Speeches by Secretary Elaine L. Chao

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Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
April 15, 2002

Thank you, Dr. Fernandez for the kind introduction.

Let also thank Dr. Antonio Flores and members of the association for the invitation to join you this afternoon. I’d also like to recognize Director of the National Science Foundation, Rita Colwell.

This is one luncheon I knew I just couldn’t miss.

The Department of Labor has a great working relationship with the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), and I’m here to tell you that we want to make that relationship even stronger!

I’ve heard that the conferences and forums you’ve had on workforce development have drawn standing-room-only crowds -- and that after the November 1999 meeting in Santa Monica, you’ve learned to order more chairs and even bigger rooms!

The links forged at these meetings, between members of the business and educational community and the Department of Labor, have been invaluable.

Equally important been your efforts over the past ten years to place Hispanic American interns at federal agencies. This is a great program, which benefits everyone.

The Department of Labor may be among the top five executive departments in employing Hispanic Americans – currently over 1,100 men and women of Hispanic-descent work at the Department – but we’re a little short on Hispanic interns …

Over the next few minutes, I’d like to talk to you about your role in meeting the challenges of the 21^st century workplace – and how together we can develop new and creative partnerships to help more Hispanics achieve the American dream.

Before I go any further, I want to say that the colleges and universities you represent, are the training providers of choice for America’s growing Hispanic workforce.

You’re the Bush Administration’s solution to the skills gap. You will create the necessary intellectual capital and work ethic to drive the economy of the 21^st century.

As everyone in this audience knows, nearly one of every five new entrants to the workplace today is Hispanic.Hispanics are, and will continue to be, the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S.By the year 2050, they will comprise at least a quarter of our nation’s population.

The ramifications of these statistics are enormous.

Hispanics already have become the backbone of a number of industries. They now hold over 17 percent of all construction jobs -- and are moving into other key sectors of the economy like technology.

Recently, there has been an increase in the accident rate among Hispanic construction workers – this deeply troubles me. Which is why the Department is launching a number of safety outreach programs to the Hispanic community. It’s also why I took aggressive action the other day against a handful of contractors, whose negligence resulted in the deaths of several Hispanic workers.

I am committed to guaranteeing that all workers -- regardless of immigration status – have a safe workplace.

It should be noted that nearly 40 percent of the workers involved in the rebuilding of the Pentagon are Hispanic. They have been instrumental in keeping the project on time and on budget. But I think we would all like to see the day when more structural designers and electrical engineers on construction sites are equally of Hispanic origin as well.

Now I know that I don’t have to explain the “skills gap” to the people in this room. You’re all aware that to keep this post-industrial economy humming, we’ll need to double the number of computer engineers to over 600,000. We’ll also need a half a million new health care aids and as many high-tech support specialists.

Who will help fill these positions?Hispanic Americans.And who will help play a significant role in providing the training?You will.

You’ve got a proven track record when it comes to training workers for occupations that are needed in this speed-of-light, global economy.

Saint Philips College in San Antonio, for example, has a program called the Alamo Area Aerospace Academy. Together, with their Boeing, Lockheed Martin and other partners, they’re recruiting from a number of different high school districts to provide training for hundreds of new aerospace positions.

Santa Monica Community College in California is another institution helping to bridge the skills gap. They doing it by recruiting and training workers for desperately needed skilled transportation maintenance jobs.

Then there’s Miami-Dade Community College in Florida -- where I gave the commencement address last year --and whose official school seal should display both a thermometer and a computer chip.It graduates more nurses than any other college in the country, and is a leader in providing state-of-the-art information technology training.

With 14 million Hispanics owing computers, the demand among young Hispanics for high-tech and web-based training will only intensify – and that’s a very good thing.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of the customized programs Hispanic Serving Institutions are developing and running -- and I salute all your initiatives and successes.

You understand best the needs of local businesses and the potential of the Hispanic community. Which is why employers turn to you to provide cost-effective training and skill enhancement classes for Hispanic Americans.

No one understands better than you do that the world of work and the world of education are not worlds apart.And no one understands better than you do the needs and hopes of newly arrived immigrants.

We’ve often been told that people seeking job-training opportunities feel rather uneasy coming into government employment offices. In any case, they’re clearly more comfortable entering the door of community and small colleges, which forms the backbone of Hispanic Serving Institutions.

As the provider of choice for so many Hispanics, you will have a central role in the strategy being developed by the Department to meet the needs of the booming Hispanic population.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration will soon unveil a major education and training initiative for Hispanics that will be comprehensive, targeted, and cost-effective.

It will build on best practices and successful demonstration projects… it will develop new and improved channels of funding … it will be customized to meet special needs … and it will greatly expand the participation of community-based organizations.

Quite simply, for Hispanic Serving Institutions, it will open the door to a whole new world of opportunity.

Your role in the publicly-funded work force system is assured!

Soon, we will be soliciting your guidance and counsel on this ETA initiative.

Let me close on a personal note.

As an immigrant to this country, I deeply appreciate the role higher education plays in helping families achieve the American dream. I would not have attained my position without the help of America’s colleges -- so you truly have a friend in this Secretary.

I especially understand the need for diversity. Many of my top officers are Hispanic – from the Assistant Secretary for VETS, to the Assistant Inspector General, to the Undersecretary Director for International Labor Affairs. Moreover, 50 percent of my senior executives are women. They are all a tremendous asset to the Department and this country.

Our diversity is also a testament to President George W Bush – who, as we know, feels a real closeness to the Hispanic community. As the President recently said at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, he wants every American to have an opportunity to succeed in America.

Working together we can achieve that goal.

Thank you again for the invitation to join you for lunch. Have a great conference.

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