screeria -- nigeria. -pasaspen institute

this is an hour. ...

>> we're live streaming this event so tweet at hash tag communities that work. if you're here in the room, please quiet your phone. third, following the event today we'll have the application materials for the regions on our web site, that's as.pm communities that work. that's going to be going live today. and that is all i need to say from my announcements. but it's all my pleasure and thrill to introduce to you jay williams assistant secretary of commerce and he is going to provide a word of welcome and some thoughts about the importance of this work to the commerce department. [applause] >> thank you. i'm exceptionally excited to pleased to be with you here today. as we publicly launch the

communes that work partnership. this an important initiative that will help build the critical public private partnerships needed to accelerate job skills development across the nation. i want to thank you as spend institute, for the hospitality and hosting us here today. as we know the availability of a skilled work force is often cited as a primary factor considered by businesses in their investment decision process. the learning exchanges created through the initiative will help immediate the skills needs of businesses by identifying promoting, and expanding on successful industry driven, regional partnerships for development. by encouraging such partnerships the program will help build the regional pools of workers with the skills in demand by employers in their communes, leading to job creation and increased business investment. eda is please told be partnering with the as spend institute on this initiative. through or partnership we will help to build sustain and scale

existing new and regional partnerships from talent development in support of regional economic development. and as spend through the partnership, will also inform on a long-term talent and skills development strategy for the economic development administration. this partnership offers many exciting opportunities ahead as a testament to the focus of secretary of commerce penny pritzker who for the first time in the history of the commerce department has made work force development a key focus of the department of commerce. through the secretaries' agenda the department is advancing a bold policy framework centered on the tools needed for u.s. economic growth. secretary pritzker is a business leader with more than 25 years experience as an innovate for a builder of businesses in various sectors. she has focused the department of commerce to spur american innovation and unleash government economic data. all of these priority issues are of the utmost importance to our

communities and our regions. we are proud of the key role that eda plays in advancing the secretary's open for business agenda and i am honored to work closely every day with secretary pritzker. we are obviously fortunate to have as spend president and ceo walter isaacson here with us today to lead our discussion. walter is a man who wears many hats and wears them all exceptionally well. thank you for your participation and leader. >> thank you for being our partners. secretary pritzker, thank you for being heel. while is skilled don't to important. >> this has been a passion of mine to make sure that we not only develop the work force that businesses need in order to grow and continue to create jobs, but that the work force itself is

getting the training training and opportunity it needs to be able to -- our individuals and our country be successful. this is something that's been a passion of mine since we started working together, i think in 2009 on this subject. but it's really important for us to bring the issue of work force development and skills training to the department of commerce because our job is to try and set the conditions for american businesses to thrive, because if american businesses thrive then they will create jobs. and our economy will grow and we will have a prosperous society so it's a simple formula. without work force that has the skills that are in demand, in an ever changing economy the formula doesn't work. so it's important -- particularly because we at the department of commerce have the relationship with businesses, and ultimately at the end of the

day, businesses need to lead by defining what are the skills they need, and i don't think that's been so clear lately. >> what you do during at the day, which is innovation we have had, what do you learn when you visit manufacturers of the 21st century? >> i'm really excited. we're going to have our third annual manufacturing day. one thing that manufacturing day -- why manufacturing day? we realizeed there was a misunderstanding in the united states what is a career manufacturing today? what is the interface between the human and the machine that is necessary to make product in the 21st century? and so we have been working with manufacturers and last year we had 1500 manufacturers that opened their doors to over 300,000 people in the united states mostly let's call it grade school and high school

kids with counselors, coming in and saying, oh, my, this is not my father and hi grandfather's manufacturing plant anymore. this is really changing. so a lot of about computers a lot about working -- humans working alongside robots to create things. and what have we learned? we learned that there's a real image issue with manufacturing. it's hard today to know what that is, and know what manufacturing means so we're trying to change the awareness and understanding so that families no longer say my goodness if i go into -- if my child or my son or daughter goes into manufacturing as a career, is that something that has longevity? so for the first time in the united states since 2009, we are growing manufacturing output in the united states. we have also grown almost 900,000 new manufacturing jobs, so this is becoming an area of growth but it's a different career than it was 25 years ago. >> what do you need?

