President Obama visited E.J. Ajax and Sons in Fridley, Minn., last week to tout his job training initiatives. The metal stamper and fabricator works closely with Hennepin Technical College in Brooklyn Park, Minn., to take unskilled students and turn them into skilled employees for manufacturing companies. Obviously, in an economy with an unemployment rate that doesn't seem to improve from one month to the next, the current presidential administration wants to promote any program that may aid in retraining for jobs that are available and unfilled.
According to one article, the U.S. still has about 3 million job openings. Most pundits are pointing to a lack of training funds for expensive vocational programs and a general educational system that doesn't seem able to produce a new generation of workers with the math and reading skills needed to contribute immediately after being hired. Those pundits may be right, but waiting for the government to solve those problems is like waiting for the bus that just had its service route cut; it's not showing up.
