Press Release - Biden-Harris Administration Announces Strategies to Train and Connect American Workers to Jobs Created by the President's Investing in America Agenda

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing new efforts to ensure all Americans can access the good jobs created by the President's Investing in America agenda, including the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. These strategies build off the Administration's Roadmap to Support Good Jobs, a collaborative agency effort to align on guideposts to build our workforce by ensuring every American—whether they go to college or not—will have equitable access to high-quality training, education, and services that provide a path to a good career without leaving their community.

Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration, private companies have announced $470 billion in manufacturing and clean energy investments, which is in addition to the $220 billion already announced by the Administration for infrastructure projects funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These projects and investments are creating good job opportunities for hardworking Americans, many of which don't require a four-year degree. Today's announcements highlight how the Administration will ensure American workers and families have access to those job opportunities and the training and skills needed to fill those jobs. First Lady Jill Biden will highlight the announcements today during her remarks at the Department of Labor's Vision 2030 National Workforce Convening.

The Investing in America Workforce Initiatives include:

• Workforce Hubs. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act are catalyzing public- and private-sector investments across the nation—including significant concentrations in key cities and regions. The Administration will partner with state and local officials, employers, unions, community colleges, high schools, and other stakeholders to ensure a diverse and skilled workforce can meet the demand for labor driven by these investments, starting with five focus regions beginning this summer: Phoenix, Columbus, Baltimore, Augusta, and Pittsburgh. These efforts will not only strengthen the five cities—they will create models the Administration will work to replicate with partners across the country.
  

• Advanced Manufacturing Workforce Sprint. The Investing in America agenda is creating demand for workers critical to building clean energy technologies, producing semiconductor chips, and driving a manufacturing boom all across the country. To help meet that rapidly growing demand, the Administration is launching a new workforce sprint to expand and diversify pathways into good jobs and careers in advanced manufacturing that don't require a four-year college degree. This national sprint will bring together employers, labor unions, workforce development organizations, and others to develop high-quality education and training standards, portable credentials, and labor-management partnerships to ensure a diverse and robust manufacturing workforce ready to lead America's manufacturing renaissance.
  

• Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy. The Department of Labor is announcing 15 cities as part of its Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy with the National League of Cities. The Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy will complement the Administration's Workforce Hubs by providing technical assistance and support to a wide range of cities to launch or scale existing workforce initiatives within their city. These initiatives will build pathways to good jobs aligned with the Biden-Harris Administration's Investing in America agenda.

In addition to these efforts, the Department of Labor will support local leaders and communities in driving workforce development efforts that build pathways for diverse workers into good jobs created by Investing in America investments. The Department will provide tools and resources for facilitating labor-management partnerships that bring together employers, labor unions, community colleges, high-road training providers, and community organizations to jointly develop and implement training programs that advance job quality, equity, and worker voice.

Workforce Hubs

The President's Investing in America agenda presents an unprecedented opportunity to help more students and workers—including women, people of color, youth, and others underrepresented in growing fields—advance in good jobs and careers in industries mobilized by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Already, President Biden has unleashed $470 billion in private sector investments in clean energy, semiconductors, and manufacturing—and that's in addition to the $220 billion in infrastructure projects that have been announced since the President signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. As a result of many of these investments, centers of opportunity have emerged around specific sectors in particular regions of the country.

To unleash the full economic and job-creation potential of these public- and private-sector investments, the Administration has identified an initial set of five Workforce Hubs, each centered on key industries. In each Hub, the Administration will partner with state and local elected officials and community leaders to drive effective place-based workforce development efforts that are essential to building an economy from the bottom up and the middle out. Each Workforce Hub, consistent with the needs of the specific city or region, will work to secure private-sector and state and local commitments to expand pre-apprenticeship and Registered Apprenticeship programs, develop or expand career and technical education programs aligned to Investing in America jobs and careers, and provide supportive services that are particularly critical to helping underrepresented students and workers succeed.

The first five Workforce Hubs are:

• Phoenix, AZ. Phoenix and the surrounding region are a growing hub for semiconductor manufacturing, optical cable, and critical mineral and battery manufacturing efforts. Investments in these sectors—along with transportation and other infrastructure projects—provide an opportunity to ensure equitable pathways to good jobs, including for workers in the local Tribal and Hispanic populations. The neighboring Four Corners region is a high-priority Energy Community where renewable energy programs, including those supporting Tribal communities, will be based. Phoenix is also using American Rescue Plan funds for innovative workforce investment, including providing child care for airport workers, redeveloping an abandoned big box store into a workforce training center, and investing in training for in-demand jobs.
  