>> you need knowledge of how computer works. you need knowledge how to adjust machines. you need to -- there's a interface of information that goes on, where the machine may say, here's where we need to tweak the production, and then knowing how to then bring the mechanical talent to bear. so it's a set of skills that is broad, and it is something that is available in many community colleges. this is one thing we're doing with our new partnership here, is to really work with communities on making sure that they're developing processes for work-force training that are married to what businesses need. >> the community one of the great distinctions in what you have don you work with businesses. how do you partner win -- with business.

>> our belief is business needs to lead in terms of the skills that are needed for them to -- for a local business community to thrive. let step back. what we are trying to do with the partnership? we're trying to say all work force training is local. we know that. it's not something that can be driven nationally. and it needs to be driven by the demand of business. what does business need today what are they going to need over the next five or ten years in terms of skills set from the worse force in the community. what our partner ship is doing -- the reason the economic development administration is a perfect partner in this is because we work with communities every day helping them develop economic development strategies, comprehensive -- called ceds, comprehensive economic development strategies elf we have now inculcated into our strategy planning with communities across at the

country, work-force training processes need to be part of that. we have guidelines. now. what we're doing in our partnership that is so important is bringing regions together, but if you think about it, work force training in a region is made up of business leaders made up of your universities and institution's of high here learning, community colleges, local government, work force there's a whole ecosystem working on these issues, about if you're a university president, you tend to meet with university presidents. i you're a community knowledge president, you meet with community college presidents of there's no place that business leader -- there's no place or forum where ecosystems are coming togethers' meeting and saying boy this is working for news say, south carolina, or

arizona, and our unemployment has plummeted. our employers are happy because of the skilled labor force we have. nowhere are those communities coming together and sharing best practices, and nowhere are we documenting what are best practices for communities and then sharing that throughout the united states. one thing unlike, let's say other countries where there's often dictated at age 15 or 16 you're going one pass or the other. to university or more of a trade. if you will. we don't do that in the united states. so we're much more local bubble-up, how our communities -- where they're going to focus and what are their strengths and weaknesses. what we need to do is have a mechanism where best practices are being shared so that welcome

address our changing economy. >> can you give an example where you saw it work? >> take south carolina, for example, which is really become a mecca for auto production. there is a partnership between the universities the community college, the auto manufacturers the state government, to create -- and the auto manufacturers are really led by saying here's what we need. in order to really have the most efficient -- for example bmw has made the largest manufacturing production capability in the world in the united states. bmw. german company. in south carolina. and they have helped lead a development of a whole ecosystem now benefiting other manufacturers in that area, and in fact their challenge is now unemployment is so low that there's a real challenge -- for

governor hill, a real benefit. or in chicago, for example chicago put together a work-force plan or strategy for the region that is focused on hospitality, health care, logistics because we have -- chicago is my home town. we have really given our geography and also the density of rail, we play a really important role in terms of the logistics of the country. how to get things from one place to another. and so they laid out six or seven different sectors they want to be strong in, and then really are tied together, the community college what are the offerings at the community knowledge, at the high school level. what role is the university playing? all driven by the sectors. the sectors are driven by what the are the strong businesses locally and aspirationally, what

does chicago want to be? that kind of planning is really important and something we want to celebrate and that what eda is expert at working with communities on making such plans. what we want to do in our partnership is bring the players together to really share with one another and learn from each other. >> even before you became commerce secretary you were deeply committed to the notion of using community colleges as an important link in this chain and upgrading our view of community colleges. in fact we have a community college excellence program here at the as -- as spend in -- aspen institute. you talk about chicago and mayor emanuel and yourself worked together to make sure each community college is somewhat more aligned with a particular industry and more aligned with skill sets needed. how did you make that work? >> i really came from local leadership coming together

across as i said, across the business sector. started with a fun of business ceos working with the city government to say here are the sectors we're really good at and we should focus on. we have growth and demand for new employment so one is defining what do you want to be when you grow up? second was then making sure that the community college system was offering the kind of courses to young people that want to -- who are looking to get into one of these sectors and so it was really about the leadership of the city across whether it was the business community leading in terms of demand, and the local government leading in terms of bringing both money to bear but also leadership over

the community colleges and aligning the community colleges. the university saying, then, we're going to make sure there's a seamless process of going from get credentialing at a community college. you don't have to repeat -- young people were having to repeat courses to go from having been at the community college to be at the university, and that is money and that is an impediment. right? and so why its worked? it's worked because of the leadership level across the various sectors. across these verious areas of expertise, local government, economic development agency, the university the community college, et cetera were coming together to find a solution, and to the challenges -- unemployment was sticking really high in chicago. one of the other things we did is we created something -- you

