I was snoozing politely through the State of the Union--a speech that has become so broad-brushed over the years it ought to be called the State of the Known Universe--when I abruptly heard Obama mention a place and a company I'd written about last summer: Charlotte, N.C., where Siemens has started up a German-style apprenticeship program as a way of addressing the acute "skills mismatch" problem that has dragged down recovery.
Noting casually that he hears "from many business leaders who want to hire in the United States but can’t find workers with the right skills," Obama introduced Jackie Bray, "a single mom from North Carolina who was laid off from her job as a mechanic. Then Siemens opened a gas turbine factory in Charlotte, and formed a partnership with Central Piedmont Community College. The company helped the college design courses in laser and robotics training. It paid Jackie’s tuition, then hired her to help operate their plant."
What he didn't say was that Siemens did this on its own initiative, without any federal money or help, and was taking its cue from its parent company in Germany. Just imagine if Obama--under fire from Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich for wanting to turn America into Europe--had mentioned that. As Fawn Johnson and I reported in that Aug. 3 story in National Journal,
"Siemens is launching a new strategy that draws on a very old practice from its
parent company in Germany: apprenticeships. In Charlotte, N.C., where Siemens is
building the nation’s largest gas-turbine plant and hopes to hire some 800
people next year, the company is opening a pilot program that will pluck
non-college-track seniors from nearby Olympic High School; Siemens will pay them
an hourly wage to work part-time and will also pay their way through a two-year
college program at nearby Central Piedmont Community College."
Three years into a nonrecovery recovery, Obama is asking Congress to "join me in a national commitment to train 2 million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job." A Congress committed to stymieing every new program.
Maybe there is something to European-style economics after all.
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