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Valerie Jarrett: Well, good afternoon, everyone.
It is always a mistake to follow President Obama -- note to self.
But that's all right because I am so excited to be here.
This is an amazing, amazing day.
And as the President said, "the power of convening
can be tremendous."
And I'm delighted to see members of Congress here and so many
members of the business community, non-for-profits,
advocates, people who have benefited by being given that
shot that we're all here to talk about and the progress that
we can make together is amazing.
Many of you in this room have also worked with us on other
initiatives, the First Lady's initiative to hire our veterans.
And we've made tremendous progress there.
Hasn't required a lot of money, didn't require
a big government program.
All it required was some recognition of how much we owe
people who have served our country.
Couple of weeks ago, we had an amazing convening here where
we had college and university Presidents who came to help us
tackle the issue of how we can get our young disadvantaged
young people thinking about applying to college,
applying to college, and then succeeding once they're there.
And, again, just simply convening and sharing best
practice and highlighting what works and looking at what we can
do if we can just take an issue and focus on it,
put the spotlight on it.
And that's what today is really all about.
The President mentioned the session he had with
a group of CEOs.
Already we were all taking notes about ways that we can share
best practices, and we want to get that out,
not just for those of you in this room,
for people around the country.
Take what works.
Take it to scale and really have an impact because we recognize
that in this great country, if everyone has an opportunity,
it will make us a stronger country.
And that's what I know you all believe in,
and that's what the President and
the Vice President believe in.
And we're going to be working each and every day to make that
opportunity agenda turn into a reality.
So now for our next phase of the program,
I'm going to introduce to you somebody you all know because
most of you received a phone call from him maybe once, twice,
three, four , five times over the last several months to get
this initiative going.
And Gene is in his final weeks here at the White House.
And as he closes out what is his second tour of duty for a second
President, I want you not only to thank him for having kicked
off this initiative but for his many years
of service to our country.
Please recognize Gene Sperling.
Gene.
(applause)
Gene Sperling: Well, I want to get to the panels quick.
Let me just make a couple of points which I think
are very important.
When we talk about the need for the executive authority,
the convening, sometimes that's seen as something you're only
doing because Congress would not act.
But the reality is, as I think the President has said from
the beginning of his presidency, real change has to come from
across the country from the bottom up.
If we were able to pass all the legislation we would want,
it would still not do as much good if you still had companies
inadvertently having screens or mechanisms that shut out the
long-term unemployed from even having a fair shot.
So this would have been an important piece of the puzzle
at any time.
And it's been also just a great example of how I think the
President can help rally the nation and just by creating
awareness as well.
Several of the companies that we've dealt with and who spoke
to the President, the CEOs said pretty explicitly that when they
first heard this, they didn't think that there was anything in
their mechanisms that would have prevented people
from getting hired.
But when they went back and spent serious time with their
company, they realized there were -- that they did have some
screens that kept people from getting a fair shot.
But even more, they recognized that if that was happening,
they were hurting themselves because there was a talent pool
out there, like Eric, who could be available.
So this is very much a win-win type of scenario.
What we wanted to do now -- you've heard from the President
-- we have a report out that I think gives all of the evidence
and background that the President has mentioned.
But let's be very clear.
What he was really saying was that long-term unemployment can
become a catch-22, a negative cycle.
When you looked at the evidence, the President was presenting,
it was quite clear it's simply the status of being long-term
unemployed as opposed to anything about your skill
or personal characteristics was becoming a barrier.
And that is -- we want to stop that.
But we also want to let people know that there are
positive things happening.
And Eric is not the only one, and there
are many great programs.
So what we want to do in these two panels here is one,
have our secretary of labor talk with a few more people about
their situation but also about what works,
because these two panels are very much about what works.
And then when he's done, we'll have a panel that I will
moderate that will be with Penny Pritzker,
our secretary of commerce, both because of her current position
but the work she did, and that Marie Lynch,
who runs Skills for Chicagoland; Earl Buford,
Wisconsin Regional Training; and then two companies who have been
engaged, Eric Spiegel at Siemens, and Larry Zimpleman.
