Sen. Franken Continues to Lead the Fight to Tackle Nation's "Skills Gap," Prepare Students for 21st Century Jobs

Press Release

As part of his years-long effort to close the nation's workforce "skills gap," U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) introduced new legislation today to spur innovative job-training and career-exploration partnerships between K-12 schools and local businesses in Minnesota and across the country.

The Advancing Career Pathways Innovation Act would encourage local school districts in Minnesota and across the country to partner with businesses to help elementary, middle, and high school students explore a variety of career pathways.

"I constantly hear from businesses in Minnesota that they have jobs going unfilled because they can't find workers with the right skills. This is called the 'skills gap,' and it's something I've been working to close for a long time," said Sen. Franken. "Traveling around Minnesota, I've seen ground-breaking partnerships between schools and businesses that work, and they work well. So I want to scale them up across the country to help strengthen businesses, create more American jobs, get students interested in their future career options, and keep our economy competitive in the 21st century. It's never too early to expose students to career opportunities-like computer programming, science, and engineering-which is why we should be supporting more programs that bring educators and businesses together. My bill would do just that."

For years, Sen. Franken, a member of the Senate Education and Labor Committee, has been a leading champion of efforts to close the "skills gap," which has left many employers in Minnesota and across the country with millions of jobs they can't fill because they can't find enough trained workers.

Last year, Sen. Franken and his staff kicked off an "Advancing Career Pathways Tour," traveling to 17 communities across Minnesota to examine the innovative ways Minnesota high schools and community colleges are partnering with local businesses to expose students to career possibilities in fields such as manufacturing, health care, information technology and other industries struggling to find workers. And last month, Sen Franken held his "Advancing Career Pathways Summit" in St. Paul, where he showcased a variety of successful and innovative school-business partnerships that served as models for his new legislation, which will incentivize such partnerships. The Summit drew more than 350 Minnesota educators, business leaders, and policy makers.

In the past several Congresses, Sen. Franken has pushed his Community College to Career Fund Act to incentivize businesses to partner with community and technical colleges on training and support efforts. And now, his Advancing Career Pathways Innovation Act would encourage local K-12 school districts in Minnesota and across the country to also explore partnerships with businesses to expose elementary, middle, and high school students to a variety of career pathways.

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