President Barack Obama visited a community college in Northern Virginia to tout a new program that aims to train as many as 2 million workers for gainful employment in potential growth industries, according to The Associated Press.
Healthcare is one of those industries, according to the White House, and the $8 billion Community College to Career Fund is being administered by two federal agencies, the departments of Labor and Education. The program aims to foment partnerships between businesses and community colleges to train employees in the high-growth areas that also are in high demand, which should benefit healthcare staffing efforts.
“This should be an engine of job growth all across the country, these community colleges, and that’s why we’ve got to support them,” the president said on Monday at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia.
The program also aims to endow more community colleges with needed resources to establish themselves as career centers for the community, where people can hone needed skills that are in demand by local businesses, according to the White House.
Benefits to the businesses and employers include bringing on skilled employees for their workforce.