and i created skills for america's future, working on this issue. then we created skills for chicago and that was really a work force interimmediate area, focused on the long-term unemployed. when i -- two years ago somebody had been unemployed for six months. rae problem had not been short-term unemployment. that's normal. if a person was unemployed for six months, was really having a hard time to fine a job we created an intermediary to help those folks get employed. there's a real bias that existed -- >> not interview somebody who had been unemployed more than six months. >> exactly. it's nuts. so we have spent -- in chicago they're spending enormous amount of effort to address this issue and then have made huge progress in bringing them -- >> are the community college issues -- president obama now

made that a major plank of what he wants to do, making it free and seamless to go to the first two years of college if possible. how does that tie in to skills development? >> well it's a natural place to go to gain -- the goal has been to have the training offered at the community college reflect the demands in the local community. >> does that mean community colleges used not do that well? >> we train and pray. we can no longer afford to train and pray. >> how do you make it into more focused. >> business leaders -- so, i'll give you chicago as an panel. business community partnered with the community college to say, here's the skills we need. and what i found when we -- when you and i started with skills for america's future, what we

learned is that companies who are willing to share their intellectual property, their training intellectual property, with the community colleges, and say, look, partner with us, help us get -- produce folks that are capable, not necessarily that their training ended when the they enter the business. but they're ready to do the who in front of them. and then businesses -- let's not kid yourselves. business dozen 80% of the work force training in this country. so what we're talking about is the 20% that is necessary to get somebody ready to be job-ready then they're going to get on a track where the businesses will be the business they're part of will end up supporting their training and so that is what we're trying to bridge. >> let's go back to that story you told, about south carolina becoming a manufacturing center with new sets of skills. if we look back ten, 15 years ago, we would have ben in both

carolinas, the furniture industry and textile industry declining in terms of employment. i don't think you or i -- certainly i would not have guessed it would be a huge bmw plant coming in. how -- since you cannot really predict what the job ten years or 15 years from now will be, how do you predict the skills for any type of job that is likely to be coming along? >> well, one of the things we encourage is working with industry not so much that you're pigeon holed into an industry but you're gaming a set of skills necessary. so take, for example data analysis. this is an area of huge growth in our -- in my children's career time. learning both programming and data analysis, basic skills you need to have, i think in almost any job you're involved in.

>> you tell me the story when you went on manufacturing day guy who worked at a steel plant his entire career and now he was analyzing data in front of six computer screens and they have been able to train up for that. >> exactly. exactly. so imagine starting in steel 37 years ago and now your job is you're running the entire factory floor off of six screens. very different set of jobs. >> the skill is really human-machine interface skills. >> exactly. it's also flexibility. right? it's your willingness to continually learn. right, as an employee. it's been open to the jobs evolving and willingness. i spent 27 years in the private sector. this is my first government job itch'll take an overachiever any day of the week, somebody who is ready, willing and able to learn and grow in a job and that is going to consistently be the case as we have this constant

evolution. we're living in a new machine age. right? i've heard the second machine age, i've heard the fourth machine age. i don't know which number it is. all we know is that technology is causing a constant evolution and what we also know is american workers are the most productive workers in the world. so what we head to to continue to do for the american work force is make sure that we're recognizing the skills that are needed and then training folks up. here's the thing. you keep asking, what are the skills? name the four skills. you know, cyber security. what are the six skills you need for cyber security ten years snag we didn't know if we needed cyber security skills you need folks who are open to continual learning and who are in that -- that's going to become, i think

hallmark of employment, is that. and so one of the things we're doing in government is we created a checklift so every federal program we're doing that involves training has to meet with like, six or seven criteria. we have to -- employers have to be -- it always starts with the employers. what does the employer need? second is, we want to make sure when we're doing training the earn and learn opportunities. you're earning and learning at the same time. we want to make sure we're using data to evaluate and hold ourselves conditionable as the effectiveness of the training. we want to make sure there's stepping stones. seamless transition from one let's see either certificate or graduate degree to another. we want to break down barriers to moving along in accessing training. and then we want to have moore

partnership. more public-private partnership. we need to work with the privity seconder more closely. that's why this new partnership is so important. one exciting thing is today we're also announcing the department of commerce will take all of our skills effort and now call it skills for business. this is -- we're now branding ourselves and so that the work that eda is doing the work that is being done, for example the patent and trademark office, we're looking at doing apprenticeship with the patents and trademark office. the president has a big initiative to double the number of certified apprenticeships in the united states. typically you think of an aprepares tisship as something that one does in a trade. but this i training around becoming a patent and trademark officer, and in that whole area of intellectual property protection. so we are really moving out of just apprenticeships for trades,

