ETA News Release: [Friday, Nov. 5, 2004]
Contact Name: Jeannine Lupton or Chad Aleshire
Phone Number: 206-553-7620 or 202-693-2703
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao Announces Nearly $1.5 Million to Expand Pool of Seattle-Area Workers in the Automotive Industry
Grant Is Part of $6.3 Million for Automotive Industry Training
SEATTLE, Wash. -- U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao today announced a grant of nearly $1.5 million to Shoreline Community College in Washington state to train workers in the automotive industry. The grant is part of a $6.3 million auto industry workforce development effort under the President's High Growth Job Training Initiative, a strategic plan to prepare workers for jobs in expanding industries. Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training Emily Stover DeRocco traveled to Seattle to present the award.
"The automotive industry will face serious labor shortages in the next decade unless a pipeline of new workers is developed to fill those jobs," said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao. "This grant of nearly $1.5 million will reach a new generation of auto industry technicians and prepare them with the skills and high-tech knowledge this industry will need."
With the grant, Shoreline Community College will develop a curriculum based on a new set of industry standards for entry-level technicians. The grant will target students with limited English proficiency, out-of-school youth, as well as incumbent and dislocated workers. Using the new curriculum, Shoreline will train 175 entry-level automotive service technicians. Of these, approximately 50 students with limited English proficiency will be trained as will 50 out-of-school youth and about 75 incumbent and dislocated workers. In addition, the new curriculum will be adapted for 42 automotive Job Corps sites nationwide.
"Developing qualified workers and diversifying the automotive workforce will go a long way toward addressing challenges facing the industry today," said DeRocco. "Students trained to national standards are the key to good jobs with career pathways and a healthy, high-quality competitive automotive industry in our country's future."
Key partners in this project include Toyota Motor Sales USA, General Motors Corp., DaimlerChrysler, American Honda, Puget Sound Auto Dealers Association, Hunter Engineering, Chevron Oil Co., Wagonmaster Corp., Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County, and WorkSource-North Seattle.
The President's High Growth Job Training Initiative is a strategic effort to better prepare workers to take advantage of new job opportunities in high growth sectors of the American economy. Through executive forums with leaders of expanding industries, critical workforce gaps and issues are identified. Solutions are then created in cooperation with employers, educational institutions and the public workforce system. For more information, please visit www.doleta.gov/BRG/JobTrainInitiative/.
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