2020-05619. American Workforce Policy Advisory Board; Meeting

AGENCY:

Office of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs, Department of Commerce.

ACTION:

Amended notice of public meeting.

SUMMARY:

The Office of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs announces the fifth meeting of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board (Advisory Board) will not be taking place in Mount Vernon, OH but will be conducted virtually. The short-notice change from an in-person meeting to a virtual meeting is out of an abundance of caution due to the coronavirus.

DATES:

The Advisory Board will meet on March 19, 2020; the meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. (EDT) and end at approximately 12:00 p.m. (EDT).

ADDRESSES:

The meeting will be conducted virtually. The meeting is open to the public via audio conference technology. Audio instructions will be prominently posted on the Advisory Board homepage at: https://www.commerce.gov/​americanworker/​american-workforce-policy-advisory-board. Please note: The Advisory Board website will maintain the most current information on the meeting agenda, schedule, and location. These items may be updated without further notice in the Federal Register.

The public may also submit statements or questions via the Advisory Board email address, [e-mail] (please use the subject line “March 2020 Advisory Board Meeting Public Comment”), or by letter to Sabrina Montes, c/o Office of Under Secretary for Economic Affairs, Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230. If you wish the Advisory Board to consider your statement or question during the meeting, we must receive your written statement or question no later than 5 p.m. (EDT) four business days prior to the meeting. We will provide all statements or questions received after the deadline to the members; however, they may not consider them during the meeting.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Sabrina Montes, c/o Office of Under Secretary for Economic Affairs, Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20230, [phone], or [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The Secretary of Commerce and the Advisor to the President overseeing the Office of Economic Initiatives serve as the co-chairs of the Advisory Board. In addition to the co-chairs, the Advisory Board comprises 25 members that represent various sectors of the economy. The Board advises the National Council for the American Worker.

The March meeting will include updates on implementation of recommendations from the previous meetings and discussions of new recommendations under each of the four main goals of the Advisory Board:

• Develop a Campaign to Promote Multiple Pathways to Career Success. Companies, workers, parents, and policymakers have traditionally assumed that a university degree is the best, or only, path to a middle-class career. Employers and job seekers should be aware of multiple career pathways and skill development opportunities outside of traditional 4-year degrees.
• Increase Data Transparency to Better Match American Workers with American Jobs. High-quality, transparent, and timely data can significantly improve the ability of employers, students, job seekers, education providers, and policymakers to make informed choices about education and employment—especially for matching education and training programs to in-demand jobs and the skills needed to fill them.
• Modernize Candidate Recruitment and Training Practices. Employers often struggle to fill job vacancies, yet their hiring practices may actually reduce the pool of qualified job applicants. To acquire a talented workforce, employers must better identify the skills needed for specific jobs and communicate those needs to education providers, job seekers, and students.
• Measure and Encourage Employer-led Training Investments. The size, scope, and impacts of education and skills training investments are still not fully understood. There is a lack of consistent data on company balance sheets and in federal statistics. Business and policy makers need to know how much is spent on training, the types of workers receiving training, and the long-term value of the money and time spent in classroom and on-the-job training.

Sabrina L. Montes,

Designated Federal Official, American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, Bureau of Economic Analysis.