But I think what you'll see here is while we've done a lot
of description of the problem, these two panels are going to be
showing you about the solutions and how we can expand it.
And let me say we're bringing up Wisconsin Regional Training
Partnership Skills for Chicagoland,
but there are a lot of great organizations.
Let me do a specific shout out to Joe Carbone
at Employment to Work.
They've been --
(applause)
They've also been an inspiration for many.
Many of us saw them on 60 Minutes a long time ago.
So with that, I'm going to turn it over to our very inspired
and inspiring Secretary of Labor, Tom Perez.
So I'd ask Tom and his panel to come up and begin Panel 1.
Thank you very much.
And we'll have you out of here by 1:30.
(applause)
Tom Perez: Can I have the four panelists come up?
Excellent.
Good afternoon.
It's great to have everybody here.
As you heard the President talk about the -- our values
as a nation, and one of our values is there's no such thing
as a spare American.
And I've -- you've heard all the data
on the long-term unemployed.
This is about real people.
Beyond data is a human story time in and time out.
And I've had the privilege in the course of my job of meeting
with so many long-term unemployed,
and their stories tear up my heart.
And they inspire me to do more every day to make sure that
we are using every tool in our toolbox to help them.
And that's what we're going to talk about today.
I remember meeting one person who told me recently,
I licked cancer eight years ago, and fighting cancer and licking
cancer was far easier than fighting unemployment.
That's something I'll never forget.
And, again, it's a source of motivation.
Now while we have many challenges in our long-term
unemployed, we've had many successes.
And that's what we're going to turn to today.
Four of the people sitting up here with me on this panel have
gone through this journey, and it hasn't been an easy journey.
But they're going to tell their stories about what they did
and what they learned from it.
One of the things that you'll learn from these stories
and from the work that people in this room are doing is that
the federal government in partnership with state and local
governments -- and I want to thank our mayors who are here
today, who play such a critical role and our state executives
here who play such a critical role and our nonprofit partners.
We're all in this together.
There are 2,500 American job centers across the country.
We helped over a million people find work last year.
We're kind of like match.com for employers and employees.
Sometimes that match requires training.
Sometimes that match requires other skill development.
Sometimes that match involves all of the above and then some,
addressing childcare issues and other barriers to employment.
And that's what we do.
Many of our partners in state and local government are here
today as well as the dedicated employees here
of the Department of Labor.
And there's a number of tools that we've been using in our
toolbox to help people who are long-term unemployed,
one of which -- and you're going to hear about it today --
is on-the-job training, which is an employer subsidy.
So we're taking our workforce investment dollars and
an employer who is willing to take a flyer on a very qualified
person, we will subsidize that wage for a certain
period of time.
And what we have found is that this has been an exceedingly
successful model for helping long-term unemployed
get back to work.
And we can subsidize anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of that
wage over a certain period of time.
And so that's one of the tools in the toolbox.
We do a lot of work through our reemployment eligibility
and assessment services programs.
That's a mouthful.
But what it is about is intensive counseling so that we
can help people identify what their barriers are that are
preventing further work progress.
And so we do a lot of that.
We do a lot of career planning.
We work so closely with our community college partners,
many of whom are here today.
They really are a secret sauce in our efforts to help so many
people and so many employers play the role of match.com.
We have so many other tools, and I don't want to discuss all
of them because I really want to pivot now
and turn to our panelists.
But before I do that, there's actually a fifth panelist that
we didn't have time, given how much we're doing.
But he wins the award for driving the furthest distance.
And his name is Chris Sexton.
Chris, can you stand up for a moment?
And I think you even have -- is your wife here as well?
Excellent.
Chris drove --
(applause)
-- Chris drove all the way last night, with his wife,
got here late last night from eastern Kentucky.
Chris comes from a family of coal miners.
It's been a generational -- not just a vocation but an avocation
for Chris and his family.
Regrettably in 2012, Chris was laid off.
