[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11398]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              U.S.-SWITZERLAND SKILLED TRADES COOPERATION

  (Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, last week U.S. Secretary 
of Commerce Penny Pritzker and Switzerland's Vice President and Federal 
Councilor, Johann Schneider-Ammann, signed a joint declaration that 
will provide a framework for cooperation between our two countries in 
areas such as work-based training, pathways to career development, and 
the expansion of existing programs into new industry sectors. This 
notable agreement comes just 1 month after a similar signing with 
Germany that was largely focused on apprenticeships and vocational 
education and training.
  As co-chair of the Congressional Career and Technical Education 
Caucus, I applaud these international partnerships and recognize their 
role in helping us to close our Nation's skills gap.
  The skilled trades are the hardest jobs to fill in the United States, 
with recent data citing 550,000 jobs open in the trade and 
transportation sectors and 246,000 jobs open in manufacturing.
  Working with our allies to address this issue will undoubtedly 
benefit our economy and allow us to remain globally competitive.
  I am confident in our ability to make continued progress in the area 
of workforce development and am grateful for the assistance of our 
international partners.

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