Demand driven. We dont train widget makers. The commune to College System has worked so remarkably well. One of the biggest differences between 10 years ago and now and why this is working well is the level of business engagement. If you go to Front Range Community college in colorado, he will see they have an advanced manufacturing partnership, a partnership between the federal, state and local government, the Business Community and others. Look and see the curriculum is being devised within industry. There are businesses whose workers are professors. One of the reasons they love teaching is they cherry pick the best students. That tiny build your talent pipeline. That is how you build your talent pipeline. Thank you for your leadership on behalf of comedic colleges. We had four years of desk cap grants. Community colleges. It stands for using comedic colleges to catalyze change. What i learned from these grants is that oftentimes, businesses were not talking enough to educators. In los angeles, we grave gave a grand to the six comedic colleges in los angeles for Health Related focus gave a grant to six Community Colleges. They had seldom been coordinating with each other. If you took a nursing 101 course in college a come of the curriculum was not the same as comedic college be and was not aligned with the needs of the employers. These grants help to catalyze that partnership. They learned they had other career opportunities. These Community College grants are remarkably catalytic, they have been successful. We dont have a round five right now and weve been working with our colleagues in congress because there is overwhelming partisan support bipartisan support. I want to thank you for the feedback we have gotten from nga and other stakeholders. Im a big believer that the most important thing you can do is listen and build a big table and bring a healthy dose of humility to the venture. We think we have some knowledge but we know that all of you have remarkable knowledge. It has been really helpful. One of my biggest frustrations to be frank, is that we have had four rounds of tax grants, they have been wildly successful, we know what works, we know what needs be scaled and we need to make sure that we continue the investments. There is a 27 return for every one dollar invested. We need to continue our conversations about round five kiss we want to continue and sustain the momentum that exists across this country. We need to the investments. I want to stop because i really want to engage in dialogue. I did want to mention that as part of the trade Promotion Authority that was passed recently, there was a reauthorization of the trade adjustment act. Its a really important resource for you because there are literally tens of thousands of people across this country who have lost their jobs either through globalization or through trade related activity. This is an important feature of the workforce system. One aspect of the trade adjustment act you may not be aware of is it is retroactive to january 1, 2014. There are various versions of the trade adjustment act that have an in place. The version in place since 2014 was the strippeddown version. The version that was passed in the end of june is a much more robust version, a really important tool in your toolkit. You are partners with us in the implementation of that. Weve been working closely to identify folks who lost their jobs at. And not ive spoken to folks who lost their jobs in a steel plant. Who lost their jobs a year ago and ive spoken to folks who lost their jobs in a steel plant. As you go back, taa is an important resource in your arsenal and i would encourage you to make sure that your colleagues are certainly well aware of the fact that we have an important new tool back in our arsenal and we look forward to working with you together. Let me stop there. I think we can talk about so many on ramps and off ramps on this skill superhighway, but i come to you with an unrelenting sense of optimism and gratitude. The wind is at our back. This is a remarkable moment and we have to turn this moment into a movement to get movement that will help workers and businesses. A movement to make sure everybody has the skills to compete for for days for todays jobs. Thank you very much, mr. Secretary. [applause] im going to open it up to questions. I will kickoff a question to you and i can see the governor has one, too. Secretary perez, we want to thank you for the presentation. We greatly appreciate your efforts to make state job training the focus of the departments ready to work initiative. One critical federal tool for all of us governors that will allow us to innovate is that 50 workforce set aside 15 workforce set aside. We know you were not a congressional appropriator but we know you have been around to a lot of our states working with a lot of states. I wonder if you can give us a bit of a sense of what that 15 set aside would do for flexibility for governors. Im a big fan of the 15 because i know what we did with it. In maryland, we catalyzed innovation. We were able to skill that innovation we catalyzed. Scale that innovation. Weve been able to gradually ramp up the challenge, we want to make sure we are mindful of it would be potentially zerosum if we ramp up the 15 fund at the expense of formula dollars that going to the local workforce system. We want to make sure that we are able to try to do both because what i hear from folks in the local workforce system, we have a lot of animation underway, it has been very successful and we want to continue to be catalytic and scale in that area as well. Thats one challenge we have and thats why weve been trying to get the gradual ramp up and make sure we dont pit state governments against local governments. That is a false choice and we should ignore that. Im a big fan of it and i can give you a chapter and verse abuses youve made of it. Best of uses youve made of it. Great presentation. You really cover the waterfront, which i appreciate. You tiny a lot of things together that need to be tied together. I want to make a couple of comments. I appreciate your focus on reentry. 