Legislation to streamline employment and job-training programs won passage in the U.S. House of Representatives on March 15, bringing the Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Lifelong Skills (SKILLS) Act one step closer to becoming law, according to a recent press release.

Intended as a way to make the country’s jobs-training system more efficient and easy to navigate, the act will eliminate and streamline 35 employment and training programs. All government-sponsored job-training programs will be consolidated into a single organization, called the Workforce Investment Fund.

The SKILLS Act is sponsored by Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC). According to the press release, Foxx says the act will improve on the series of complicated, duplicative and ineffective job-training programs that currently exist. “Americans deserve a workforce development system that is more efficient, more accountable, and more responsive to the needs of our workplaces,” she said in the release.

Foxx said it is the responsibility of House representatives to make sure tax dollars are supporting job-seekers and not just supporting “unnecessary bureaucracy.”

According to a committee Fact Sheet on the bill, 12 million Americans are unemployed and seeking employment while there are millions of unfulfilled job openings. The problem, according to the committee information, is that employers can’t find the skilled labor necessary to fill their positions. The SKILLS Act’s purpose is to cut through government bureaucracy to more effectively help job-seekers get the skills to fulfill those available jobs.

The new job-training system is designed to provide a flexible support system for job-seekers of every type, including out-of-school youth, veterans, individuals with disabilities, the long-term unemployed, at-risk youth and refugees. The Workforce Investment Fund will help job-seekers with career education, skill development, specialized training, communication skills and job placement.

Rebuilding America’s Middle Class, a coalition of community colleges, voiced support for the bill this month, saying it would eliminate the “myriad” of federal employment and training programs. Among other things, the legislation specifically helps community colleges by allowing local training organizers to contract directly with colleges to serve large groups of people.

In putting all of the previous government-training programs under a single body, supporters say the SKILLS Act promises to be more accountable for getting Americans the training and support they need to find employment. The bill also establishes common performance measures for state and local leaders, and it requires an independent review of programs at least once every five years.

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