• Columbus, OH. Columbus has emerged as a center of investment across a variety of industries—including in semiconductor manufacturing, clean energy, and transportation. In partnership with Intel, the Ohio Semiconductor Collaboration Network is developing curriculum for two-year pathways—including dual enrollment models—to semiconductor technician roles, to be shared across the nearly two dozen community colleges in the state. The city of Columbus pioneered a model to diversify construction Registered Apprenticeships, which is now being replicated elsewhere in the nation through a Department of Labor -funded partnership between TradesFutures and the National Urban League.
  

• Pittsburgh, PA. Pittsburgh is a hub for innovation across critical sectors, with strong growth in advanced manufacturing, including robotics and biomanufacturing, as well as clean energy, including batteries. The surrounding region of Southwestern Pennsylvania—a priority Energy Community that includes Pittsburgh—was awarded a Build Back Better Regional Challenge grant to expand the region's growing robotics cluster and ensure the benefits extend to rural coal-impacted communities in the region. The growth of these industries—along with significant investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in transportation, water infrastructure, and more—will continue to drive significant demand for talent. Additionally, Pittsburgh is home to world-class universities.
  

• Baltimore, MD. Baltimore's position in the Northeast Corridor makes it essential to the Administration's efforts to upgrade and improve the nation's rail service through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. In January, President Biden visited Baltimore for the kickoff to replace the 150-year-old Frederick Douglass Tunnel—a project estimated to create 30,000 jobs that will be built with a project-labor agreement between Amtrak and the local building trades unions. The Baltimore region also has a burgeoning offshore wind industry, and the Maryland Department of Labor won a Good Jobs Challenge award to support the industry's growth by implementing a new apprenticeship model in partnership with multiple employers and seven unions. The city is also using $30 million in American Rescue Plan funds to expand many workforce efforts, including credential programs to help workers get jobs in in-demand fields.
  

• Augusta, GA. Augusta and the surrounding region form a diverse community that is home to Fort Gordon, the Medical College of Georgia, and the Savannah River Nuclear Power Plant. The Augusta area is on the forefront of the Administration's sustainable domestic production agenda, with $1.4 billion in recently announced private-sector investments, including in batteries. The Administration's efforts will focus on preparing and creating pathways for people in Augusta and the surrounding areas to access the good-paying jobs created in the clean energy industry, among others.

Workforce Sprint

Through prior workforce sprints, the Administration has driven commitments to equitable workforce development and job quality improvement to address critical needs. These include efforts to expand Registered Apprenticeships in trucking and cybersecurity, and to build pathways into good jobs and careers in broadband, electrification, and construction through the Talent Pipeline Challenge.

Today, the Administration is announcing a new sprint in advanced manufacturing. Advanced manufacturing spans critical technologies of the future supported through the Investing in America agenda—from electric vehicles and semiconductors to high-tech heat pumps (super-efficient HVAC technology), as well as biobased products like medicines, vaccines, and biofuels. Many of the skills and occupations across advanced manufacturing do not require a bachelor's degree, including advanced manufacturing technicians, biomedical technicians, and machinists. Through this sprint, the Administration will work with employers, unions, and other stakeholders—such as the Manufacturing USA Institutes—to expand pre-apprenticeships, Registered Apprenticeships, and career and technical education (CTE) programs at the secondary and postsecondary level for advanced manufacturing occupations. The Administration will call on employers and others to partner to ensure these jobs are good jobs, and to expand access to underrepresented communities, such as by providing supportive services.

Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy

To complement the White House's Workforce Hubs, the Department of Labor is announcing the 15 cities that have been selected to join the Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy. Through partnership with the National League of Cities, the Academy will spur innovative and scalable city-led solutions that upskill and reskill all workers—including those who have too often been left behind—into quality, high-demand jobs in infrastructure, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing, made possible by President Biden's Investing in America agenda.

The Academy will provide its 15-member cohort with in-depth technical assistance to accelerate each city's efforts to design, develop, and launch a new workforce initiative. The initiative will leverage partnerships with local government, workforce boards, education and training providers, industry, labor unions, labor-management partnerships, and community-based organizations. City participation will culminate in the launch of new or expanded training programs that place workers in quality jobs.

Cities participating in the Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy:

• Birmingham, AL
• Chattanooga, TN
• Duluth, MN
• Fort Lauderdale, FL
• Frederick, MD
• Jamestown, NY
• Kokomo, IN
• Lansing, MI
• Missoula, MT
• Monroe, NC
• Newark, NJ
• San Antonio, TX
• Santa Fe, NM
• Saint Louis, MO
• Tempe, AZ