Former Peace Corps Director Elaine Chao speaks on volunteerism
Read and comment on this story from the Bryan-College Station Eagle on Former Peace Corps Director Elaine Chao who spoke on volunteerism and asked Americans to lend a volunteer effort to worker training.
“We are a nation of volunteers,” she said. “Did you know over 90 million Americans give over four hours a week to volunteer activities? Americans give about 2 percent of their annual income to nonprofit organizations, charitable organizations, and this is the highest in the world.”
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Secretary of Labor Chao speaks on volunteerism
By JOHN LeBAS Eagle Staff Writer
Eagle photo/butch Ireland
Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao talks about volunteerism at the Bush Conference Center Friday morning.
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao on Friday outlined the government’s plan to revamp its workforce training programs, saying changes are needed to meet future job challenges.
Chao, speaking at the George Bush Presidential Library, also called on businesses, educators, charities and individual volunteers to help.
“We’ve got to close the skills gap if we are to thrive and prosper as a nation in the 21st century,” Chao said before an audience of nearly 600. “It’s an area where government cannot and should not do it all. We have to enlist the nonprofit and business communities as partners if we are to close this gap.”
America is not doing enough to train workers for available jobs, said Chao, the keynote speaker for Friday’s Bank of America Program on Volunteerism.
As examples, she cited the high-tech and health care industries. A half million technology jobs will go unfilled next year because of a lack of qualified workers, she said. And the government predicts one million job openings within eight years for registered nurses, a field already facing worker shortfalls.
Chao said the labor department wants to more closely link its 1,800 local “one-stop” career centers with employers. Another goal is to encourage more collaboration with community colleges and universities, she said.
A former head of both the Peace Corps and the United Way of America, Chao asked Americans to lend a volunteer effort to worker training.
“We are a nation of volunteers,” she said. “Did you know over 90 million Americans give over four hours a week to volunteer activities? Americans give about 2 percent of their annual income to nonprofit organizations, charitable organizations, and this is the highest in the world.”
Chao said President Bush envisions a workforce in which “no worker is left behind.” The initiative is a companion to his “no child left behind” education program, she said.
In a question-and-answer session, Chao said vocational programs have been weakened in recent years under the push to encourage all children to pursue college. Not everyone should go to college she said, and those skills programs should be strengthened.
She also said the nation must create more job opportunities for disabled Americans, calling the 70 percent unemployment rate for that group unacceptable.
Another high-level official in the Bush administration, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, is scheduled to speak at the library on Monday. In December, Bush adviser Karl Rove is also set to appear at Texas A&M.
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