97 of the people in our prisons in delaware are coming out. One of the most inspiring events i go to each year is the High School Graduation within the prison. I just when a few weeks ago. It is astonishing to me these men who came in with varying degrees of education and amongst other things, had to learn algebra to while in prison. The persistence and determination it takes for them to get their High School Diploma while in prison is remarkable. In a budget here where weve had very few Additional Resources one of the places we did put the money was additional vocational opportunities within our prisons. That being said, one of these places that has been an issue of difficult we live in this world where there has never been a better time for somebody with the right schools. There are so many people who are caught in this cycle of crime, drug dealing and the like who would be pretty happy to be able to hold down a job. Many of the jobs that were around 20 years ago, 30 years ago that did not require a lot of additional skills beyond the high school, a lot of them are gone. One of the things im eager to learn from my other governors and folks like you are best practices we are doing well growing the Technology Jobs and a number of other jobs which require a lot of skills. This is been a particular point of frustration. If you are talking about reentry , one thing we always talk about is preentry and trying to avoid the need for reentry investments in the first place. I could not let this meeting go by without mentioning programs like the one we talked about four, jobs were americas graduates for americas graduates. 93 success rate of keeping the most at risk kids in school. Really significantly increasing their chances of having a job youre out. A year out. Governor sandoval has done an unbelievable job in nevada increasing the program there and we are very grateful to a number of folks who have helped us grow in a number of states. The last point i want to make on apprenticeships, you mentioned switzerland specifically. I was over there are couple months ago and have a phenomenal u. S. Ambassador to with your length to switzerland who took us to a couple of swiss companies. One of the things that was very interesting to me to learn that she mentioned the apprenticeships go so far beyond the typical manufacturing field. I spoke to the north american ceo of one of the big swiss banks. This is a topnotch banker. He started his career as an apprentice in switzerland. We are working very hard in delaware to try to follow that lead. We have invested significantly increasing 15 fold over the next year the number of Career Pathways for High School Juniors and singers to get handson experience juniors and seniors to get handson experience in College Credit under their belt and to graduate with real certificates of tangible credentials and skills and the like. There is so much going on in this field, as it should be when i visit delaware businesses , i ask one question, what can we do to facilitate your success. The overwhelming majority, well over 95 , the answer has to do with having access to a skilled workforce. I appreciate the focus that you bring and any insights you might have about programs that are working effectively around the country, particularly at that at risk population folks who would love to have a job but end up doing things they should not be doing and get caught in this vicious cycle. Thank you for your observations and your leadership. A couple quick points. The ceo of Zurich InsuranceCompany Started out as an apprentice. With the help of zurich and a Community College in chicago, we will be putting in an Apprenticeship Program for the insurance industry. The main observation i would make is to think broadly about the application of this model. It applies in virtually every sector where you have a demand need in your community. You can get folks in at a very young age. In terms of the point about former offenders, i have done a lot of work in this space in maryland and nationally. You have a fully pulpit opportunity. We do a number of champions for change events to highlight employers. Monday i will be at the white house doing an event for employers who have done remarkable work in the employment of people with disabilities. Northrop grumman is an example. What i have learned in this space as it relates to hiring former offenders is you have employers like hopkins who are going to investors and they are very very proud to talk about it publicly. Ive met other employers who are doing it they prefer not to talk about it publicly. That is fine. I totally respect whatever choice they made. There are other employers thinking about doing it. They need a nudge. That is why your bully pulpit is a remarkable opportunity. When they see that Johns Hopkins , the anchor of Baltimore City is doing it and they see the Construction Company in the construction industry, ive met a lot of employers who have such shortages of Skilled Trades that this issue of whether you have a record is of no moment. One thing to keep in mind if an employer comes to you and says the sky has a record for theft, you have a tool in your toolbox. We used it with Great Success the charity by. The workforce toolbox you have you can say ok, and that is your major concern, i will ensure you against that concern. Once that employer employs one person, they will then hire more because that has been my experience. I would urge you to use your toolkit. A longerterm observation, when