President Barack Obama will unveil a series of executive actions Tuesday to help America’s workers get the training they need, according to the White House.
The actions include doling out grants, helping employers start or expand apprenticeships, ensuring $15 billion in job training funds are more effectively spent, making sure all federal programs track employment outcomes and giving states and localities information and incentives to provide programs.
In addition, individual agencies will act. The Department of Labor will award $25 million to create an online skills academy. The Department of Agriculture will give out $200 million for up to 10 pilot projects to test employment and training programs. And the administration will allow up to 10 state and local pilot programs to use money to test new programs to help youth.
Obama asked Vice President Joe Biden to review work federal training programs in January. Biden will release a new report about his review Tuesday that will include actions the administration can take.
The actions come as part of Obama’s “year of action,” a series executive actions he’s taken this year to push past a gridlocked Congress in order to help struggling Americans. But for all his strong rhetoric, his actions this year are mostly minor, in line with previous presidents and within his scope. His most consequential actions took place well before 2014.