but also looking for apprenticeships in health care, in computer programming and other areas. >> the rebranding of skills for business what is the symbolic reason for that. >> the symbolic recent is twofold. first is the fundamental issue we talk about which is demand comes from business. jobs are created in the private sector. so we have to start with the business leadership and what do they need? now, it is never far from my mind what does the work force need? what is it you and i have talked about. what do we need to do so that there are good middle class jobs with good wages and earnings available for american workers and that is something that -- that's -- what is the goal here? the goal is a wonderful match between a great career for someone and a business leader who is able to continue to grow

their business so they'll create more jobs. >> speaking of that. one of the great theoretical debates, which is also has practical kwon sequence, is whether the new machine age will tellly hurt the number of jobs in the future, especially middle class jobs. a hollowing out of the -- we have 2,000 years of data points about technology affecting employment, and of those 2,000 years there's zero data points that show that technology ends um decreasing employment. i know you and others have been discussing whether this time it could be different. >> there's enormous concern about that issue. frankly, what we're seeing -- what i'm seeing as commerce secretary is the followingful united states is the number one place in the world to invest.

goldman sachs why? because many, many reasons but not the least of which is the productivity of our workers. and it's also the ingenuity of our work force. >> those are -- >> like stability of our work force, all of which is about the willingness our our work force to work with technology, to be more productive. why is bmw choosing the united states as its global manufacturing? it's largest global manufacturing footprint? it's not just the work force. it's also our intellectual property protections the strong rule of law. the fact we'll have trade agreements around the world so they can both manufacture here and export around the world more efficiently than some other locations in the world. low-cost and abundant energy. we have many assets in this country, but it all rests --

starts with our work force. >> i pushed a book on you this morning, and gave it to you which is bob putnam's "kids" when he was here on this platform a few weeks ago. i think it's a most important book anybody can read this year, because it's about the opportunity gap. you're talking about opportunities for everybody to go into the work force. but the gap seems to be widening between the opportunity of kids from a privileged background and with educated parents versus the opportunities somebody from a poor background has and just has graph after graph and anecdote after anecdote and data point after data point of getting a greater divide between the type of opportunity starting with -- through the internship and apprenticeship and job market and the skills. how are you working -- do you

see that problem and if so, how are you working to mitigate it? >> i think that there's no doubt that my children or your children have the kids that live in our zip codes have enormous opportunities. not the least of which is from the parents who probably have a college education one and that is a natural expectation but two, is they may have parents who have connections that help open the door for their child. that is the challenge we face in chicago the kid on the south side don't have the same -- let's say they're not pushing on the same open door, and we need to rectify that and that's for me why this has been such a great passion. i'm all about education and -- education has been the great

equalizer, at fleece my lifetime. i continue to believe it plays an important role itch think we have to continue also creating opportunities. it's why apprenticeships so kris contractual. why creating structures that provide mentorship is important. whyed of indicating -- this image challenge in manufacturing and the idea of manufacturing. to me the most important people going through manufacturing day are the parents and the guidance counselors as much as -- so the kids are inspired and also so that adults can start to see there are really good middle class careers existing in manufacturing today, and it's a growing opportunity. with skills that you are earning and learning are transferable. so this is something we have to be very persistent about. >> the issue of income inequality. as you look at the numbers of the past two years of job growth and the economy recovering and you look under the hood, what do

you see about that issue of income inequality and what type of problem it might be? >> well, it's not go for society. we know that. it's important that we don't have a hollowing out of our middle class. it's important that we make sure that there are good opportunities that exist and what i see is a changing economy. where we place value on different skills. so if you look at being a data analyst, today a data analyst is paid over $40 an hour. that is a job that, frankly didn't exist when i was a kid. this is de -- cyber security. a different form of data analysis. 200,000 cyber security jobs open right now. i suspect that career is going to be wide open for very long time. and very high-tech. welders.