we when the president rolled out my brothers Keeper Initiative to address the chronic opportunity gaps confronting young men of color we had a meeting at the white house before the formal public event and we had a lot of ceos making commitments. A question was asked of the experts by a ceo who said i want to do something in this space but i dont know what to do. What are the interventions that could be the biggest difference makers on the preventions side of this to produce a pipeline of talent that we havent updated to say works . Without missing a beat, the two folks in the room said you should replicate the sixyear High School Model that has been put in place in a number of cities. We funded this to the tune of 150 million in competitive grant programs. There is a ptech academy in brooklyn. Sarah good academy in chicago. Great 914 ibm has been the lead corporate sponsor. They have built a stem model where the curriculum is totally open source. You have your partner with an employer. You have a mentor at ibm. You are not only learning in the classroom some rigorous and validated curriculum, but getting those opportunities to see what its like. When i was at Frederick Douglass high school in west baltimore the thing that sticks in my mind most was the kid who was a High School Senior who said im smart, im doing well in school, but i dont have any ap courses here. You go to places like sarah good and ptech and you see young kids of color you have high minority, high poverty highperforming. They are building the pipeline to the future, giving kids opportunity. If you are thinking about how to build Educational Opportunity and to take and apply the principles that we know work the principle of partnership the principle of demand driven, the principle of a stem foundation, these programs work. They are open source. Can pick up the phone and call ibm and i guarantee they will be on the next plane to visit your community and he will brainstorm with you about how to build a program. It may be a health care focus in your city or maybe a narrow space bogus somewhere else. Aerospace focus somewhere else. States and local governments are really helping to catalyze this sort of innovation that helps prevent that cycle. Thank you. I want to thank you for your emphasis on apprenticeships. Last year, the state of iowa tripled our funding for partnerships and then we also got significant dollars from your department, the department. They are really being used you mentioned i. T. Being used. Because of our success, we have some big Construction Projects we have facebook and google and microsoft all Building Data centers in my state. In the excess of they are now in the third or fourth building, its over 1 billion investment. This skill shortage is what the Lieutenant Governor and i hear everywhere we go. We visit with employers and that is the big thing. Apprenticeships and convincing parents you mention this these are great careers, they pay well and you dont end up with a used huge amount of college debt. The more we can partner on that and encourage friendships, the better. Another area to find skilled workers, we passed a homebased i want to make it more attractive for military veterans. There is a major reduction going on in the military. Iowa to make it more attractive for military veterans. Those are a couple places we think are some real opportunities to help build the workforce of the future. People will have careers my Lieutenant Governor is also heading up the stem council and we are focusing on preparing the kids in our schools. I want you to know how much we appreciate the assistance we are getting from the department of labor and your support for that. Thank you. We are dramatically reengineering ourselves as we Work Together with you. The old model of friendship friendship, our primary role, we were Quality Control officer. Making sure that a Partnership ProgramsApprenticeship Programs are rigorous programs. We also found we are a facilitator. We are attempting to capitalize publicprivate partnerships, working with the business committee, working with states working with local governments educators, nonprofit partners to make sure that we can indeed dramatically expand and we are working with ive looked at apprenticeship maps around the country. They are structured differently in different states. Sometimes they tend to be off on their own. One take away i would recommend you consider is figure out where partnership is in your state. There is a wide array of structure. Im not recommending one structure over another but i am recommending you take a close look at it and make sure that its embedded somehow in the workforce system. It really is a critical workforce tool. Our experience was, when we were advocating for this, we were able to get a Rare Coalition of building and construction trades and unions and the nonunion contractors who critically need people in the manufacturing Business Community all on board. We were able to get broadbased bipartisan support. It is working extremely well. Our department is playing a key role in coordinating all that. Thank you. Thank you. We have time for one more question. Governor fallin had one. We appreciate your chairmanship and you are being here today. I want to thank you for the flexibility that you are giving the states. There are a lot of great things happening. With innovation and workforce investment programs, we appreciate the 15 set aside. One of the things we have done in oklahoma, we lost a program called oklahoma works. We took our workforce Investment Board and developed it into a different regions of the state analyzed specific metric data within our department of commerce and work with our colleges and career tax to figure out what types of courses and careers to do because they are offering and degrees to