For example,  we are working in coordination with the Department of Labor (DOL) on their Center for Workforce & Industry Partnerships (CWIP), which will bring together key agencies across the federal government to support workforce and industry partnerships and form a common vision and approach to partnerships. To better align economic development and workforce development goals, EDA is working to develop stronger ties between EDA Regional Offices and Department of Labor (DOL) regional offices, and is incorporating job-driven training principles into its new Comprehensive Economic Development Strategies guidelines for economic development districts. Also, NIST MEP is working closely with DOL’s Registered Apprenticeships Program to spread awareness of their resources to common clients.  In fact, MEP and DOL co-hosted a webinar on these programs last week, and MEP helped DOL host an advanced manufacturing industry roundtable in Chicago last month to inform the upcoming solicitation for federal apprenticeship funding, one of the major announcements to come out of the Administration’s work on job-driven training.

We are also leveraging Commerce data to develop new tools for connecting job-seekers to available positions. Today, at the 21st Century Career Counseling Jobs Data Jam in Baltimore, Md., Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Mark Doms and Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez spoke with technology leaders and app developers to explore opportunities to use government data to help workers find jobs and training opportunities.

The Department of Commerce is leveraging our resources and will continue to collaborate with our other interagency partners, as well as businesses and educational institutions, to ensure that both workers and businesses get the best out of workforce skills programs. The report we presented on Tuesday offers a blueprint for our future actions to help more Americans climb the ladder of opportunity.