He didn't expect it but it came.
And Chris, like so many other residents in eastern Kentucky
and across this country, got back on his feet.
He got trained and he is now -- he got paramedic training --
and now he's driving an ambulance, and he's looking
forward to becoming a full-time paramedic.
He is an example of this stick-to-itiveness that we see
all across this country.
And so I want to say thank you to you, Chris.
(applause)
So let me turn to the panels.
Gary Locke is employed as a digital marketing analyst at
Common Places, a web development and marketing firm
in Manchester, New Hampshire.
He had lost his previous job in 2012 and was out of work
for one year.
He sent out over 180 resumes without success.
While receiving unemployment insurance,
he was able to register for that on-the-job training program that
I talked about, and he became OJT eligible,
and he got that job through that employment subsidy.
And now he's going gangbusters.
And he's earning a lot of money.
I'll have him talk about that.
(laughter)
He's doing pretty darn well.
Danielle King is a machine operator -- she's my furthest
to my left -- at VAE Nortrack North America,
a maker of railroad track components in Chicago.
She lost several jobs between 2007 and 2010 in customer
service and logistics.
She experienced homelessness for a while and was forced to live
apart from her teenage son; stories that tear everybody's
heart out and stories that are all too common.
In 2011, she enrolled at a career -- Jane Addams Resource
Center's Career and Manufacturing program,
which was funded by the Workforce Investment Act.
And through that, she got a credential,
and a credential that was in demand.
And as a result of that, she got her job in August 2012,
and she's also earning very good money, north of $20 an hour.
And she purchased, again, her ticket back to the middle class.
Vernon Downs is our third worker.
And he's a document management administrator at Fuji Film
Medical Systems in Connecticut.
And he was one of the first cohort of the Platform to
Employment, which was mentioned before and featured
on 60 Minutes.
And that training that he got enabled him to get
back into Fuji Film.
And what's interesting about Vernon's story is that
he actually worked at Fuji Films, got laid off,
and got reemployed at a higher level than he was before.
And last but certainly not least is Marybeth Cornell,
who is a software tester with Quali Test in New York City.
She had been a graphic designer for over 20 years when she left
the workforce to raise her son, who has special needs.
She returned in 2008 after 10 years.
And as the recession hit, she was regrettably laid off,
and she had a three-year job odyssey search.
She never gave up, but what she found was that her IT skills
were growing rusty.
And she enrolled in the Per Scholas Program and got
an intensive IT training course, and she completed that training.
And with that training, she was able to punch her ticket back
to the middle class.
So let's give a hand, first of all, at the outset,
for all of these folks.
(applause)
So, Gary, let me ask the first question to you.
I think you mentioned that it was something like 180 job
applications you sent out.
What were you thinking when you kept getting no, no, no?
Gary Locke: I really was convinced that my age was
playing a factor.
I also was a little confused because I was sending out
applications for positions that I had -- that were very similar
to positions that I'd already held.
And it was always my understanding that I should be
employed doing things that I had previously been employed in.
And I consider myself to be probably as lucky a man as can
exist because my previous employer took a chance on me,
and I ended up having what we in New Hampshire call
a "wicked cool job."
(laughter)
I was producing videos for all over the world.
And to lose that, I just simply said,
"All right, there's a learning curve here and I'll go at it."
And, Mr. Secretary, I worked every single day, had a routine,
and I mean, seven days a week trying to find the job.
Tom Perez: How did the OJT help you in your search?
Gary Locke: It was fantastic because at Southern
New Hampshire Services, they have this terrific data bank.
And you just -- you can go in and you fill in all of your
talents, all of your abilities.
And that included -- and they kept emphasizing this to me --
put down things that you're good at.
Well, I never thought that I could make a dime as a writer,
but I'm a good writer.
And eventually I had an employer -- Mr. Ben Bassie --
Tom Perez: Ben's here.
Raise your hand there.
There he is right there.
Let's give it up for Ben.
