Sterling, VA
April 24, 2024
So I wanted to just thank you, Carrie, for that introduction. You and our funding to you and the capacity of the state is an example of how we see effective workforce development. I'll say a little bit more about that in a second. But Dr. Wooten, President Kress, and Provost Leidig, thank you so much for hosting me and for having me here, and for really, truly demonstrating what is possible with vision and leadership and careful attention to creating real opportunity for communities, including those who have been left behind in the past.
This college, NOVA, is such a great example of what community colleges mean in communities and this is something President Biden believes in very deeply. And if he ever forgets, then our first lady, known as "Dr. B" to her students on this campus, will always remind him. So I'm very, very glad to join you all here.
I also want to acknowledge Mike Russo. Mike will talk about this a little bit himself, but he runs the National Institute for Innovation and Technology, and we work together on so many priorities. And thank you for being out there executing on the things—on the vision that we share.
To April and to Micron, I want to say that the Department of Labor and the Biden-Harris administration are so excited to partner with you. You know, as we do, that the best investment that a company can make is investment in its workers. And that's why we are also investing in you. What you are doing, including the building of your two fabrication plants-one in Idaho and one in New York—is helping to bring jobs to the United States, fulfilling a vision that the President has about making things here in the United States, tapping into the best workers in the world.
You're creating your fabs with Project Labor Agreements so that they're done by good union labor is also a part of his vision, as somebody who understands well that when we invest in workers, we have to invest in not just in jobs, but careers and their wellbeing. And this work here, expanding Apprenticeship programs into the semiconductor industry is just truly, it's pioneering. So I just want to come and say congratulations to all of you for what we're announcing today. It's a really, really proud day.
For President Biden, "Made in America" is not just a slogan; it's an economic strategy.
And today's announcement is one example of how we're seeing that strategy in action.
In President Biden's America, workers in this country will manufacture the chips that power everything from satellites to cars to smartphones. And it's a recognition that what we need in this country are not just jobs, but good jobs. And this has already been mentioned: jobs with family-sustaining wages, jobs with workers' rights to have a voice, jobs where every worker goes home healthy and safe at the end of the day, jobs where workers can get—what the President says, everybody should have-which is some breathing room, save a little bit, take a vacation with their family, the ability to know that you can look your children in the eye and say that everything's going to be okay and mean it.
There's one business model that we have seen, which is one that looks at labor as just a cost that needs to be minimized. And then there's another business model that recognizes that labor is really an asset that a company should invest in, that your talent are people to be nurtured. And that is the model that we see in Micron. And again, building this economy in which every does well, in which everyone gets their fair share, is so much about companies who follow the right model, and Micron, thank you for helping to not just follow that, but to write that playbook.
We talk a lot about infrastructure. You've heard the President talk about it a lot. What he talks about are fixing roads and bridges, making sure that every family that turns on the faucet in their home has clean drinking water, making sure that every community that wants the power up a laptop has high-speed, reliable, affordable internet. That is one form of infrastructure.
I think about the things we're talking about here today, our workforce system, as infrastructure, too. It's the roads and bridges that connect people to the good jobs they want and need and employers to the people that they want and need.
And that infrastructure also needs some investment. It also requires some attention. It's got some cracks in it. It's got some potholes. It was not built to reach every single community the way that it should. We talked about that earlier in our conversation. And for too long, because of that, some people have been left out of the promise of a good job.
And we're saying, "Not this time. Not on our watch. Not on our collective watch."
And we are building a workforce infrastructure that's as strong as our physical infrastructure, as those roads and bridges, as powerful as the semiconductors that you're making at Micron.
And if our workforce system is like infrastructure, then what you've already heard is true, that Registered Apprenticeships are the superhighways. They're the things that are connecting people through the earn and learn model. They are intentional about letting us reach into communities that have been left out in the past. And that's why we are investing in them like never before.
Registered Apprenticeships allow people to train for skills that they are going to need in jobs. There's wage progression built into them. There's a career pathway. And talking about intentionality, I know that Micron, we really just share this commitment to the idea that when you create opportunity, a pathway that allows people who can't just stop working to go into a training program, can't afford to do it, then you build equity in at the outset, and you allow reaching into communities that otherwise would be shut out of opportunity.
And what we always say at the Department of Labor—and the President believes this strongly, and I do too—that opportunity should not depend on the ZIP Code that you're born in or the circumstances of your birth. And so providing pathways, real roads and bridges, for everyone to get on that road to their own piece of the American Dream is really, really important.
Registered Apprenticeships also have connection to classroom instruction that are tied to real jobs. So that is where community college become just a key part of the effort. I always say that a good training program shouldn't end in a job search; it should end in an actual job. And that is what you all are doing right here at NOVA and right here with Micron.
The other thing that we heard today is something that President Biden talks a lot about too, which is that he believes that we should be able to create so many jobs in so many communities that people do not have to leave their families, and leave their communities, in order to get a good job. And so you all already are demonstrating that young people who want to do that. Our investments are helping to make sure that happens too.
I travel around the country, and I meet apprentices all the time. I meet apprentices like one who was at the Social Services Office applying for food stamps and Medicaid, when she saw an apprenticeship program in her community that she didn't think she was qualified for. And we heard a little bit about that today too. People don't always know that they can do something until an opportunity reaches in and says we want you.
She went to that program, quadrupled her income and never looked back. That's the kind of thing that happens with apprenticeships, that's the kind of thing that Micron and you all are doing here.
I have just one more story about a woman who was struggling to support her family. She got into a Registered Apprenticeship program too, and, again, her pathway to the middle class. Her daughter saw what a good job through an apprenticeship program does and got into a pre-apprenticeship program. Today, she is working on one of President Biden's Investing in America projects, the two of them are working side by side, actually, on the same project.
So Registered Apprenticeships also build intergenerational wealth. And that is what we are building and we are celebrating here today.
So I'm really proud of all the work that we're doing here. I'm so proud that this not actually Micron's first Registered Apprenticeship announcement. The first one was in Boise, Idaho. This is the second one. And so we're not only building; we are scaling at this moment and that is what we need to do. So thank you and congratulations to Micron for doing that, and for the partners in this room who are making sure that that's happening.
I just want to say one last thing—which builds on what President Kress said—which is that partnerships are so key to this work. These things do not happen if one part of this infrastructure works on its own. Roads and bridges do not matter if they are not connected to one another, if they're roads to nowhere. And so we look at workforce as not just one-off training programs, but as real connective programs between educational institutions, between employers, between young people who want jobs and people who are mid-career and want to change their jobs and between government.
So I stand here to tell you that we are all-in on this partnership, and we will continue to be. And we really celebrate all that you are doing here. This is really part of President Biden's vision for America in action. It's how we make the American Dream available to every single person. And so thank you again for demonstrating what is possible.