Bipartisan push for vocational training focuses on funding, curricula

Democrats and Republicans say they are pushing for more vocational training by seeking federal funding and promoting employment opportunities that don’t require a bachelor’s degree.

At The Hill’s “Upskilling For Today & Tomorrow” event on Wednesday, Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) said high schools “need to be the place where we start teaching life skills.”

In an interview with The Hill’s Steve Clemons, Braun called for “changing curricula to reflect what we as employers need.”

.@SenatorBraun: “high school curriculum needs to be the place we start teaching life skills” #TheHillUpskilling https://t.co/3uBPSTuEHR pic.twitter.com/Do0WKJO1xB

— The Hill Events (@TheHillEvents) September 22, 2021

Braun is the ranking member on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D), who also spoke at the event sponsored by Philip Morris International, said “there are open jobs today that have a skills gap where we know that we can get people to the skills and help people go from the hourly economy, where they may be making $14 an hour, to a good position with benefits.”

Polis said that the gap can be “bridged with a several-week class to perhaps as much as six months of training.”

The former House lawmaker added that his state aims to use funding from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan passed by Congress in March to finance scholarships for local workforce centers and “innovative programs to bridge the skills gap.”

.@GovofCO @jaredpolis: “we see community colleges in partnership with employers in their area, creating training programs that aren’t necessarily terminated in an associate’s degree, but are quicker and less expensive” #TheHillUpskilling https://t.co/3uBPSTuEHR pic.twitter.com/76Ds5xTpYm

— The Hill Events (@TheHillEvents) September 22, 2021