$8 billion to tackle U.S. skills shortage

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17 februari 2012 | Obama wants to invest $8 billion into community college programs teaching skills needed in the U.S. economy. Goal is to train an additional 2 million students by providing funding for paid internships and apprenticeships.

U.S. President Obama announced a $8 billion (€6,1 billion) plan tomassively boost the training of students attending communitycolleges. These offer a range of different degrees, take 2 or 4years and often provide higher vocational education comparable touniversities of applied sciences.

In his last State of the Union Address, Obama already pledged “a national commitment to train twomillion Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job. Nowyou need to give more community colleges the resources they need tobecome community career centers – places that teach people skillsthat local businesses are looking for right now, from datamanagement to high-tech manufacturing.”

Paid internships and apprenticeships

Now, he wants to deliver on that promise by making fundsavailable for community college training programs tailored toskills highly demanded in the economy. Especially on-site trainingthrough apprenticeships or paid internships would be financiallysupported.

Whether this plan will go through in the end remains to be seen.The opposition has a majority in the U.S. Congress which needs toapprove the plans put forward by Obama. In the recent past,Republicans did not support increased spending and some of theirrepresentatives already hinted that they would not make anexception this time either.

For a more thorough analysis of Obama’s education budgetproposals, click here.