2019 Outlook: IPC Advocacy for Workforce Education and Training

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The chronic shortage of skilled workers is the top business challenge facing the electronics industry worldwide. Our skilled workers are aging and retiring faster than we can hire replacements. A large majority of our members report that their inability to find skilled workers is limiting their growth. Too often, today’s rising workers lack essential knowledge and skills including math, basic technology skills, and problem-solving.

Given these facts, IPC is building on our strengths and making workforce development one of our top priorities. We’ve pledged to develop one million new training and workforce development opportunities in the United States over the next five years; and we launched the IPC Workforce Champions initiative to engage our member companies in that effort.

Here’s an overview of the government policy landscape that we’re working to shape.

New U.S. Government Advisory Board

In the United States, last week a newly formed advisory committee to the federal government held its first meeting. The members of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, led by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump, include representatives of eight companies, three industry associations, four universities, three state and local governments, and several nonprofits, think tanks, and a trade union. The board will serve from now through July 2020.

During the meeting, Ms. Trump outlined four goals of the board:

1. Develop a robust campaign to promote multiple pathways to good-paying jobs, dispelling the myth that there is only one path to a successful career, i.e. a four-year college degree.
2. Improve the availability of high-quality, transparent, and timely data to better inform students and educators, as well as match American workers to American jobs.
3. Modernize candidate recruitment and training practices to expand the pool of job applicants that employers are looking to hire.
4. Measure and encourage employer-led training and investments, such as those being made by IPC.

You may recall that IPC President John Mitchell and several IPC member companies were invited to the White House last October to discuss this issue with President Trump, Ivanka Trump and other senior policy officials. Rest assured we have kept those communications channels open and are continuing to engage with the administration on this issue.

Congressional Outlook

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, there is strong bipartisan support for addressing the workforce shortage. Last summer, Congress passed and the president signed the Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (the Perkins CTE Act), which IPC strongly supported and continues to support in its implementation phase.

In the current session of Congress, attention is turning to work-based learning programs and the employment visa backlog.

For example, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Reps. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) and Drew Ferguson (R-GA) recently reintroduced the Promoting Apprenticeship with Regional Training Networks for Employers’ Required Skills (PARTNERS) Act last month. This legislation would promote registered apprenticeships and other work-based learning programs for small and medium-sized businesses through the establishment and support of industry-based partnerships. It also would provide funds to states to award grants to eligible partnerships.

Meanwhile, some lawmakers are working to make it easier for companies to access high-skilled immigrants. Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Ken Buck (R-CO) recently introduced the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, which would eliminate the per-country immigration caps that cause backlogs in the employment-based green card system.

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