US DEPT. OF EDUCATION: Secretaries DeVos and Shulkin Statement on the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017
PRESS RELEASE ISSUED 8/16/ 17
https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/secretaries-devos-and-shulkin-statement-harry-w-colmery-veterans-educational-assistance-act-2017
Washington — Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin released the following statement after President Trump signed the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017 into law.
"This important legislation will give countless veterans and their families greater access to the education and workforce training they deserve. It will provide them the opportunity to invest in their futures with fewer restrictions and time limitations. We thank House Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chairman Phil Roe and Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs Chairman Johnny Isakson for getting this bill passed so our nation's veterans can access lifelong learning that will help them succeed in our 21st Century economy."
US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Dear Washington: Messages from Main Street on Developing an Educated Workforce, Part 2
https://www.uschamber.com/above-the-fold/dear-washington-messages-main-street-developing-educated-workforce-part-2
As part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's #LetsGrow campaign, we are visiting entrepreneurs in their hometowns, sitting down with small business owners during their visits to Washington, and listening to America's job creators during roundtables and congressional hearings to hear what they need from Washington to grow their business.
Our objective is simple: we want to find out what barriers are holding back today’s small businesses from growth and what we can do to send Washington lawmakers a clear message. We've heard about an array of issues, but one core message keeps shining through: growing the economy must be our nation’s top priority.
US LABOR DEPT. BlOG: Building on a Proud History of Apprenticeship
DATE POSTED 8/ 16/ 17
https://blog.dol.gov/2017/08/16/building-proud-history-apprenticeship
For over 100 years, North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU) and its signatory contractors have funded and operated a skilled craft apprenticeship system that is the envy of the world.
Our apprenticeship and workplace-based training is an “earn while you learn” system that offers young people the chance to learn from the best trained construction workers in North America.
When they complete their apprenticeship, these men and women have a portable, nationally recognized credential that they can take anywhere in the country, one that comes with good pay and benefits that will support them and their families.
As U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta noted during the Trump Administration’s Apprenticeship Week, “The Building Trades unions, working together with contractors, spend more than $1 billion per year funding a nationwide network of nearly 1,600 teaching centers. The industry understands the benefits of a skilled workforce and is willing to pay to teach its workers.”
An additional important feature is that most apprenticeship programs in the building trades have been assessed for college credit, which participants can apply toward an associate or bachelor’s degree. To be sure, apprenticeship in the building trades is the “other four-year degree.”
Apprenticeship programs have also proven to provide a greater return for employers. Economic return on investment has shown that employers gain a return for craft training of as much as $3 to every $1 that is invested, according to the Construction Industry Institute; this includes improved safety, elimination of rework, and increased productivity of the craft worker. Similarly, apprenticeship graduates earn substantially more over a career than their counterparts who did not complete an apprenticeship.
The joint administration of apprenticeship and training enables contractors and craft organizations to develop and modify training in real time, in order to better fit the needs of the industry. The rigorous training and education curricula are developed in a manner that is career-centered and allows for a readily available supply of skilled labor for the industry, rather than to a single employer’s immediate needs. This is a win for workers and businesses alike.
As we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the National Apprenticeship Act this August, I believe it behooves us to remind ourselves of the original purpose of the Act, which was “to formulate and promote the furtherance of labor standards necessary to safeguard the welfare of apprentices and to cooperate with the States in the promotion of such standards.”
As apprenticeship programs are created or expanded, they should be tethered to the original intent of the Fitzgerald Act, which encompassed high labor standards, embraced the concept of collective bargaining, and ensured apprenticeship program rigor and quality. These are still important issues today as we equip workers with career skills. While we encourage and support robust apprenticeship programs to meet the needs of employers and industries, we also must safeguard the welfare of apprentices.
NABTU supported the passage of and today celebrates the 80th anniversary of the Act, and we are excited about working in partnership with the Administration and Secretary Acosta to expand successful apprenticeship programs across a range of industries. As the leading historical practitioners of apprenticeship training and education in America, we would urge others to learn from our history, and we look forward to offering our insights and expertise on a successful model that has served workers and the construction industry well for over a century.
US DEPT. OF LABOR BLOG: Inclusion and Innovation: Expanding the American Apprenticeship Model
BLOG POST 8/ 16/ 17
https://blog.dol.gov/2017/08/16/inclusion-and-innovation-expanding-american-apprenticeship-model
Post-World War II America saw a generation of workers who were unlikely to have gone to college, but rather learned their trades on the job. What they missed in the classroom, they made up for with experience and, in doing so, fueled the greatest period of social mobility and economic growth this country has ever seen.
Two generations later, with rising student debt and low-income students being left behind by the cost of college, we find ourselves looking again to a workforce-training approach that meets the needs of our changing economy and can ready the next generation of American talent.