(applause)
Gary Locke: Ben saw that I had this ability,
and he reached out to me and we had an extremely
great phone conversation.
I think Ben liked the fact that I like to talk
as much as he did.
And he put me in touch with OJT, and it was
a fast track from there.
Tom Perez: The rest is history, as they say.
Gary Locke: The rest is history.
Tom Perez: Danielle, let me turn to you because you obviously got
some important training as well.
But can you talk a little bit about the other supports that
you were able to receive that were critical for your entry
back in the workforce?
Danielle King: Yes, definitely.
I want to start off by saying that the Workforce Investment
Act was super beneficial because I was able to --
Tom Perez: I didn't ask her to say that, by the way.
(laughter)
I just want you all to know that.
Danielle King: I was able to actually obtain hands-on
training in Chicago at JARC in addition to the JARC partners
with the city colleges of Chicago and other
centers for manufacturing.
So I was able to get a concerted effort across the board in order
to actually locate employment.
But at the time, they didn't know that I didn't
have anywhere to stay.
I just came and got the training.
But then at the end of training, they didn't just wash their
hands of me and let me go.
JARC actually kept up with me.
They called me: How are things going?
And that's when they found out about
my extenuating circumstances.
So they then used the Social Innovative fund,
which was critical because I was going to work every day,
but I was not anywhere stable.
So, you know, my job could have -- you know,
I could have missed a day and it'd been gone just like that.
But what JARC did was they had a whole resource where they
partnered me with people like Be Benevolent and the
Community Housing and Development Corporation,
where I was able to then obtain housing.
They helped me, you know, with my credit.
They helped me with transportation because,
you know, when I first start the job,
I don't have any money to get there.
So those things in conjunction with the WIA is what really
pushed me forward.
Tom Perez: Thank you for sharing and thank you for your courage
and persistence throughout this.
Vernon, I have a feeling that when you first got laid off from
your job, you never dreamed that you'd come back to your same
employer down the road.
So walk us through the psychology of that and the
roller coaster ride that got you back in the door.
Vernon Downs: Well, first of all,
I have never been laid off before,
and this was the first time.
My situation is a little bit different.
I had to receive a letter from the Department of Labor about
the P2E Program.
And I said, "Okay, what the heck.
I'll fill out the online job application."
So I did that.
And then I participated in the program.
The program offered a lot of tools,
but my situation was different, where I didn't need training
or education or anything like that.
I needed some sort of encouragement or counseling
to get my feet back on the floor.
I needed to get Vernon back, so to speak.
I lost confidence.
I was a little bit bitter to society.
I wanted to somehow deal with that,
and because of the services with P2E, I was able to, so to speak,
get my swagger back.
(laughter)
So with that confidence, I think after realizing the downturn
in the economy, being laid off from Fuji was not
a personal thing.
I was devastated.
I thought it was just me.
I thought I had failed.
But because of the economy, you know,
they had to make a decision.
And obviously, I was the result of that decision.
I receive a call from a colleague from Fuji Medical
System about a position, so I applied for the position.
And then I was rehired.
One of the things they asked me about how do I feel about coming
back to the company where you got laid off?
I said, "Hey, you had to make an executive decision,
and I was the result."
So I was able to overcome that bitterness and move on.
But the most important thing about the P2E program is the
fact that my situation -- like I said,
I didn't need training or anything --
I needed to get Vernon back.
And that's what they did.
I am the product of the P2E program.
And thanks for Joe Carbone, the --
Tom Perez: Where's Joe?
Everybody's talking about Joe.
Joe, come on, stand up.
(applause)
This guy has helped thousands of people.
Vernon Downs: And I have to say that the people at the workplace
understood my situation.
They were caring.
And I was able to feel comfortable.
You got to be comfortable about yourself.
And like I said, having the confidence back, my dignity,
integrity, I'm able to move on.
I'm ready for the next step.
Tom Perez: The woman who introduced the President at one
of the events when he was advocating for the extension
of benefits -- woman named Katherine from Connecticut.
She told me that she often feels a poverty of spirit.