welders. specialty welders. human demand. smart grid workers. huge demand. and good pay. these are good, solid jobs, but what you have to do and what we all know is, the path to finding those careers often requires a human interface with somebody who helped to guide you. >> parents counselors -- >> parents mentors friends a coworker i see it as the department of commerce. we have all kinds of folks working there who are looking to figure out where are they going next how to manage their careers, and we spend a lot of time guiding and counseling everybody from the folks in our security detail to folks who are in our policy shop, and everything in between. and that is really an important part of the role of a manager

is to be a mentor and to set a culture of mentorship. it's not just the senior-most person who is guiding. it has to be your whole organization. >> as you look at the job numbers and the economic numbers of the past two years, what's your analysis of it below the surface? >> well -- >> are we in a good recovery? >> you know what? i think we are in a recovery -- we're in a much better recovery than the people like to talk about. >> the rest of europe -- >> my gosh, relative to the rest of the world we're definitely doing better. if you look at -- everyone focuses on gdp breath. if you look at unemployment. unemployment rates continue to come down, and there's going to be bumps up and down, but i feel as though what we have done is the economy that -- the

foundation of our economy is far stronger. if you look in the 90s and 2000s, a lot of our economy was built on bubbles. tech bubbles housing bubbles. we're not sitting in an environment of bubbles. these are far stronger foundations of our economy. very hard. we all know we either have our own kids or friends with kids or our peers peers peers who have been laid off or had a hard time finding a job. it's getting better and better, and it's not even across the united states but it's much stronger than it was. we still do not have the kind of growth in the housing industry we should. we still are not -- we have not invested in infrastructure the way we need to. that would be a significant impact on our economy. but we -- congress has not made

that commitment yet and we need to. we have two to three trillion dollars of deferred investment. we need to pass the trade agreements and -- because those are job-creators. those are good for our economy. because it will open markets like asia, to american businesses and just -- i'll put in a plug for the trade promotion authority and as well as for the transpacific partnership. asia is going from 500 million consumers to somewhere over 3 billion in the next 15 to 20 years. we'd never seen this in the world, that large of consumer base growth. our companies need to be part of that in order to be leaders in the future, because -- there's very little barrier to entry to

investing in the united states. whereas there's enormous market access barrier to investing in vietnam or malaysia or other parts of asia. these agreements level the playing field for not just market access for your business loaders. they level the -- begin to level the playing field for the work force, because there are new labor standards included in the grandma as well as environmental standards that insist upon minimum wage and insist on be right to organize, insist upon no forced or child labor and things like that. rules we all live by, our work force live biz. all of this will affect the quality of opportunity for our work force here in the united states in a very positive fashion. so it's really important we do this. >> going to china in a few weeks. what's the mission? >> i was just there last week. and what we did was we took

clean energy companies to china. so china has made a commitment to have 20% of it energy by 2030 be nonfossil fuel based. we in the -- china has world class solar wind, and hydrocapables. what they don't have is the ability to connect all that to the grid. they don't have technologies to do carbon capture. there are a lot of technologies they dent have that we do. there are $90 billion a marketplace per year of clean energy and we have a dem minimum muss amount of mark share. our companies want greater access. so it's about helping them reach their clear energy goals. we heard about the challenge of their care and pollution, and i'm here to tell you it's true. if you haven't been there it's a real challenge and the people are aware of it. their population is -- not just the folks in beijing but a real

challenge for them. so this is a place where we can work together to try to help solve not just their climate problems but those affect us as well. >> before i turn it over, let mow go right back to what we're here today to announce, which is the skills -- >> skillses for business partnership. >> and today we're beginning to accept applications at the a spend institute. and -- aspen instate, and the process of applications from regional teams teams and others that include business, education public agencies. tell us about that approach and what -- without putting too much power on maureen what do you want to come out of this? >> i think i have enormous confidence in maureen, having worked with her before this. so he is up for the challenge. what does success look like? talking about bringing together six different regions and

bringing together leaders from becomes, from communities colleges from universities, from the local government, from the economic development offices so those regions can learn from each other we can develop a case study of best practices. we can develop a set of tools that can be used by other communities to improve. so we're using convening to learn from each other and to develop really a case -- a set of case studies of how to better improve your own region for work force training, and my hope is that out of this, we have more communities that want to participate, that you have such satisfied customers that the demand is that we do it again. and that the final part of this is for the department of commerce. we play a role in the partnering

with you in cob vaccining and helping develop the tools. our goal then is to take the learning and put them into we work with communes to develop economic strategies and help put them in the economic development strategy processes we use with communities across the country and this is a way of beginning to lift everybody. >> so if anybody out the is interested go to our web site, find maureen conway reside name and e-mail her or anybody with our -- anybody on her team that you find on the team part of the aspen institute web site. let me open it up. yes, sir. the fastest hand in the room. and then dean -- diane here will be next. >> frank stalker previously

boeing and m.i.t. looks to me like there's a powerful and emerging change in how we're going to be managing manufacturing, and what it is, i think we're going to be transferring more responsibility and authority to workers on the front line, and so it's tapping into the things you talked about of the knowledge of the workers their ingenuity and flexibility. my question is, shouldn't we be training our workers to have the leadership skills needed to step into that in the future? >> absolutely. and thank you for that question. because you're exactly right. what is happening is the decisionmaking and power is devolving to the factory floor to the worker to problem-solve on the ground and have a continuous improvement process.

