(From Bloomberg BusinessWeek) -- A new workforce training initiative will aim to fast-track education for people with skills and real-world experience but without formal certification, Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Tuesday.
The "Skilled Workforce Initiative" would seek to meet the growing demand for skilled workers in areas such as advanced manufacturing with people who already have some training and experience, including military veterans and displaced workers.
"The framework for technical training that we're going to be putting in place will enable these workers to earn their technical certification fast at an affordable cost and targeted to specific skills that are needed by industries so that they can be sure that the jobs are going to be waiting for them when they finish their coursework," Perry said.
By assessing those students' skills and giving them credit for what they already know, the time to achieve certification can be cut dramatically, he said. Less time will mean less cost as well.
By assessing those students' skills and giving them credit for what they already know, the time to achieve certification can be cut dramatically, he said. Less time will mean less cost as well.
A program launched earlier year called College Credit for Heroes also sought to address the question of giving credit specifically to veterans for training they received. The Harlingen campus of Texas State Technical College, where Perry spoke Tuesday, has about 188 veterans enrolled among its 6,000 students.
In the new program, students would finish with a certificate of completion in a specific field that would fit between an associate's degree of applied science and a high school diploma, said school Provost Adam Hutchison. Those credits would then be transferable if the students wanted to pursue more education later.