And I talked to her eight weeks ago.
But that word is still remembering,
and when you talk about getting Vernon back,
I know Katherine's going to get Katherine back too.
And I know everybody's going to get everybody back here.
And I appreciate your inspirational words.
Marybeth, I would first like to start by asking you about your
insights when you reentered the workforce after having been out
for 10 years.
What were the challenges there, and what did you
learn from that?
Marybeth Cornell: I would say the biggest challenge was where
to start, you know.
What should I do first?
Where should I go?
When I went out of the workforce to raise my son and take care
of my mother-in-law, who had Alzheimer's,
Facebook didn't exist, the social networking thing.
The whole landscape was not there yet, really.
And so I was a fish out of water.
And that was a big challenge for me.
But I learned growing up never to feel sorry for myself.
And I'm industrious, and I was able to get a lot of work --
help -- from Workforce 1, FEGS WeCARE, the YWCA,
Department of Labor, who all played a part in helping me gain
skills that are relevant to today.
But the one thing that I didn't have after going to those
programs was something that I could show an employer to prove
that I had the skills to do the job,
and that was a certification.
And at Per Scholas, when I was accepted,
I worked very hard with a lot of -- as all the students there --
to get a certification, Comp TIA A+.
And it made a very big difference.
Before I even graduated, I had a job along with about 13 other
students in Per Scholas.
And now I've started a new job at Quali Test.
That's in Fairfield, Connecticut, by the way,
not in New York City.
I live in New York City.
And I've been working there for two months.
It's an awesome place to work.
And I look forward to making a commitment there.
Tom Perez: Great.
Thank you for sharing that.
(applause)
I have two more questions for -- and if we can go through and
sort of a lightning round fashion because I don't want to
shortchange Secretary Pritzker and her wonderful panel as well.
There are a number of remarkable business leaders in this room
and elected officials, nonprofit leaders.
What advice do you have for them based on your experiences?
And then my second question for you will be there are so many
people who draw inspiration from your service.
And so as I get my letters from people who continue to struggle
and haven't had the success you found,
what do you want to say to them as well?
Gary Locke: To all of the perspective employers,
I would say don't go looking for -- don't pigeonhole people and
believe that somebody with life skills will
benefit your company.
Vernon Downs: I would say that you need to really think outside
of the box.
(laughs) We're all contributors to our society,
to the American society.
We need to collaborate.
We need to work together.
We also need diversity.
When I walked in the door, I think the gray hair,
the over 50s -- that was a trigger.
I call it the virus --
(laughter)
-- for being deterred from giving the opportunity to work.
So don't judge a book by its cover.
And we need to be a little bit more diverse.
We need to collaborate.
For other fellow unemployed long-term employers --
or employees, rather, don't give up hope, okay?
Hope is very important.
And we are all -- we have self-worth.
We have dignity, but hope is the most important thing.
Never give up hope.
Persevere.
(applause)
Marybeth Cornell: I would like to suggest that you look into
your hearts and be the decent people that you really are,
and how good it would feel to contribute in participating
in such a mission.
There are companies such as Ralph Lauren and Barclays and --
I can't think of them at the moment -- but have many
responsibilities to the economy, but also really enjoy partnering
with these very caring organizations.
And there is a contract from years ago between workers and
employers that has, I think, disintegrated a little bit.
And I think we can try to get that back again to -- from both
sides -- and work on that.
I think it's gone away.
And is that the -- do I go to the next one or?
Tom Perez: Sure, why don't we move to our next panelist.
Danielle King: What I would like to say is that
we see what works.
We know what's working, especially in Chicago.
Thanks to JARC and the Center for Working Families, you know,
I was able to get what I needed.
And I went from being a person who had zero income to now
I'm Danielle the Machinist.
(applause)
Tom Perez: Yeah, all right!
Danielle King: And what I want to do is challenge all of the
employers because my job is a really wonderful job.
And thanks to the HR people at my job, like Tamika Jackson,
who had the insight to, you know,
look past the fact that I hadn't been in my industry
for a long time.