so the democratization of authority requires that individuals develop skills of permanent leadership, personal conflict resolution, and talent to be able to manage as they're evolving and changing, as well as confidence to make choices that have ripple effects across the factory floor. and working with colleagues, not just alone but in groups and teams to make these decisions. so absolutely. these kinds of skills are necessary and as i said there's a base level of skills that one gets before one enters into the job market or one upskills into a new job. but then fundamentally most businesses as i said, 80% of the work force training is going on in businesses, and that is where a lot of it will evolve. but these -- i hate the word

"soft skills" leadership skills, management skills, problem solving skills, communication skills,-under fundamentally skills that can be obtained in grade school, high school, community college through universities. this is not something that just starts when you walk in the front door of your first job. >> diane, and then -- yes. >> clinical psychologist. i'm interested in the opposite side of the spectrum in terms of skills. the students coming into community college the apprenticeship program are they prepared from secondary education with the basic skills of reading and math mat ticks. >> -- mathematics. >> it's a real challenge. i was on the school board in chicago, one of the more challenging roles i've ever played in my life. the responsibility for our young people and making sure that

they're getting basic fundamental reading and writing skills. it is more and more a challenge. i think that -- here's why i'm optimistic. i'm optimistic because what i saw was when you head both teachers and computer interface working with young kids, third graders, second graders fourth graders, fifth graders in terms of helping young people, really evolve at their own pace and along their own trajectory. so more personalized individual training. so if you thought about it, i have no trouble with moment mix indication but have trouble with division. walter's challenge is two digit multiplication. we should be working on different problem sets at the same time, not exactly doing the same work all at the same time. that interface has tremendous potential and what i saw that was so encouraging to me is the

teacher's enthusiasm for working with students and using technology at the same time. so the kids can have more individualized learning platforms, but teachers not feeling threatened by that but instead celebrating what kinds of accomplishments they can have with the whole class. a class is a range of capabilities and so i think more and more that why i think connect-ed is so important. what -- the idea that we're going to more and more leverage our teachers with technology. i'm night saying you replace teachers because teachers play an incredibly important role in kid's learning and learning is going to change. if you think about the -- what we learned from organizations that -- if you make these 10 to 15 minute packets of information, testing understanding, and then moving

forward, often what teachers learning from that is they'll do the lecture portion and through the testing we'll know, okay, kids did not get this concept. we have to go back in the classroom and work on that concept. everybody flood this -- understood this concept and we don't need to spent much time on that. it allows for more targeted learning. i'm optimistic we'll get better at the fundamental skills that technology has a role to play in helping us do that. not replacing teachers. as an aid. >> diana. thank you. >> i'm catherine from the manufacturing institute. partners in manufacturing day. so i loved hearing how much you talk about that this morning. one of the places that we're stuck, i love hearing about how businesses are aligning with community colleges to make sure the courses are there to meet the skills, but how are you

going to leverage this partnership to make sures they're credit alignment at the community colleges. there are very few manufacturing pathways at the community college level that are currently aligned with academic credit meaning their they're terminal courses. >> one area of focus has been the idea of partnering not just with a business leader but with industry to develop credentials. i have a brg has been focused on getting different -- >> business roundtable. >> has been working with different industry associations to try and develop credentialing that is both transferable, well understood within an industry, and also stack enable the sense you can build upon it or seamless transition to more education. but it's an area i think needs a lot more attention and frankly it's where the industry associations have a role to play.

