Administration Launches New Workforce Advisory Board

ANCOR is sharing this article by Bloomberg News because of its relevance to the direct support professional workforce (DSP) crisis that is affecting the stability of supports and services for people with disabilities. Depending on how the Workforce Advisory Board described in the article forms its priorities, it could also be relevant to the employment of people with disabilities, which severely lags behind that of their peers without disabilities. ANCOR sought to nominate a member to the Board, and we will continue to advocate for inclusion in this discussion.

While no disability organizations are included in the Board membership, ANCOR notes that the governors of Indiana and Iowa will be on the Board. We encourage ANCOR members who have relationships with the offices of those governors to ask them to consider disability employment and the DSP workforce crisis in these discussions.

As shared by Bloomberg:

“The chief executives of Apple Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Walmart Inc., are among 25 prominent Americans who will shape Trump administration efforts to develop job training programs to meet the changing demands of U.S. employers.

The creation of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, announced by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and President Donald Trump’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump on Wednesday, will work with the National Council for the American Worker established last July by an executive order.

Ivanka Trump, in a statement, said the board will “ensure inclusive growth” and that the administration wants all Americans “to have the skills and opportunity to secure good paying jobs and successfully navigate technological disruptions and the rapidly changing nature of work.”

The board is being established at a time when there are 7.3 million job openings and a gap between skills of those seeking to enter the workforce possess and those sought by employers, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the plans before an official announcement. Board members’ terms will run until July 2020.

[…]

The board will be asked to help the council develop a national campaign to promote education and training, recommend ways to improve labor market data, increase private sector investments in job learning and better identify companies’ needs in hiring.”

A full list of appointees to the Advisory Board is included in the article.