Don Nickles: “Alan Greenspan said: Generic capabilities in mathematics, writing, and verbal skills are key to the ability to learn and…”

“Alan Greenspan said: Generic capabilities in mathematics, writing, and verbal skills are key to the ability to learn and to apply new skills and thus to earn higher real wages overtime. The avenues to acquiring those skills are many, and one effective tool we have developed to facilitate the transition to a new job or profession has been our community colleges. These two-year institutions have been in the forefront of teaching the types of skills that build on workers' previous experiences to create new job skills. Currently almost one in three of their enrollees are age thirty or older, a statistic that suggests that these individuals have previous job experience. I support the job training and community college initiatives the President has endorsed in his State of the Union Message and which Alan Greenspan just referred to. They are a good and positive thing. They provide much of the answer to the global competitiveness we now find with globalization. I believe much of the instruction they provide ought to have been given at the lower levels, but we can't go back and change that. As it is, these programs give many Americans the opportunity to change their job track midstream and to pursue greater dreams and more fulfilling careers.”