it's not typically the job of an industry association to focus on credentialing, but i think that i'll bet you guys have an education subcommittee and i bet this is a hot topic and that's where i think partnering with the community college the american association of community colleges, is really critical because we have too many one-off credentials. >> i think you had your hand up early so let me -- yes i think. just trying to -- >> good morning. thank you for the marvelous job you're doing. i'm from peoria, illinois. i have an initiative there that meets all your cry tiera employer led earn and learn model. me point is it's taken to along. i've been working 15 months and we have the first cohort, 15 people in the local community college, getting the first in the nation degree associate

degree in software development. the barriers are these and my question is, what kind of help can i get from the government. first of all there's a tremendous misconception about apprenticeships. they understand intern continue but don't understand the apprenticeship. the companies have reluctance to invest in people. i'm telling the companies in that area that it's going to take about $90,000 or three-year period to invest in these people. but majority doing that, just don't realize it. 80% of the training is done by industry. so the community colleges are not quite aware of the change that they have to do in terms of delivery of the courses. >> why don't we let you -- you have done community knowledge. address how to improve apprenticeships in the united states. >> that is one thing the labor depth is dying now trying to

double the number of apprenticeship and to broaden the industries win which apprenticeships are available and so this has been a big effort by both the department of labor and the department of commerce, and i think they just announced -- where is kate -- back here somewhere -- >> stand up, kate. [inaudible] >> he can tell you more about our whole effort on apprenticeships. >> there's a make crow -- microphone right next to you sir. >> good morning tough madam secretary. our historic investment the president asked us to do $100 million in apprenticeship closes this week so hurry up and get your applications in. develop 125 innovative models across the country working together in a very huge effort to really blow it out of traditional labor construction

and trades, which is great keep doing it, into, as the secretary says are i.t., health care, manufacturing, cyber security. there's a lot of interest and we keep building that. we're up to 65,000 in number in the last year. so we have already increased by 65,000 apprenticeships and we're moving. >> maybe i can take a lead from the institute and get an apprenticeship in the trademark and patent office. that's how einstein started. a good place to start. i don't want to -- people in the back to feel left out. >> hi, colleen larose from the northeast regional employment training association. first i want to thank you so much for creating the idea of sector strategies. i think michael porter at harvard business school has been trying to teach this for a very long time and the rest of the world has grabbed hold of it and the united states seems to be not quite as advanced in that. so i want to thank you for that.

my wound fear about this, though is that we may begin to be driven by only big business, and my understanding is that it's small and medium enterprises that hire the most people. so how do we teach small and medium enterprises how to grow their businesses, for instance, with like an economic gardening program or something like that. how do we teach them to expand their businesses so that they -- it creates a need to create jobs? >> well, we work with a lot of different business sectors in terms of trying to help them grow. for example one of the -- i'll go back to manufacturing. we have something called the manufacturing extension partnership at the department of commerce where we work with local manufacturers to help them adopt world-class practices so they can can remain globally competitive. we also have the u.s. export assistance center. there's over 100 -- i think 108 centers around the united states

where we work with companies to help them determine which markets around the world their products will be competitive so they can -- then we have foreign commercial service office, 75 countries around the world where we help you navigate locally to grow your business. we do loot to try -- our job is to at the department of commerce, is to try and create the conditions for businesses to grow so that they will create jobs. we partner with the department of labor in terms of the training. most of the money the grant money, comes from the department of labor and what we have done is partner with them to try and -- to work on the conditions for those grants, so that they're-employer-led and job-driven so that what we're doing is trying to have less of the -- the secretary of labor would say train and pray, and more of a seamless approach to

skills acquisition and training into various sectors in our economy. >> uh-huh. i'd say let -- i'm trying to do it in the order i saw and then we'll try to get to you. that may be in time to start wrapping up. >> good morning. really appreciate this new. beneficiaries program by -- ambitious program by the commerce department. i work for some in program. ing, is we hear they're very much progressing and wanting to go towards a more diverse work force but they often don't have the tools they need to diversify they work force. i'm wondering if any of this program will include more diversity in the industries that are not traditionally diverse including new american population and nonenglish speak tore the program as well. >> maybe we'll let maureen and jay answer that. >> sure. just briefly in terms of

including diverse populations one of thing the secretary mentioned a lot of these issues are driven locally. one thing we're looking for in terms of that applications and how we're hoping to work with partnerships within a community community is they raise the issues they're struggling with in their community and we think about how they can work across the leans of business, education, community organization, public agencies and others to think about how to address this. this is a real issue in the community, how can that come from them, this is an issue they want to work on together and we can sort of facilitate that. >> jay? >> i would concur. in our experience with eda working with communities, that's where the focus of the priorities being identified, the work force issues being identified by those communities a very good example is the work we do in the native american tribes across the country. they have a very specific different set of needs different from some over the rural communities and urban communities.

