January 29, 2015
The President’s Task Force on New Americans and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS) invite you to participate in three listening sessions to discuss
federal strategies to strengthen the economic, linguistic, and civic
integration of new Americans. Three sessions are planned:
-
Thursday,
Jan. 29, 2015 from 1 to 2 p.m. (Eastern)
-
Tuesday,
Feb. 3, 2015, from 1 to 2 p.m. (Eastern)
-
Thursday,
Feb. 5, 2015, from 1 to 2 p.m. (Eastern)
On Nov. 21, 2014, President Barack Obama issued
a memorandum establishing a White House Task Force on New Americans,
an interagency effort to develop a coordinated federal strategy to better
integrate new Americans into communities. Read more about the Task Force and the call for feedback.
During these listening sessions, Task Force
members, including OCTAE leaders, and USCIS officials will provide an overview
of the Task Force on New Americans and seek your feedback on best practices or
strategies for successfully integrating immigrants and refugees into local
communities.
To register for these sessions, please
follow the steps below:
- Visit the USCIS registration page to confirm your
participation
-
Click here to register for the January 29th session
focusing on receiving communities
-
Click here to register for the February 3rd session
focusing on economic and linguistic integration
-
Click here to register for the
February 5th session focusing on civic integration
- Enter your email address and select “Submit”
- Select “Subscriber Preferences”
- Select the “Event Registration” tab
- Provide your full name and organization
-
Complete the questions and select “Submit”
Once USCIS processes your registration, you will
receive a confirmation email with additional details. If you have any questions
about the registration process, or if you do not receive a confirmation email
within two business days, please email Public.Engagement@uscis.dhs.gov.
Note to the media: This engagement is not for press purposes. Please contact
the USCIS Press Office at (202) 272-1200 for any media inquiries. If you have
questions regarding the engagement or other stakeholder matters, please email Public.Engagement@uscis.dhs.gov.Back to Top
Last year brought
unparalleled advances in workforce education and training. In July 2014,
President Obama signed the overwhelmingly bipartisan Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)—the most
significant reform of job training programs in more than a decade. The new law offers an
unprecedented opportunity for the business community to partner with adult
education and workforce providers. This will allow employers to customize
training and upskill their frontline workforces, expanding job access and opportunity
for all Americans.
See a U.S. Department of Education blog post, coauthored by
Secretary Arne Duncan and U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, detailing
these opportunities.
Concurrent with the
signing of the WIOA, Vice President
Biden released his landmark report, Ready to Work: Job-Driven Training and American
Opportunity, a
review of the nation’s training programs. The goal of the report is to ensure
that workers attain the education and skills they need to progress along their chosen
career pathways, and that employers find skilled workers to support the economy.
The WIOA and other new reform efforts opened
the door for workforce education and training grant programs. As a result,
the Department of Education was tasked by the vice president’s Ready to Work Initiative
to develop a new employment and training website. This website—Tools for Building Employer-Educator Partnerships—is designed to
introduce both employers and educators to the value of partnering together;
describe best practices and success stories; and, disseminate evidence-based tools that contain academic and practical
solutions for building partnerships, sustaining collaborations, and creating
career pathways.
Employer-educator
partnerships hold the potential to
- increase foundation skills development
within the workplace;
- foster new skills development and
internal job promotion;
- provide stepping stones for low-wage,
entry-level workers to more viable employment; and,
- link education/training and workforce
development to labor market trends and needs.
All
interested parties, particularly those providing services to adult learners,
are encouraged to visit the website to help facilitate
the adaption of new resources, initiate new partnerships, and strengthen
existing partnerships.
Any
questions about the website and its content are welcome by emailing employers@ed.gov.Back to Top
February is Career
and Technical Education (CTE) Month. In
honor of that, this column focuses on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS’)
national employment
projections
between 2012 and 2022, especially as they relate to jobs that require less than
a four-year degree.
Between 2012 and
2022, total employment is projected to increase by 10.8 percent, or an
additional 15.6 million jobs. The bulk
of this growth is projected to be in service-providing industries. Leading the way is the health care and social
assistance sector, with an annual projected growth rate of 2.6 percent. This is an addition of 5 million jobs, or nearly
one-third of the total projected jobs increase.
In this sector,
registered nurses requiring an associate’s degree are projected to have the
most job openings over the next decade (526,800). The field of nursing assistance, which
requires postsecondary non-degree training, is projected to gain 312,200 new
jobs.
Several health care
and social assistance sector jobs with currently low employment rates are
expected to grow rapidly during the decade, including diagnostic medical
sonographers, occupational therapy assistants, physical therapist assistants,
and dental hygienists. Each of these
occupations typically requires an associate’s degree.
In addition to new
jobs, job openings occur from the need to replace workers who retire or
otherwise permanently leave an occupation.
According to the BLS’ projections, 50.6 million total (new and
replacement) job openings are projected between 2012 and 2022.
Jobs requiring
postsecondary education tend to pay better.
In general, they had higher median wages in 2012 ($57,770), and are
projected to grow faster between 2012 and 2022 (by 14 percent), than
occupations that require a high school diploma or less ($27,670 median salary
with a 9.1 percent growth rate).
Apprenticeships are
growing faster than any other on-the-job training, and are forecasted to grow
by 22.2 percent during the decade.Back to Top
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