By Laura Walling, Vice President of Government Affairs, Goodwill Industries International, Inc.
The Departments of Labor, Education and Commerce released America’s Talent Strategy: Building the Workforce for the Golden Age, as instructed by President Trump’s Executive Order, Preparing Americans for High-Paying Skilled Trades Jobs of the Future. Five pillars are highlighted in the strategy, all of which can provide opportunities for local Goodwill® organizations. An overview of the five pillars as described in the press release are outlined below:
- Demand-Driven Strategies: Expand proven work-based learning models like Registered Apprenticeships and align education programs to career pathways in priority industries to ensure direct connections to employer needs.
- Worker Mobility: Bring more Americans into the labor force by identifying skills and credentials for in-demand jobs and connecting them with personalized support, including through AI-powered tools, to help them advance.
- Integrated Systems: Streamline federal workforce development programs to empower states, unify access points to the system for workers and businesses, and advance the President’s proposal to Make America Skilled Again.
- Accountability: Improve transparency and accountability for federally funded workforce programs by improving mechanisms for measuring success and redirecting funding to programs that are proven to connect Americans with good-paying jobs.
- Flexibility and Innovation: Ensure the workforce is prepared to adapt quickly to an AI-driven economy by prioritizing AI literacy, creating new pathways to AI jobs, and fueling rapid reskilling and other innovation pilots.
The Administration will use existing budgets and authority, the regulatory process, and propose substantial legislative reforms to transform the workforce system to deliver measurable results, close skills gaps, and open high-wage career pathways. The strategy does not lay out exact timeline or funding amounts and some of the recommendations require Congressional approval. However, the strategy notes that the Department of Labor will lead coordination and implementation of all federal workforce development efforts.
The report recognizes the need to ease the benefits cliff so individuals can enhance their earnings and advance in their careers. Furthermore, it discusses barriers to job training enrollment and recognizes that individuals need supportive services like childcare and transportation to be successful.
As the nation’s largest nonprofit provider of workforce development and job training, Goodwill stands ready to engage with federal and state officials, employers, and other stakeholders as the strategy is implemented.