They looked at me as just a person who took the initiative
and now I'm a hard worker.
I look for employers to, you know,
look at people in that essence as opposed to what have you done
just recently, because we are worth so much.
There are so many valuable people who can add so much to
these companies, and I just hope that, you know, on a mass level,
we can get that going.
Tom Perez: Great.
Well --
(applause)
You know, there are many takeaways,
but in the interest of time, I'll simply observe three.
I hope you have seen that there are many tools in the toolbox
to help our panelists, Chris, and the millions of other people
who, through no fault of your own,
have fallen on challenging times.
And it's not simply training, as you point out.
It is other programs and investments that help you get
back on your feet.
That, for me, is takeaway number one.
And it's not simply the government.
It's our partnerships, the folks in this room.
It's really remarkable.
Secondly, I've had the privilege of working with so many
employers in the course of various jobs I've had.
And we've worked on issues of hiring people who are veterans.
We've worked on the issue of hiring people with disabilities.
We've worked on this issue now.
And what I have heard every time from an employer,
"Why am I doing this?
Why am I taking these efforts?"
I hear the same thing.
It is in my enlightened self-interest.
This is a remarkably talented part of our American quilt.
And I'm not doing this for simply, you know,
the ethical imperative.
I'm doing this because it helps my bottom line.
And you've heard four really talented people,
and you just met a guy who drove all night after working a shift.
That is the American stick-to-itiveness
about these folks.
And my final moment is simply what you've said, which is,
you know, again to quote I think the shortest speech in World War
II, if my memory serves me, which was what you have said
to everyone in America who is struggling right now with
long-term unemployment, which is what Winston Churchill said,
you know, don't give up.
Don't ever give up.
Don't ever, ever give up.
And your stick-to-itiveness, I'm sure,
is an inspiration to everyone.
So thank you very much.
And I'm going to turn this panel over to the next,
then we'll go from there.
(applause)
Gene Sperling: Next panelists, come on up.
While people are finding their seats,
let me just say a couple things.
One, I gave a really great, well-deserved shout out
to Joe Carbone for the great work he's done,
but I didn't say the name right: Platform to Employment.
So thank you.
I also want to just very briefly thank a few of the other people
or organizations that are -- have made commitments today that
maybe haven't been mentioned are up here.
One is that LinkedIn is agreeing to work with some of the winners
of our -- the competition.
Their CEO Jeff *** himself has committed to that.
We're very thankful for that.
Skills for America Future and the National Skills Association
and the National Fund for Workforce Solutions have
committed to work together.
Appreciative of that.
Goodwill has a partnership with Accenture and Good Prospect
that they're announcing.
The AARP foundation has a back-to-work initiative
with those over 50.
JPMorgan's new skills initiative,
they are making sure that they are going to use the data
to help on some of the long-term unemployment.
So we appreciate that.
Okay.
So let me just also, then, while we're doing that remind everyone
of the -- we obviously had the employer commitment.
One, first thing I want to make very clear is today's
announcement is not the destination.
It's a launch.
We want more companies to sign up and be part of this.
That's number one.
Number two, what you saw the President sign is meaningful.
Obviously, the United States government is a big employer,
and all of the principles that we're asking others to do,
we're applying to ourselves.
And three, one of -- we're showing and highlighting some
of the innovative programs, but the fact is even with existing
resources, Secretary Perez is able to use $150 million to have
a Ready-to-Work partnership competition.
I don't know that that will fund all the worthy programs,
but we really encourage local --
mayors, local governments to work with their business
leaders to apply.
This is tangible funds that people can apply to.
Just the process of working together like this would
unquestionably do good.
And that's just our larger way of saying that, again,
this is the beginning of this effort.
This is not the end because the issue we're trying to deal with
is still at far too high levels.
And we're going to have to stay at it and stay
at it and stay at it.
And if you have ideas and other issues that you want,
and best practices, please let Penny and Tom
and I know directly.
We want to hear your ideas.
