Contact: Karen Elzey
Skills for America’s Future
202-736-1079
karen.elzey@aspeninstitute.org
Penny Pritzker of Skills for America’s Future Lauds Mayor Emanuel’s New City Colleges Initiative
Washington, DC, December 13, 2011 –– Penny Pritzker, advisory board chair of Skills for America’s Future, a national initiative to connect employers with community colleges to provide 21st Century skills to American workers, offered the following statement regarding Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s announcement of the new “College to Careers” program yesterday evening at the Economic Club of Chicago:
“As the chair of Skills for America’s Future, a national initiative to close the skills gap, I could not be more excited about the new College to Careers effort announced by Mayor Emanuel to better prepare City Colleges of Chicago students for the jobs of today and tomorrow,” said Penny Pritzker. “Skills for America’s Future, an initiative of the Aspen Institute, focuses on creating meaningful partnerships between community colleges and employers – partnerships that lead to skilled workers and employers who are ready and willing to hire them. The time has come to reform the way America’s workforce is trained. Skills for America’s Future and efforts like the College to Careers program at City Colleges of Chicago, which focus on bringing together community college students and growing industry sectors, are leading the way.”
Skills for America’s Future, an initiative of the Aspen Institute, is a non-partisan partnership of businesses and community colleges. Its purpose is to address the dual problems of high unemployment and the difficulty many employers face in finding workers with the right skills by connecting employers to community colleges and workforce partners so students can be better equipped with the skills necessary to find and retain jobs in a 21st century economy. Announced in October 2010 by President Obama, the effort had already received commitments from some of the nation’s leading employers including Accenture, Discovery Communications, Gap, Inc., McDonald’s, the Manufacturing Institute, Motorola Solutions, Pacific Gas & Electric, UPS, and United Technologies Corporation (UTC).
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