Manufacturing has been the foundation of American success for over a century. Indeed, the United States was the unquestioned leader in all aspects of the world economy over that century. Our own successes – the airplane, the computer, the internet – now make it easier though for others to compete with us. We’ve made the world a smaller place, and in so doing have created global competitors we never before had to worry about.

We, of course, welcome these competitors into the global economy. Through a broad commitment to free trade among nations, we have opened opportunity to billions of people and spurred tremendous growth in the world economy. The simultaneous advances in technology have made a truly integrated global economy possible.

To offer just one example of this, I recently read a story about the creation of Boeing’s newest design and manufacturing marvel, the 787 Dreamliner. The plane is manufactured separately in Kansas, South Carolina, Japan, and Italy and then brought by sea, air, and land to the Boeing plant in Seattle for assembly. They have perfected the process to where assembly of the plane takes just 3 days. Only some extremely advanced logistics enabled by technology and dependable trade makes this possible.

This globally integrated supply chain, along with innovations in material science and aerodynamics, has allowed Boeing to leap-frog their competitors from across the pond and book hundreds of new orders for the plane. This, of course, creates thousands of highly skilled and highly paid jobs in Kansas, South Carolina, and Washington.

Foreign companies have seen the benefit of locating their operations in United States as well. One that comes immediately to mind is Toyota. I had the opportunity to visit their engine plant in Huntsville, Alabama and see first hand the advanced manufacturing processes done by American workers, and the advanced logistics that allow them to move those engines just-in-time to the San Antonio assembly plant and eventually, to the just announced Northern Mississippi plant.

It is a true testament to our economy that at a time when Asian manufacturing is all the rage, Asian manufacturers are choosing to locate their operations in the United States. They and their successful American counterparts have demonstrated that U.S. manufacturing workers can compete in the global economy by focusing on innovation. Routinized, low skill jobs may be done anywhere in the world, but only a free and open society with educated and skilled individuals can drive innovation, constantly creating new high wage, high skill jobs.

The projections for the U.S. economy confirm this fact. 90 percent of the fastest growing jobs and 63 percent of all new jobs will require a post secondary education. A closer look at the numbers reveals that three-quarters of those fastest growing jobs require not just post-secondary education, but a college degree. And two-thirds of the high-wage, high-growth jobs will require a full Bachelor’s Degree.

It does not require looking at projections though to understand the importance of education in today’s economy. Figures from last year show that individuals with a 4-year college degree have half the unemployment rate and earn nearly double the wages of workers with only a high school education.

This is, of course, a dramatic shift from the 20th century. Traditional manufacturing used to offer Americans with a high school diploma strong, secure jobs with wages enough to raise a family, own a home, and save for retirement. As those jobs have disappeared or moved overseas, advanced manufacturing has emerged as the core of American production. It was this transition that focused the nation’s attention on globalization and the nation’s political and economic leaders on the importance of skilled labor.

Though there are other obvious challenges such as health care costs, regulatory burdens, and infrastructure limits, the supply of skilled workers has proved to be a new and central challenge to the success of manufacturing. Whether foreign or domestic, manufacturers in the United States are only as innovative and productive as the workers that they employ. That has thrust my agency, the Employment & Training Administration, into a lead role in addressing the transformation in manufacturing.

We administer a $15 billion system of employment and job training programs that are intended to help individuals gain new skills and find new jobs. This system was created back in 1933 as one of the many New Deal programs and expanded continuously from the 1960s on. Most of the programs under this system were designed for the era when a high school education was all the economy required, and as a result, our programs were oriented more towards social services rather than education and training.

Now that the economy, and particularly manufacturing, has transformed, it is incumbent upon us to keep pace. Many of the workers that were laid-off during the transition from traditional to advanced manufacturing look to us to provide them with new employment opportunities. This is only possible though, if they possess skills that are in demand.

So to better connect our system with jobs and education opportunities, the Administration created a series of initiatives designed to engage both employers and education institutions. The first is the High Growth Job Training Initiative. By partnering with employers and engaging educational institutions, the High Growth Initiative hopes to demonstrate to how to put employers back in charge of talent development.

There are several excellent examples of this Initiative here in North Texas. The first is the Community Learning Center’s Aerospace Industry Training Project. By upgrading the skills of both current and potential aerospace workers, the project is providing critical area employers such as Lockheed Martin, Bell Helicopter, and Southwest Airlines with the skilled workers they need to thrive in the Dallas-Ft. Worth region.

Another is the Supply Chain Logistics Certification Program run by the North Central Texas Workforce Board and the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center. As I mentioned earlier, advanced supply chain logistics are what make an integrated global economy possible and all manufacturers must have employees with the skills to understand these logistics if they expect to be part of a larger supply chain. Training workers in these critical skills must be a part of any region’s manufacturing strategy.