Emily Stover DeRocco Speech
2005 CAEL International Conference
November 11, 2005
Chicago, IL
Thank you very much, Joe, and good morning everyone. It is a true pleasure to be here today with you to talk about topics that are very important to the Department of Labor and the future of our economy.
This is an incredibly exciting time for our country. Technology and globalization are presenting us with vast opportunities and great challenges. Some of our oldest and most dependable industries are transforming or disappearing entirely while new, almost futuristic industries are bursting onto the economic landscape.
Few audiences are as aware and more involved in the changing nature of the economy and the need for conditions that encourage innovation, entrepreneurship and economic growth as those of you here today.
The Department of Labor has many exciting new initiatives that are relevant to you and your institutions. But first I would like to provide some context around our policy directions and our investments.
The Council on Competitiveness, in their groundbreaking report, Innovate America, identified three key areas needed for economic growth. The first is infrastructure. For example, do regions have the transportation system to support a robust economy? Do they have the technology assets required to succeed?
The second area is investment. Is the capital available to support the risk required in today’s economy? Are the government’s policies designed to encourage capital risk-taking or restrict it?
Together, the right strategies in these two areas can provide the basic tools required for economic development. However, they are useless without the third and, in my opinion, most important component of an economic strategy, the development of human talent.
It is the development and use of talent that will ultimately decide the fate of the United States and every other country in the global economy. To stay ahead of the global competition then, we must look at and improve the way we develop our talent. And that means bringing reform to our education and training systems.
Education, as all of you know, is a locally controlled activity in this country. Schools vary considerably across districts and states. This diversity, though, is part of our strength. Communities on the East Coast are not like communities in the Great Plains and our schools should reflect such unique qualities.
However, regardless of where you live or what you expect to do in life, there are foundational skills in math, reading, and science that are critical to success. That reality is the basis for the No Child Left Behind Act and President Bush’s new High School Reform Initiative.
But while much of the focus in government, in the media, and by ordinary Americans remains on grade school and high school education, it is really what happens after high school that determines the opportunities available to individuals. It is the post-high school education and training where talent development occurs.
As the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training, it is my job to oversee the public investment in workforce preparation – and our focus is on postsecondary education and training. Each year, the government invests over $15 billion in employment and job training services that are delivered through a nationwide network of 3,500 career centers. Over the past four years we have been striving to ensure that this investment of taxpayer dollars is relevant to the ongoing efforts to develop the talent necessary to compete in a global economy.
Our nation’s employers already understand the importance of talent. Surveys show that businesses consistently rank the availability of skilled labor as one of the top factors influencing their decision on where to build, relocate, or expand operations. Employers know that employees are their great asset and the key to their ability to compete and grow in a changing, challenging economy.
And that is why President Bush has committed to an aggressive education and workforce strategy. We know that over eighty percent of the jobs in the fastest growing fields require education or training beyond high school. These fields are the ones that are driving innovation and will provide the good paying jobs of tomorrow.
We also know that income and education are more closely linked than in any time in our history. College educated workers earn on average 70 percent more than high school educated workers. High school dropouts are four times more likely than college graduates to be unemployed. Low income Americans have far higher rates of dropping out of high school and far lower rates of enrolling in college and obtaining a postsecondary credential than their middle or higher income peers.
