[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 1931-1932]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  CAREER AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION MONTH

  (Mr. LANGEVIN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LANGEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize Career and Technical 
Education Month. I am proud to be able to work with my colleague, G.T. 
Thompson of Pennsylvania, as he and I cochair the Career and Technical 
Education Caucus.
  In particular, Mr. Speaker, I would like to address the importance of 
the initiative that President Obama announced recently that supports 
partnerships between community colleges and expanding industry. It 
should be a bipartisan priority.
  We've heard a lot about the skills gap that we're facing in this 
country, and businessowners repeatedly tell me that they cannot fill 
openings because the applicants lack the necessary skills. We need 
better collaboration between the companies doing the hiring and the 
educators who are preparing our students.
  In my district, National Grid--the primary utility--and the Community 
College of Rhode Island offer a model program to prepare workers for 
available high-skilled jobs. Through coursework and hands-on training, 
students receive a certificate in Energy Utility Technology and can 
then become new employees.
  Unfortunately, community colleges simply can't afford enough of these

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programs. The President's Community College to Career Fund is a small 
price to pay for the resulting benefit. It's a worthwhile program, and 
I believe that we need to support it.
  Mr. Speaker, there are some partisan differences that this Congress, 
perhaps, cannot overcome, but the idea of multiplying this effort at 
our community colleges is a commonsense goal if our goal is, in fact, 
to put Americans back to work.

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