1 Ready to Work 1 Ready to Work 1.1 THE 180-DAY ASSIGNMENT: PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM ON JOB-DRIVEN TRAINING “So tonight, I've asked Vice President Biden to lead an across-the-board reform of America’s training programs to make sure they have one mission: train Americans with the skills employers need, and match them to good jobs that need to be filled right now. That means more on-the-job training, and more apprenticeships that set a young worker on an upward trajectory for life. It means connecting companies to community colleges that can help design training to fill their specific needs. And if Congress wants to help, you can concentrate funding on proven programs that connect more ready-to-work Americans with ready-to-be-filled jobs.” th — President Obama, State of the Union, January 28 , 2014 In his 2014 State of the Union address, as President Obama called for “a year of action” and predicted “a breakthrough year for America” in 2014, he emphasized the vital priority of equipping Americans with the skills needed to realize the economic opportunity that a renewed American economy could provide. Two days later, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, he signed a Presidential Memorandum on Job-Driven Training for Workers, assigning Vice President Biden and the Secretaries of Labor, Commerce, and Education – working closely with the National Economic Council, the Domestic Policy Council, the Council of Economic Advisers, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Office of Management and Budget – to develop within 180 days an action plan to make America’s workforce and training system “more job-driven, integrated and effective.” The Presidential Memorandum called for this action plan to include “concrete steps to make federal workforce and training programs and policies more focused on imparting relevant skills with job-market value, more easily accessed by employers and job seekers, and more accountable for producing positive employment and earning outcomes for the people they serve.” Under the leadership of Vice President Biden, Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the Administration engaged in an intensive review to identify, initiate, and implement actions to make federal employment and training programs and policies more job-driven and effective, consistent with existing statutory authority. This review benefitted from the work not only of the Departments of Labor, Commerce, and Education, but also from the constructive engagement of Cabinet Secretaries and leaders of employment, training, education, and workforce development programs in the Departments of 4