Executive Director & CEO's Message
March 2021
NCATC Friends and Colleagues,
Our collaboration with the National Skills Coalition is expanding…
Different industries have experienced the COVID-19 pandemic in different ways. Recognizing this, the Biden Administration and new Congress are poised to make significant investments in industry-specific economic recovery policies. For these policies to succeed, industry leaders must shape them – specifically, business leaders, labor leaders, colleges, training providers, workforce boards, and others who have been a part of successful industry-specific workforce training strategies.
Between March and July 2021, the National Skills Coalition (NSC) and Business Leaders United for Workforce Partnerships (BLU) will create that opportunity. NSC will convene industry leaders to influence federal recovery policies and ensure they include investments in workforce training and supports so that workers and businesses can adapt to structural shifts within their industries.
NCATC has been selected to be part of the Manufacturing Industry Recovery Panel, which will help shape the Biden Administration’s “Made in All of America” initiative and related policies through meetings with the Department of Commerce and Congressional leadership. Policy recommendations will include ways to support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for effective training and support, such as:
- Continued expansion of apprenticeships and other work-based learning,
- Investing in digital upskilling to support advances in high-tech manufacturing,
- Supporting more agile postsecondary education for a more agile manufacturing workplace,
- Creating a 21st Century Extension Partnership to align workforce and economic development strategies, and
- Establishing a White House Interagency Sub Taskforce on Skills for an Inclusive Economic Recovery.
These panels will:
- Provide industry-specific feedback to NSC and BLU on the recovery proposals in our Skills for an Inclusive Economic Recovery federal policy agenda and
- Meet with White House advisors, agency leaders, and congressional leaders to inform their industry-specific recovery efforts.
Consistent with NSC’s Inclusive Economic Recovery framework, NCATC wants to help ensure these initiatives address:
- The disproportionate impact of the economic crisis on workers of color, immigrants, and workers with a high school diploma or less;
- The essential role of businesses that hire locally and invest in their people but need policymakers to be their partners; and
- The moral and economic imperative to dismantle structural racism in workforce education and training.
We are aware that skills training alone will not ensure an inclusive recovery, but it must be part of our nation’s federal policy response. The time is NOW to get much more actively involved in federal, state, and local policies that will set priorities and funding for the future of work.
Our Winter 2021 Webinar Series has focused on Access, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in partnership with both ACTE (January) and NSC (February). You can find the first two webinar recordings on the NCATC website here. And as always, we encourage you to stay regularly connected and up to date on all ATC and CTE-related activities and guidance, via the weekly updated NCATC website, social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.), and quarterly e-newsletters.