We've heard today about the importance of making sure we're
thinking how these things work best for small businesses who
may not have the large human resource departments.
We know that many of what we're doing today can be very helpful
to getting Americans with disabilities back to work even
if they've out of the workforce.
And we want to make sure those lessons are being applied,
and we're doing everything we can.
So, again, consider this the launch,
not the destination of this effort.
So what we want to do today in this panel right now is just --
you've heard from the individuals how they've gone
through some programs.
We want to talk to some of the people who have now set up --
set these up and run them, both from the nonprofit level
and from the company level so you get that sense,
because these are a lot of the programs that will inspire a lot
of the models that Secretary Perez will look for when
determining the winners of the Ready-to-Work partnership.
So I'd like to start with asking Secretary Pritzker to speak,
and I mean this when I say that I did not know she was going
to become Secretary of Commerce when I was calling her
about this issue.
What I knew is that the President had already asked her
to run an initiative connecting community colleges,
and I knew from both her and her very shy mayor --
(laughter)
-- Rahm Emanuel, who's very shy about letting you know when he
has a program that works in his city --
(laughter)
-- that maybe I ought to talk to this person,
Marie Lynch and talk to Penny.
In this case, everything Rahm said is correct.
It has really been one of the great models that
we want to replicate.
So Madam Secretary, both in your current role and in helping
to create this program, I want to start by turning
it over to you.
Penny Pritzker: Well, thank you, Gene.
I will be short because I want to get to the content
of our terrific panelists.
But first I actually think the thank you goes to you.
In October 2010, when the President launched Skills for
America's Future and there are some of our colleagues who
are on that board, including Eva Sage Gavin,
who's here from the Gap, and the gentleman who was
talking about PG&E.
The PG&E pathways was one of the founding programs
that we started.
The Gap was one of the founding companies to pledge to work with
community colleges to help train people for jobs that exist.
And Gene, you've done something.
And then, you know, we evolved into -- out of Skills for
America's Future, Creating Skills for Chicagoland's Future,
which Marie will talk about.
And you know I have an enormous passion for this, which is why,
for the first time ever, the Department of Commerce has made
skilled and workforce training a priority.
So I get to go and work with -- very closely with the Secretary
of Labor, which, frankly the big shock to me is he and
I get along great.
But the shock is how wide-eyed people are when the two of us
are on the stage together promoting something that we both
believe in and we come at from an aligned point of view.
But Gene, the truth is, none of this would
have happened without you.
You were the one who said I'm going to elevate this issue.
You're the one who said I'm going to put
it on a national stage.
Without you, your personal perseverance, your pushing,
this would -- we would not be here today.
We would not be talking about replicating programs
that would work.
We would not be having the opportunity to really be
inspired by the folks that we just heard
on the previous panel.
So we owe you a debt of gratitude.
Frankly, many people in this country owe you a debt
of gratitude for really leading.
So thank you.
(applause)
Gene Sperling: Well, I'm going to --
Marie, I'm going to go to you.
The one thing I did want to say just -- so we make sure we're
connecting everything here -- is that when we're all working
on this together, Penny's team and Tom's team, you know,
Byron Auguste on my team and others -- we're looking
at the whole system together.
The other -- the big elevation you've seen is the President
asking the Vice President to now head that up.
And this is really to look at each and every program and ask,
even without legislation, what can we do to make it more
job-driven, more demand-driven?
So everything we talk about here is important,
and there are special issues and barriers for the long-term
unemployed, but in a sense, all of it does come back to that one
central mission of are our skill programs connecting people
to the jobs they are eligible for or training them for --
with skills for the jobs that are open or will
be open shortly?
So, Marie, when we first talked, the thing that I was most
impressed with was simply how hard-headed you were.
(laughter)
No, but I mean that because I think it's important for people
to see the degree that you take very, you know,
very seriously the challenges of businesses and how you've tried
to make this very hard-headed and practical, and, I guess,
easy for them to say yes.
So tell us a bit about designing something with the needs and
transaction cost in mind for the businesses you're trying to get
to commit to hires.
