Friday, February 17, 2012

The Skills Summit


The 2012 National Skills Coalition Summit held in Washington, DC from February 13-14th, created a great opportunity to network with workforce professionals representing twenty-two states throughout the country allowing us the opportunity to address the crisis of "13 million people unemployed in the U.S. and 3 million job openings" (NSC 2012). Michigan representation was strong and in full-force during the summit with ten professionals representing our great state. I was one of the ten who made up the "Michigan Delegation". Being apart of the delegation was a phenomenal opportunity. Our delegation was divided into two groups of five and my group met with the staff of the following Congressional leadership offices on Capitol Hill:


We met with key staffers to advocate for the following;

1) No more cuts or consolidation, without reform, to the Workforce Investment Act (WIA http://www.doleta.gov/usworkforce/wia/act.cfm)
2) No additional changes to the Pell Grant (http://www.ed.gov/programs/fpg/index.html) 
3) Continued support and funding of the concept of sector strategies (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s112-665)  to connect low-to-moderate skilled employees to employers.

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