Lit Review #1

  United States. Cong. House. Committee on Education and the Workforce. Putting America Back to Work: Reforming the Nation's Workforce Investment System : Hearing before the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, Committee on Education and the Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Thirteenth Congress, First Session, Hearing Held in Washington, DC, February 26, 2013. 113th Cong., 1st sess. HR 113-5. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

 Putting America Back to Work is a congressional transcript of the 1st hearing over the issues with updating the Federal laws on job training.  The current law is Workforce Investment Act which was created in 1998.  WIA is an act which was made to consolidate, coordinate, and improve employment, training, literacy, and vocational rehabilitation programs in the United States, and for other purposes. In other words, the act is responsible for providing job training and placement for citizens. The bill is in need of updating and a panel was created to discuss the pros and cons of updating or replacing it. The leading bill made to replace WIA is the SKILLS Act. SKILLS stands for Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Life Long Skills and is focused on consolidation of smaller local training and placement facilities. This Bill is supported by Chairwoman Foxx. The main speakers are "Mr. Chris Hart is president and CEO of Workforce Florida, Inc., the nonprofit, public-private organization charged with policy setting and oversight of Florida's workforce system. Dr. Scott Ralls is the seventh president of the North Carolina Community College System, which is one of the largest systems of higher education in the United States, and is internationally recognized for its programs to foster economic and workforce development. Dr. Harry Holzer serves as a professor of public policy at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute and is a faculty director and is faculty director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Public Policy. Dr. Todd Gustafson serves as the executive director of Michigan Works!, Berrien Cass Van Buren, one of the 25 workforce development boards in the state of Michigan" (p. 8-9).

This article is very helpful because it acts to acclimate me with current workforce laws and issues pertaining to vocational training and placement. It also provided reliable numbers and real issues with the current system. One important quote is "America's 143 million working people and its 12 million job seekers represent diverse groups with a variety of needs. The comprehensive workforce system must use a holistic approach to advance people along a continuum that leads to work opportunities, career advancement, and economic and family stability" (p. 55). This shows specific and reliable numbers and vocational employees. Another quote is said by Mr. Holtz on page 45. "We heard stunning stories at the depths of the great recession in 2009 and 2010. There were welder shortages around the country. Welding isn't necessarily rocket science. There were thousands of unemployed welders, but they didn't have exactly the skill set often sought by particular employers at that time."  This explained some of the short comings of skilled labor.  Yet another is "It is very important that we institute reforms in our workforce system to better integrate and better coordinate our nation's higher education programs with our workforce systems and to make both of them more responsive to the needs of the U.S. labor market and the economy, but a simple consolidation of many programs into one with fewer dollars attached does not necessarily help us achieve this goal" (p. 21).  This quote references higher education and how it needs to be viewed in conjunction with vocations.  
attached is a video of the Chairwoman Foxx.  She is discussing education versus training as she does often and did during the meeting I have discussed. 

This is over all an extremely useful resource and also a great stepping stone to my paper and topic choice.