The Administration will launch a $100 million H-1B grant competition by
the Department of Labor to support innovative approaches to training and
successfully employing low-skill individuals with barriers to training
and employment including those with child care responsibilities, people
with disabilities, disconnected youth, and limited English proficient
workers, among others.
An 'interesting' bullet at the very end;
Information Technology Industry-Credentialing partnerships. The President’s
FY2016 budget proposes $300 million to fund IT jobs partnerships between
regional employers to develop and adopt assessments and credentials that will
give more people the chance to qualify for a better, higher-paying tech job
regardless of their pedigree.
What's missing from this press release? Two things in particular stand out to me; 1) Not a peep about getting more software development / hacking / coding / scripting / building more firmly into K-12, and 2) Nothing about encouraging and helping support startup hiring, the actual engine of job creation. How about a program which helps fund community Maker Studios across the nation?
Basically this whole things reads like $400 million of pilot studies which will go nowhere and do nothing. We'd probably be much better off running a highly publicized national / crowdsourced business competition to award 5,000 people $10k - $50k grants over the next 5 years. I'm not saying it would all be money well spent, but probably better than the distinct flushing noise I'm hearing with this one. That, or please just mail $1 back to every citizen.