Trump Infrastructure Plan Should Include Skills Training
Date Posted: December 22, 2016
Posted In: Ideas, Workforce,
From Construction Citizen: One of the things President-elect Donald Trump did not stress during his successful campaign for the White House is the need for those who are out of work to be trained for new careers. In fact, it is difficult to find any example of Trump discussing skills training at all. Any mention of workforce development and craft training was absent from Trump’s major speeches on jobs and the economy.
That is perhaps because his entire economic message – a message that resonated in states that made the difference for him in the Rust Belt – was centered on the idea that if you do not have a job it is because someone else took it from you.
Trump’s political argument went something like this: If you don’t have a job, it’s because an unfair trade deal sent your gig to another country or an undocumented immigrant stole the job that you would hold here in this nation if an “illegal” wasn’t doing it instead of you.
Skills training did not fit into that narrative simply because it would require people who are out of work to take responsibility for their lot in life rather than blame someone else. That’s not to say there isn’t a legitimate debate to be had about trade and immigration. But Trump campaigned in broad brush strokes about these issues. Nuance was scarce, but that is often the nature of campaigns.