so by having them as part of the conversation really having our staff on the ground, gives us that extra sensitivity to make sure we're addressing those and being very inclusive and diverse in terms of our investments and approaches. >> ted wells from stem connector. one of the issue wes have seen in some of the work we have didn't doing is that students and stem fields whatever, don't know -- aren't aware of the tubs that exist in the work force especially students from low income backgrounds. so in -- this is a great set of infrastructure that you're putting in place but is there -- is it built it and they will come approach might not work so are there any strategies to ensure that students and educators and those who work with them at the secondary level are helping to inform students about the opportunities you're talking about? some of these jobs didn't exist 15 years ago five years ago. >> where is kate?

do you want to talk about the glass door effort and some things we're doing to make sure -- matching that's going on the pilots. >> one example that glass door example that we are working on actually in partnership we have eda, so jay can follow up on the national advisory council for innovation and entrepreneurship, focusing on do diversity as part of the advisory role to the secretary. a member of that advisory group glass door, is working with us to kind of touch on your question and comment about how to prepare for what are the jobs of the future, basically in stem. a lot of jobs -- but there's a big gap in data. mees people know we don't have a lot of localized data on what the supply and demand is, take state for example so wore

working with glass door to do a pilot to look at virginia and obtain unemployment data, anonymous, to do some matching between the supply side and demand side. so glass door has a treasure trove of information about jobs available skills needed and by developing a partnership with the state of virginia and obtaining their information about the supply side. the idea is to develop a project they can share with other states. it's something that addresses your question about how are we thinking forward about what the skills needed for jobs now going forward. >> then linked in is working on a different approach. we're trying to use technology to try to deal with the supply, demand question. and equation. i-time going tend to with a topic that is sort of a future-looking topic the evolution of the american work force seems to have a couple of

trends that have accelerated recently. one is that people, young people coming out of either college or career-ready from high school, are not necessarily joining big corporate e test. test. test. test. test. test. test. test. test. test. test. test. test. test. corporate entity. secondly steve case and other people with the rise of the rest have been working with the administration ex-going to new orleans in costume weeks to talk about entrepreneur shouppe. ship. >> we work with incubators and accelerators to help support that effort, which is the whole innovation culture and the entrepreneurship culture in the united states, which frankly is the envy of the world. there isn't a country i go to around the world that says, how

do we replicate what you have? what is so exciting to me is we're really doing a lot to elevate and support innovation and entrepreneurship outside of the traditional centers of boston silicon valley, austin, texas, boulder and with the efforts like what steve case is doing and what eda is doing to actually help fund a number of these organizations. we're helping entrepreneurs around the united states get access not only to mentorship and to training -- remember, they're going to a business idea to a business plan to how to actually create an organization legally to having to hire people et cetera. that whole process is something daunting if you're not -- don't come from folks who can help you do that.

and so these are really centers that are able to help young folks, and it's -- old folks doesn't matter what age you are. just any entrepreneur, and it's very exciting what is happening there. >> i will put in a plug that we just started this past month with eric levin who is one of the incubator, has come here so we can have an incubation at the aspen institute. both for profit and nonprofit entrepreneurs, people want to be social entrepreneurs or entrepreneurs in the private sector because that notion of bringing people together and giving them the meanter toship and giving them skills and this sort of support structure they need allows people start new enterprises, and what about this portfolio approach that many people are something to how are we -- besides the affordable care act -- helping allow that to flourish in america? >> well, i think that -- you

know we are living in the age of the microentrepreneur. so think about what technology is allowing to have happen. you can drive your uber for four hours a day and be going to night school or day school or whatever and you can be volunteering part of your time at -- i always love talking to -- what exactly isor -- they're a portfolio. the same is true there of b & b. their sharing economy is allowing people to put together a portfolio lifestyle and income stream that is something we have never seen. we're unlocking entrepreneurship in this country in a way that is really revolutionary. >> that might be the answer to the question of, will technology create jobs or destroy jobs? once again we're seeing it create jobs. >> one of my question is, are we capturing all that in gdp? >> well, we certainly capturing it in the country and eventually

the numbers will catch up with it. any final word? >> no, thank you all very much. >> thank you. [applause] [inaudible conversations] captioning

performed by vitac >> but one night that was not the case. and josh lederman was standing his post at ap booth, why don't you pick it up from there? >> so i think it was around 8:00 p.m. or so and most of the correspondents at the white house had already left for the evening. but the news day was basically over. and there were a handful of us from the wires and from a few of the television networks who were still in the building. started to hear a commotion outside the doors of the press briefing room and a few of us ran outside to see what was going on. and, you know, it