That approach is apprenticeships. And while apprenticeships have been around for the better part of the last century, for most of this time, the apprenticeship model has been specific to skilled trades. However, the model has expanded to answer the needs of today's changing economy by including fields such as finance and professional services. At the same time we celebrate the 80th anniversary of apprenticeships in the United States, Aon and other professional services firms are forging new ground between education and employment via apprenticeship programs.
Apprenticeships involve training toward a specific professional role and a promise to achieve that role and a career path at the end. The Aon Apprenticeship Program is an innovative and proven model that demonstrates that apprenticeships are not only relevant, but can help create a more diverse, high-skilled, and motivated workforce in the areas of our economy that are growing most quickly − professional services and technology.
Aon has partnered with community colleges to link associate degrees to on-the-job experience. Launched in January 2017, the Aon Apprenticeship Program gives talented students from Chicago’s City Colleges the opportunity to gain experience in fields such as cyber security and risk mitigation. The apprentices − ages 18-24 and high school graduates − receive a competitive salary, full-time benefits, on-the-job training, college tuition, and an associate degree. Once they graduate, they are offered full-time employment and a set career path at Aon.
Aon benefits, too, getting access to a previously untapped talent pipeline. Employers often complain about a lack of skilled workers. At Aon, we have learned that the talent is out there. You just have to look for it in unaccustomed places. Crafting a training program in conjunction with a local community allows you to do it.
We don’t want our smart, capable young people to experience a slowly eroding pathway to success and stability. If we want to talk about creating jobs and a next-generation economy, then we need to commit seriously to bringing the next generation into the picture. Talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. At Aon, we’ve learned that, and we’re learning everyday through our apprentices that inclusion and innovation go hand in hand.
NASA Successfully Launches Latest Communications Satellite
PRESS RELEASE ISSUED: 8/ 18/ 17
NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M (TDRS-M), which is the third and final in a series of next generation communications satellites, has successfully been placed into orbit following separation from an United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. TDRS-M launched Friday at 8:29 a.m. EDT from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Ground controllers report the satellite is in good health at the start of a four-month checkout in space by its manufacturer, Boeing. NASA will conduct additional tests before putting TDRS-M into service early next year. When ready, TDRS-M will become part of NASA’s Space Network providing navigation and high-data-rate communications to the International Space Station, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, rockets and a host of other spacecraft.
“The TDRS fleet is a critical connection delivering science and human spaceflight data to those who can use it here on Earth,” said Dave Littmann, the TDRS project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “TDRS-M will expand the capabilities and extend the lifespan of the Space Network, allowing us to continue receiving and transmitting mission data well into the next decade.”
The mission of the TDRS project, established in 1973, is to develop, launch and deliver data communications relay spacecraft to support NASA's Space Network, which provides high-data-rate communications and accurate navigation. The TDRS-M spacecraft is effectively identical -- in both function and performance -- to the TDRS-K and -L spacecraft launched in 2013 and 2014, respectively.
The TDRS fleet began operating during the space shuttle era with the launch of TDRS-1 in 1983. Of the TDRS spacecraft launched to date, only two have been retired and five of the nine operational satellites have exceeded their design life and continue to provide essential communications and navigation services.
Boeing conducted spacecraft integration and testing earlier this year at its satellite factory in El Segundo, California. After testing and confirming the spacecraft was ready for shipment, launch processing began following TDRS-M’s arrival in Florida June 23.
NASA's Space Communications and Navigation program, known as SCaN, is part of the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington, and is responsible for the Space Network. The TDRS project office at Goddard manages the TDRS development program. Management of the launch service for TDRS-M is the responsibility of NASA’s Launch Services Program based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. ULA provided the Atlas V rocket launch service.
WORLD & NATIONAL NEWS BRIEFS
UN NEWS CENTER:
UN aid workers urge safe passage for civilians fleeing northern Iraq ahead of battle
22 August 2017 – Warning of harassment, revenge attacks and abuse of civilians displaced from the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar, United Nations refugee and migration agencies today called for people trying to flee the city ahead of military operations to have safe passage.
UN labour agency launches global panel to address rapid transformations in the world of work
21 August 2017 – The United Nations labour agency has launched a high-level international body that will chart the course towards a future of decent and sustainable work opportunities for all, and to tackle the challenges of delivering social justice in today's rapidly transforming world of work.
NATIONAL
BOSTON GLOBE: Forgotten for 300 years, ‘The Dutch Lady’ rediscovered on Copley library shelf
“The Dutch Lady,” a play that appears to have been forgotten for centuries, has found a new life this summer on the London stage.
Big protests expected as Trump goes to Phoenix for rally
WASHINGTON(Reuters) - Large protests could greet President Donald Trump on Tuesday when he travels to Arizona for his first campaign rally since he caused an uproar with his remarks about a white nationalist demonstration in Virginia.
Daily Bible Verse: He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
Romans 8:32 NKJV
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