Another progressive idea: Obama Recruits Gap, McDonald’s for Skills Training

[quiet.american]

I know the jokes will come, but this kind of career skills training and job opportunity is worth a lot more to young people than a laugh. it also places a nice foundation under the emphasis Obama puts on the value of community colleges.

The goal of the program is to create at least one partnership between industry and community colleges in each state. Obama’s has said he wants to increase the number of community college degrees and certificates by 5 million in the next decade.

Glenn Murphy, chairman and chief executive officer of Gap, operator of more than 3,000 clothing stores that include the Old Navy and Banana Republic chains, said in a statement today the fashion retailer will start a pilot program in seven cities, designed to offer community college students job- and career- building skills to help take advantage of potential job opportunities.

“Our in-house training materials will be made available to all community college students and applicable to many industries,” Murphy said in a statement. He said Gap plans to hire as many as 1,200 students from community colleges in 2011, about 5 percent of its annual hiring. Murphy is scheduled to join Obama at the advisory board meeting today.

Seven Markets

The seven markets are in Las Vegas, Denver, Houston, Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. The effort includes in-store job training, interview and leadership training and scholarships. The program may be expanded to other markets and units of the company....


Entire article:
http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aOhaQSEeWr5U

Proud of Obama. Proud of our Democrats. :kick:

[JNelson6563]

1. Nice.

Some of those markets are some of the hardest hit on the economic front, always especially glad to see Detroit on any such list.

Julie

[elleng]

2. VERY important that States partner with business.