The Transportation Learning Center joined with 44 other leading labor-management and union programs in declaring a commitment "to participate in the national engagement campaign organized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Administration to expand opportunities for adults to assess and strengthen their foundation skills."  That commitment, set out in a letter to Assistant Secretary of Education Johan Uvin, responded to what the signers called "troubling findings" in the OECD's Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies Fall 2013 Survey of Adult Skills.  According to the survey, approximately 36 million adults ages 16 to 65 in the United States have low skills in basic numeracy, reading and problem-solving; over a third of this population is looking for work, and many who already have work are in low-wage jobs that provide neither job security nor other benefits that make a job a "good job."
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Center Deputy Director Jack Clark participated in the July 14 White House Summit on American Apprenticeships. The Summit was organized by the Executive Office of the President and the Department of Labor in response to the "President's ambitious goal to double the number of apprenticeships in the next five years and expand apprenticeships into new fields and high-growth industries.", as stated in the invitation.
The agenda featured a discussion of:
*    Critical investments that can scale existing models or spur needed
      innovations in American apprenticeships
*    Avenues to expand apprenticeship in high-growth industries and
     emerging occupations, such as IT, healthcare, and advanced
     manufacturing
*    Strategies that states and regions can use to lay the groundwork for
     an expansion of apprenticeship in their region and to reach a wider
     range of workers.
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