Speeches by Secretary Elaine L. Chao

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Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
American Association of Community Colleges
February 12, 2002

Thank you, Pamela [Pamela Transue, President of Tacoma Community College in Washington state and Chair of the AACC]…

It's great to be here… because I deeply appreciate the fact that you are "the premier workforce development providers in America."

I know how much Assistant Secretary of Labor Emily DeRocco enjoyed her time with you yesterday morning - and I really want to re-emphasize how much we at the Department of Labor appreciate the work you do.

You are one of the top solutions to the needs of our workforce. You train and graduate workers in the fields that are needed - the IT experts, nurse technicians and others who make us competitive in this speed-of-light global economy.

You're over 1,000 schools strong… enrolling over 10 million students… and graduating nearly half a million a year.

And your programs are diverse, cost-effective and second-to-none when it comes to flexibility.

It is this flexibility that has precipitated the debate over what community colleges "should be."

All debate aside, I know what you are in my book: you're the training providers of choice for America's workforce - and the Bush administration wants to make you the solution for the skills gap.

And that's really what I want to focus on today.

First, I want to address what, specifically, are the needs are of today's workforce.

And second, how can we - the Department of Labor and America's Community Colleges - work together to meet those needs?

It's no secret that, even before the recession hit, this country was facing worker shortages in certain areas like high technology. In any dynamic economy there will be a certain amount of disconnect between the new jobs that are being created and the current skill level of many people in the workforce.

The skills gap will always be with us: the question is, how effectively and how quickly will we be able to bridge it?

While we - the government - were asking this question, you were already working on its solution.

Your hottest programs are already filling the holes in: nursing, computer networking and electronic engineering.

You know that we will need to double the number of computer engineers in the next decade - to over 600,000.

And you know that we need almost half a million new home health care aids and as many computer support specialists.

The simple fact is this: no one is doing better than you when it comes to preparing workers for 21st century jobs.

In high technology, just look at Miami-Dade Community College. It is a perfect example of the ability of a community college to turn the skills gap around. Miami-Dade's Emerging Technologies Center is a leader in providing state-of-the-art information technology training.

I have been told that it will have the capacity to graduate 10,000 students a year, skilled in the latest advances in information technologies.

And then there's Springfield Technical College in Massachusetts. Springfield Tech has achieved enormous success in its "Tech Park" - where businesses recruit heavily from the nearby school.

You also have a proven track record in addressing the near-crisis-level nursing shortage. With aging baby-boomers, it's only going to get worse. Miami-Dade has come to the rescue again, graduating more nurses than any other college in the country.

Homeland security is, sadly, the latest in need of thousands of highly skilled workers. We can't seem to work fast enough to increase and improve the security of our workplaces, transportation systems, borders and ports.

And here, too, we find that Community Colleges are ahead of the curve. South Seattle Community College is, right now, working closely with the Port Authority to train security workers at the Seattle-Tacoma International airport. Community Colleges have also provided cutting-edge training for workers at Baltimore-Washington International Airport - right now considered the leader, in terms of safety, of our nation's airports.

And these are just a few examples of the customized programs community colleges are developing and running. I salute the successes of each one.

But your programs do more than feed skilled workers into burgeoning industries and careers… they transform the unemployed and the dislocated into self-reliant, productive earners.

The stay-at-home mom… the newly arrived immigrant… the high-school dropout… they all come knocking on your door to become part of the American dream.

And your numbers reflect that.

46 percent of black and Asian-American undergraduate students are enrolled at community colleges and 55 percent of Hispanic undergraduates.

Moreover, 58 percent of your students are women.

These are numbers you should be very proud of.

And I don't think you're driven by quotas - I think you're driven by need and you're fulfilling needs very successfully.

You are making sure that no job seeker is left behind.

That's why over half of the Department of Labor's worker training budget goes to community colleges… and why even more may go there in the future.

You know how the system works - federal dollars fund one-stop centers at the state and local level, and job seekers find you and your programs through those one-stop centers. They choose you as their training provider.

Employers choose you, too. Ninety-five percent of them recommend community colleges for worker training because they know that the education you offer is cost-effective, customized, convenient and of extremely high quality.

We agree with the choices made by employers and job seekers.

We recognize that you understand how to respond to a demand-driven system, where business needs dictate employment training activity and structure.

We appreciate that you have rejected a supply-driven system where job seekers are pushed into the job market with skills that are irrelevant in their local economy.

And we intend to take full advantage of what you have to offer.

My friends, this is your time. The president and I see what you are doing, and we hear your eagerness to do even more.

We know that no one understands better than you do that the world of work and the world of education are not worlds apart.

We understand your significance to the workforce, your value to our economy and your role in providing hope to so many Americans.

Thank you so much, all of you, for what you do… you are an invaluable part of our nation's education system. And thank you again for the opportunity to speak to you today.

I look forward to joining forces with you as we keep America trained, educated and working.

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