Vocational and Technical Education for the Future Act
VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION FOR THE FUTURE ACT -- (House of Representatives - May 04, 2005)
Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me this time. And I really commend the leadership on both sides for this H.R. 366.
This is a very important piece of legislation, the Vocational and Technical Education for the Future Act.
This legislation is so important for many reasons. Specifically, it is vital to my district, the 37th District in California. But, first of all, it reauthorizes the Perkins Vocational Program that provides for many citizens the ability to learn a marketable skill that allows them the ability to partake in a career that allows upward mobility and job satisfaction. Experienced trade workers can earn up to six-figure salaries with the right type of training. Perkins programs have traditionally provided this type of skills training.
In California, only 8 percent of the ninth graders will complete the high school years and college in 10 years. The Perkins programs provide opportunities for students who need to develop the different skills for them to grow and to have career choices. With vocational training, students will aspire to entering into a career path that allows them to make a comfortable living, having the same ability to do so as students who attend a 4-year college or university.
Second, students who avail themselves of this training are able to enter into fields where there is a ready supply of jobs. They are currently more jobs available in these industries than there are students enrolled in vocational tech training. There is a large demand for skilled technicians. These programs, when they are adequately funded through the Perkins Act, prepares students for these jobs.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, I ask Members to support this legislation because it provides for programs and resources for women and girls to obtain education and training for high-wage/high-skill and nontraditional jobs. When I was director of Gender Equity, I was responsible for bringing a lot of the nontraditional jobs to the forefront.
Mr. Chairman, this is a great piece of legislation, and I ask all of my friends to support it.
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Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Chairman, today I am offering an amendment that establishes an automotive technicians workers training program and makes eligible this particular program under the Vocational and Technology Education for the Future Act, the use of funds for establishing curricula to train automotive technicians to work on hybrid, hydrogen and alternative fuel technologies for the new automobile fleets sold in the United States.
This amendment speaks to the true intent of the Perkins Act. It will graduate students into employable jobs that will have an immediate return on our educational system. Automotive technicians are in great demand. We need to educate the new generation of automotive workers so that they will be able to work on the new hybrid vehicles that are fast becoming a dominant part of the automotive marketplace.
The numbers speak for themselves, Mr. Chairman. In 2004, close to 90,000 hybrid vehicles were sold in the United States. Since the hybrid vehicles debut in the American market in 1999, U.S. hybrid sales have doubled every year. An estimated 10 percent of the 2 million mid-sized vehicles sold in 2006 will be hybrid vehicles.
By 2007, it is estimated that over 400,000 hybrid vehicles will be sold in the United States. The American public is willing to invest in automobiles that incorporate environmentally sound technology. Whether consumers are motivated by environmental concerns, such as the health of their children, by rising fuel costs that causes further dependence on foreign oil, or by a combination of the two, the car dealerships are consistently selling out the hybrid vehicles.
In order for this purchasing trend to continue, consumers need to be able to purchase hybrid automobiles with the knowledge that they are doing their part to help the environment along with the reassurance that they will be able to find high quality service. We need the work force to meet these new demands.
Currently the average age of automotive technicians is 50 years old. As the Department of Labor has projected, we will need almost 32,000 new automotive technicians a year for the next several years to service these new vehicles. Automotive technicians are high skilled, high wage and high demand.
In my home State of California alone the need for new highly skilled technicians will outpace supply by 42,750. The need for technicians is expected to increase by 18 percent in the next year. When this is added to an expected turnover rate of 34.5 percent, which is due to attrition, the true scope of educating new automotive technicians become apparent.
This is a much needed training program, and a much needed amendment, and I ask my colleagues to support the amendment.
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.
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