Emily Stover DeRocco Speech

Remarks for Emily Stover DeRocco
Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training Walsh University

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Thanks for having me here this evening.

Thanks to Derrick Wyman. What an inspiration! I met Derrick in the halls of the Capitol. He exemplifies the strong values and commitment that allow we baby boomers to know the future of America will be in good hands.

As this Administration nears completion of nearly four years of service, I must tell you it has been a privilege and an honor to serve the President at the Department of Labor, and to work each day to help accomplish his goals for America's workforce.

President Bush won't rest until every American who wants to work has a job. And he is committed to ensuring that every worker has the education and training they need to succeed in the economy of the 21st century.

Preparing workers to succeed in the 21st century economy begins with recognition of the critical link between education and workforce development.

High quality education is fundamental to achieving the American Dream. The President has kept his Administration and the nation focused on education reform.

Beginning with new standards in K-12 through No Child Left Behind, the President has also called for increased funding for his Striving Readers program; incentives for teachers with increases in student achievement; enhanced on-line learning opportunities; increased flexibility in student aid; and year-round Pell grants for low-income students.

It is clear that work - career - and income opportunities increase with education. Eighty percent of the fastest growing jobs of the 21st century require post-secondary education or training.

Still our national statistics show that of 100 ninth graders, only 68 will graduate from high school on time, only 40 will directly enter college, only 27 are still enrolled their sophomore year, and only 18 will graduate within 6 years.

We must remain focused on reforms that will strengthen the academic foundation in K-12 and expand opportunities for post-secondary education and training so that our nation's workforce remains the best in the world.

I speak often about the power and potential of our nation's workforce in the 21st century economy.

Our competitive edge begins with recognizing the 21st century economy as the innovation economy. Where once we optimized our organizations for efficiency and quality, now we must optimize for innovation.

Keys to our national competitiveness are: Investment, Infrastructure, and Talent.

To produce the talent, the nation will need a 3-part agenda:

1. Help our workforce adapt to change, and for that, we need a more agile system of training, support and portable benefits;

2. Stimulate a next generation of Americans skilled in science, math, and engineering; and

3. Become a magnet for the best global talent.

At the Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration, we have been focusing on agenda item #1: Helping our workforce adapt to change.

Across the federal government, we invest $23 billion in employment and training programs to support workforce development. Of that, more than $15 billion in services and programs are delivered through a nationwide network of over 3500 One Stop Career Centers. And, of that, about $11 billion is managed by ETA in the Department of Labor.

We believe these resources must be more effectively and efficiently used to ensure American workers have the skills they need to succeed in the 21st century economy and American businesses can access the skilled workers they need in order to thrive and create new jobs.

To accomplish this, we are seeking to:

1. Provide more flexibility in responding to local labor market needs for skilled workers

2. Empower individuals to control their own careers

3. Expand alternatives for the post-secondary education and training

necessary to succeed in virtually all of the jobs of the 21st century

Allow me to elaborate on those three.

To provide more flexibility in responding to local labor market needs, the President has:

• Proposed major changes in the law that supports workforce development to ensure employers, educators, and the public workforce system can invest the resources in skills development leading to good jobs with career advancement. A bill implementing these major changes passed in the House; the Senate passed another version. The Senate didn't appoint conferees, thwarting even the first step in reforming this system.



• Not willing to wait for Congress, the President asked us to lead by example through the President's High Growth Job Training Initiative - illustrating how workers with the right skills can access employment opportunities with career pathways and businesses can access skilled workers. Others call for "a workforce development strategy that helps workers when they are down." At that juncture, though, it's too late. Our Administration instead sees workforce development through the forward-looking eyes of economic development. We believe a better strategy gets ahead of unemployed workers' plight by first identifying and then training them in the skills that employers and our innovation economy will demand of them. Our approach explains why we have been focused on bringing educators and employers to the table with workforce professionals so that they can collaborate to prepare workers for 21st century careers.