THE PRESIDENT: Great job. Thank you very much.
MR. BOX: Thank you.
MR. DONOHUE: Mr. President, nice to see you. I'm very pleased to be here. This project addresses itself to the two fundamental challenges we face in the business community and in our society. That is people without jobs and massive numbers of jobs without people. And I believe the work that will take place here immediately, just with people working with one another, will add to the solution of both of those challenges.
Thank you very much.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.
MR. SANDERS: Thank you Mr. President. Scott Sanders, National Association of State Workforce Agencies. It's been great to be around this table with employers, educators, and others. We've already started talking with Tom about how we can help across all the states - help pull those together that are unemployed, under-skilled, and they're out of the workforce - and how do we get them back in and help fill those 7.3 million jobs.
So, honored to be here. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you.
MS. UTASH: Mr. President, Sheree Utash, President of Wichita State University Applied Sciences and Technology in Wichita, Kansas, "The Air Capital of the World."
THE PRESIDENT: Right.
MS. UTASH: And very happy to be here. Very honored to be serving on this. And wonderful that we have this issue to deal with and to find solutions for. So thank you for all your efforts towards that.
You know, we say, at our college, "Hope has a face," and it's face of our students. And we know from education - from higher education - that we have to be innovative and disruptive in order to be in line and aligned with business and industry.
And so we're doing a lot of that and hope to continue to do that. And I can assure you, from the two-year sector, along with Dr. Bumphus, we're doing everything we can to create the workforce for the future.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Thank you.
MS. WANAMAKER: Mr. President, I'm Marianne Wanamaker. I'm a labor economist at the University of Tennessee. I think, really, the administration should be applauded for putting a spotlight on our - using federal data to solve some of our biggest challenges. And this is one of those places where we really have a lot of assets at our disposal. I'm excited to help the board think through those issues.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.
DR. BUMPHUS: Good afternoon, Mr. President. Good to see you again. It was about a year ago, I think, when we were here with the Expanding Apprenticeships Task Force. And I join my colleague here in saying the administration should be applauded and commended for the focus and spotlight you put on this very, very important issue.
And I would be remiss, as I think all of my colleagues would agree, if we didn't also commend Ivanka and Secretary Ross for the leadership they provided too. I think there's going to be some outstanding work we're going to do together.
So again, thank you for your leadership, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.
Governor?
GOVERNOR HOLCOMB: Mr. President, let me pile on the praise for your administration's - and the entire administration, for that matter - just a laser focus on this topic. It is going to - whether we like it around this table or not, it's going to define our nation. It's going to define our states, our organizations, our companies, and the legacy that we leave behind us when we get this right. And you are.
So I just want to express another debt of gratitude for trusting us. Last year, your administration, the Department of Labor, granted us a waiver that enabled us to cut our workforce council in the state of Indiana about in half. And it allowed us to operate at the speed of this table and the businesses that are around it. And that has made all the difference in the world.
So as you continue to trust us, the states, to own it and to prove it, we will show America what works and what doesn't. And that will take us to the next level. Thank you, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: That's great. Thank you, Eric. Great.
MS. HEWSON: Mr. President, Marillyn Hewson, Lockheed Martin. I just, again, wanted to tell you how honored I am to serve on this advisory board but also to commend you and your administration for your focus on getting American workers prepared for the future and advanced economy that we're in.
It's not just about today's mismatch and things we might work on today, but it's getting us prepared for continued economic growth. What you've done to enable us with tax reform, with regulatory reform has helped us to reinvest in our businesses, to reinvest in our workforce. And we thank you for that and commend you for that. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Marillyn. How is the F-35 doing?
MS. HEWSON: It's doing great, sir. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: Because I spoke to some of your competitor countries, and they say, "We have a problem with it. You can't see it." I say, "How do you do with your plane compared to this one?" They say, "Well, this one you can't see." So I would say they have a pretty big - our pilots have a pretty big advantage with the F-35. So that's great. Great job you've done.
