Tim Walberg

I associate myself with the remarks of my distinguished colleague, Mr. Walberg, his opening remarks as well as his closing remarks.

They are trained, but they are not trained to what we really need in the field.

But not necessarily telling them you can be anything you want. Even if you could be, you still have to make a contribution to society that adds to the tax base and to paying your own way, as opposed to the dreams that never come true.

I thank the chairperson for taking your time to come.

I have attended a number of field hearings a long ways from my district, so it is nice to have one in my district.

If I could just get these people to return after payday.

All of us would like to see the United States be the manufacturing powerhouse it has been in the past.

your bill goes a long way in addressing the redundancies, the burdens of having multiple layers of overlapping job-training programs

We are working as a large group of six counties to put together information and try to attract people and help them understand that Michigan is a great place to do business.

Well, I guess what you perceive as disincentives to the UAW membership growing, but more specifically jobs...

But it is still up to them to make that final decision.

So I think that would benefit at least our financial aid folks to take better control of that.

This is a unique opportunity to shine a national spotlight on how higher education, community leaders and businesses in Michigan are effectively bridging what has now come to be known as the skills gap.

What systems do you have in place that makes it possible for employers to get back to training institutions?

we need to continue on the path of working to reform our federal policies that enable job creation for a healthy economy.

Government should be a partner, but it shouldn't be the employer.

With your indulgence, Madam Chairwoman, may I continue on?

I think it is important for not only the institution to understand what the businesses and industries need, but it is important for the businesses and industries to understand what the universities are undergoing as well.

let me say that again, effectively using hard-working taxpayer dollars

The SKILLS Act would consolidate and streamline our workforce development processes to make them more efficient

In Michigan, the unemployment rate is near 9 percent, and yet we hear from entrepreneurs every day that Michigan is open for business.

So it is not many, many one-off conversations, we believe that would be a big step forward to help us all move forward to understand what the skill gaps are, what the talent gaps are, what the attrition is moving forward.

Thank you for this opportunity to discuss how we have been working with our partners to address our employment needs.

we hope that we can make an impact for the future that says to our kids and our grandkids we didn’t screw it up totally for you

We do believe these boards serve a very important purpose. They are the ones closest to what is happening.