Marie Lynch: Thank you, Gene, I think.
(laughter)
No, I'm just kidding.
So Skills for Chicagoland's Future is a concept --
we've heard a little bit about it today.
But the concept of it is truly public-private partnership
to lead with the demand side, to lead with the corporations.
So when I look out into this room today, I see, you know,
all the CEOs and think about the potential here because our job
and our mission is to get commitments to hire from
the companies and not because -- not only because it helps with
corporate responsibility, but mostly because it helps
with the bottom line.
And to do that, we get commitments to hire --
signed contract commitments to hire.
And we then end up -- we have a recruiting and staffing team
back in the office.
And they are actually looking for all the great talent
of the unemployed.
And they find it.
Sometimes we are creating different types of training
programs for the company.
We don't run them, but the company needs them.
But the concept is you lead with the employer.
We don't spend a penny of time, talent,
or dollars unless a company has said it's what they need.
And then we help make it easy for them.
We approach it very much like a, you know,
private sector engagement, and I think, you know,
the corporations have been critical to this.
A good example, you know, the President commented on Greg
Merrity -- and actually Greg should probably stand up because
he's with us today.
Greg, could you stand up?
There is Greg.
Thank you, Greg.
(applause)
Sometimes it's best to take these big ideas and put them
into our practical perspective, right?
And the practical perspective is Go Health is a company,
was hiring 600 people.
They ended up hiring almost 200 through us.
And they needed people trained in a special insurance
certification, which is a fairly short program,
but they were having trouble finding enough talent.
Greg, a man of 30 years of experience and had, you know,
had not worked for several years,
ended up -- our team found him -- and ended up getting placed
into this Train to Hire experience and was working,
as you heard, in a few weeks.
But the concept, again, is really the commitment
from the employer.
And I think the biggest learning from all of it was bringing
together, you know, the public-private side of this,
and bringing together the private sector to really
be a part of this.
Gene Sperling: Could you give an -- could you --
so, give just a tiny bit more.
They come to you with that and then tell us exactly
what you then did.
Marie Lynch: Let me go a little farther.
So we, on our side, with the public-private partnership,
part of what's happening here is let's talk about what I call
our sales team.
We actually go out -- our board is composed 100 percent
of business people.
The chief human resource officers were one of the first
people that stepped up to help us break this
giant stigma issue.
And they stood there and made commitments to hire.
And they were our leads.
We then -- also, I would comment -- is every time there's a new
jobs announcement in Chicago by the mayor,
we then get an immediate introduction and go talk to that
company about their hiring.
You have to have a product to give to the employer.
And the product is a very specialized,
nimble consultative recruiting team that understands
and listens to the employers' needs and then
designs a solution.
Sometimes the solutions don't involve any training.
We're finding people in other occupations that we can directly
put into those positions, and it's done.
We slide in almost like a staffing firm in some respects
except what we run up against, of course, is a stigma issue,
so you have to bring really good talent.
Sometimes we're putting together -- again, we don't do it,
but the employer oftentimes will do their own training or we find
a third party that'll do the training.
They put in half the funding.
We put in half the funding.
But nobody goes through training, not one person,
unless the employer has interviewed them on the front
end and said they have the soft skills and the cultural fit
because we don't want to waste a dollar.
And so the company has bought in before that person is engaged.
But the piece here that's so crucial is that everything is
led with the employer.
So the board of directors, the mayor's office,
and the commitments to hire -- the signed commitments to hire.
And they, you know, the only other piece I'd throw in here
that's also important on the corporate side -- we're actually
only 30 percent of our funding is WIA funding.
Seventy percent of it comes from private sector, foundations,
and a special grant from the city of Chicago.
And, you know, as an example, JPMorgan Chase now, to date,
as of today has given us $1.2 million.
That type of funding has allowed us to be really innovative
in terms of the types of talent I can hire to work the types
of ways we can sell with companies and the way we can
develop and design very customized, truly individualized
solutions for every company we work with.