MS. HEWSON: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: And it's a great plane. Everybody loves it.
Wilbur?
SECRETARY ROSS: Thank you, Mr. President, for making the American workforce one of your top priorities as President. Thank you also for putting in place the economic policies that are dedicated to the preposition that American workers form the backbone of our economy.
Thank you, too, to the members of the new Workforce Advisory Board for such an insightful and high-energy discussion. Now the real work begins.
In the next 12 months, between now and, actually, July of 2020, this Advisory Board will develop recommendations under the four major points that we discussed this afternoon. And those recommendations will go the National Council for the American Worker, which Ivanka and I co-chair with Secretary Acosta and Domestic Policy Council Director, Joe Grogan.
So we're looking forward to the implementation phase, which, as you know, execution is the key to everything.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Wilbur.
Mike? Mike Pence.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Mr. President, I would just - I want to commend Ivanka and the Secretary for implementing your vision of workforce innovation in this country. And I want to thank Governor Reynolds, Governor Holcomb, and Tim and Marillyn, and Ginni and Al. It's an extraordinary group of industry leaders -
THE PRESIDENT: It's true.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: - that you brought together. And I just want to assure you - one of the very first conversations the President and I had when he was considering me for this positon, back in the campaign of 2016, was about workforce; about his passion for what we call "vocational and technical education."
And I just want to assure you, as you'll hear firsthand again from the President today, that this is an enormously high priority for this administration. We're very grateful to each and every one of you for engaging and bringing best practices and best ideas forward.
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks, Mike.
MR. KELLY: Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, Ivanka started the meeting today - actually, twice - (laughter) - talking about the strength of the economy. And I think that I applaud any organization - in this particular case, the U.S. government and your administration - for actually planning for the future when things are actually strong. And I think that's a really, really smart thing and very, very good leadership. And so we're excited about doing everything we can to be part of it. So thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Al. Great job you're doing. Thank you.
MS. HUMPTON: Mr. President, Barbara Humpton, CEO of Siemens USA. And it's such an honor to be included with this brilliant group.
Siemens comes to the table just with open to sharing and open to learning from our colleagues. And I've got a special focus on this fourth objective: the idea that what gets measured gets done, and the idea that we can use our measurements and track progress to encourage others to get engaged in these initiatives.
Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you. And really a great job. In fact, specifically, Ivanka wanted me to point you out and say, "Dad" - I'll tell you, she said, "Dad, she's done a great job." I appreciate it. Thank you, Barbara. Great job.
MS. HUMPTON: Thank you so much. And thank you, Ivanka.
MS. TRUMP: Thank you.
MR. CLARK: Good. Jim Clark, the President of Boys & Girls Clubs of America. And thank you for hosting our Youth of the Year - five of them - this morning at your office, with the Vice President. They enjoyed the opportunity to interact with you.
Thank you for including Boys & Girls Clubs in this important endeavor. Out-of-school time matters. Kids spend more time out of school than in school. And our focus is on that pathway to success and a great future instilling essential skills as well as critical job-readiness skills, like STEM education and other important factors.
So thank you for including Boys & Girls Club.
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks, Jim.
MR. PIWOWAR: Mr. President, Mike Piwowar from the Milken Institute. And I know you know the work of the institute very well. But for others, we are a non-partisan, non-profit think tank dedicated to building meaningful lives. I'm the Executive Director of the Center for Financial Markets, and our mission is to use the power of financial markets to improve access to capital, job creation, and improved health.
I'm so excited to be part of this effort to - what I think of is building a virtuous cycle of investing in the American Dream by investing in each other. So thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much.
MS. GOETTL: Mr. President, Elizabeth Goettl, Cristo Rey Network. Thirty-five private schools exclusively serving low-income students through a special agreement with the United States Department of Labor. Every single student works day a week in an entry-level professional job: law firms, engineering firms, the technology industry, and the like. And in so doing, developing these transferable soft skills that will take them into any job in the workforce: persistence, communication, and a strong work ethic.
Thanks for the opportunity to be here.
