Today, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker delivered keynote remarks at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and witnessed the signing of a joint declaration of intent with Germany to promote cooperation in career and technical education and training. The agreement is between the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Labor, and Education and their three German counterparts.

During her remarks, Secretary Pritzker highlighted the importance of the U.S.-German relationship and the Administration’s commitment to collaborative work on skills development. She has made job-driven training a top priority for the Department of Commerce for the first time, and created the “Skills for Business” initiative, an effort to better collaborate with private sector, academic, economic development, and government leaders at all levels to prepare workers with the skills needed to fill 21^st century jobs.

The signing of this agreement is a commitment to a formal relationship that ensures America continues to benefit from German expertise in this area and is a critical step in expanding our skills workforce development initiatives and programs. For example, Germany’s vocational training system – the “dual system” – is a proven apprenticeship model that the U.S. has already started to import and adopt in our businesses and communities. Bringing more of Germany’s experience to the United States and exchanging best practices in workforce development are central goals of the Joint Declaration.

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery

Thank you, Robin West and the German Marshall Fund, for hosting this event and for carrying forward the spirit of transatlantic cooperation envisioned and advanced by the Marshall Plan. I also want to recognize Senator Richard Lugar, who spent so many years in the Senate as a leading, authoritative voice on the relationship between the United States and our key allies in Europe and worldwide.

I know he continues that work through the Richard G. Lugar Institute for Diplomacy and as a fellow here at the German Marshall Fund. Finally, I want to thank Ambassador Peter Wittig for your work to deepen the bonds of friendship between our two nations.

About a year ago, the Ambassador and I were together at the Aspen Institute during a very difficult and tense period for our two countries the United States and Germany were about to play a much-anticipated World Cup match. Luckily, despite the tragic results of that contest for American fans, the Ambassador and I have managed to keep our bilateral relationship intact.

Soccer matches aside, our Aspen event focused on the same area of our economic alliance that brings us together today: job-driven training and workforce development. I have met with over 1,800 CEOs since becoming Commerce Secretary, and almost every one of them has said that the need for a steady supply of skilled, qualified workers to fill jobs throughout our economy is a key challenge for their companies.

In fact, between now and 2022, our dynamic private sector will have 2.2 million openings for production workers; half-a-million openings for engineers; and an untold number of openings in new, emerging occupations. We must come together – business leaders, academics, labor unions, government, and outside partners like the German Embassy – to develop talent pipelines to fill these jobs. We cannot allow skills disparities to slow the growth of our businesses or limit the prosperity of our workers, families, and communities.

To address this challenge, for the first time, the Department of Commerce has made skills and workforce development a priority. Through our “Skills for Business” initiative, we are partnering across the federal government – with agencies like the Department of Labor and the Department of Education, who join us here today – to assure that our training programs meet the needs of industry, as well as prepare workers for the jobs of the 21st century. But federal policy efforts alone cannot fully address the skills mismatch.

Our $17 billion in federal training investments amount to a tiny fraction of the $450 billion American employers invest in training their workforce. This is one reason why educational institutions, businesses, economic development organizations, and local governments must come together to identify specific solutions to their local workforce challenges.

To encourage collaboration and to break down silos, the Commerce Department recently launched the “Communities that Work Partnership” with the Aspen Institute, which will select six communities where cross-sector collaboration is already happening. In addition to providing technical assistance to each partnership, this initiative will convene the selected communities not only to learn from one another, but to develop common practices from their individualized solutions that can be applied and shared across our country. Aspen will then use the lessons learned from these initial efforts to inform and improve workforce efforts nationally and support the creation of new partnerships.

The Obama Administration is laser-focused on building up a well-prepared workforce to drive our economy forward. We have much to learn from a variety of sources, such as: the communities we will gather at Aspen; the “Pathways to Prosperity Network,” which I learned about when I visited Harvard on Wednesday and which will help 11 states develop pathways for young people to jobs in IT, health care, and advanced manufacturing; and close allies like our good friends in Germany. We recognize that Germany’s centuries of tradition and excellence in this field should inform and bolster our efforts in job-driven training.

I want to repeat what I said last year at the event with Ambassador Wittig: the effort to bring your dual system of training to America may be one of the most valuable German imports to our country over the long term. The impact is already visible through the work of the German Embassy’s Skills Initiative, which has introduced the dual training model to companies, manufacturers, community colleges, and state governments across the United States.

Most recently, this initiative was introduced to Charlotte, North Carolina, where a German company – Festo AG – formed a partnership with Central Piedmont Community College to open a state-of-the-art training facility on campus. This new center will go beyond basic education: it will offer customized training for a number of specific companies in the region and connect students to local manufacturers where their skills will be most applicable. Festo AG’s program is just one example of our bilateral effort to close the skills gap in the United States.

Bringing more of Germany’s experience to the United States – and exchanging best practices in workforce development – are the central goals of today’s Joint Declaration. This agreement will formalize our cooperation in technical and career training. This agreement will include exchanges of information, fact-finding visits, and meetings among experts from business and government from both of our countries. This agreement has the potential to expand on-the-job training, internships, and apprenticeships.

These commitments are critical. But it is up to all of us – our Departments of Commerce, Labor, and Education; the three German ministries of Education and Research, Economic Affairs and Energy, and Labor and Social Affairs; along with everyone in this room – to translate our declaration of intent into action and outcomes.We are calling upon our German partners to expand the Skills Initiative and bring this effort to the supply chains of larger German companies operating in the U.S. And if we work together, the Embassy’s Skills Initiative can have even greater impact. The Department of Commerce has Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers in each state, which can connect the Skills Initiative to small and medium-sized manufacturers. By partnering, we can ensure that U.S. suppliers develop training programs as rigorous as the larger German and American firms they support.

For example, in partnership with the Skills Initiative, Central Ohio Technical College trains workers for jobs in nearby businesses, including Owen’s Corning, the biggest fiberglass manufacturer in the world, and major German firms like Bayer Material and Xperion. We all win if we bring this training effort to smaller enterprises that support these large companies.

I have another request: we would like to include all U.S.-based German manufacturers in Manufacturing Day on October 2nd. This day offers students, their parents and teachers, and their guidance counselors nationwide the opportunity to see the innovative face of their community’s 21st century manufacturing base up close and learn about the available pathways for jobs and careers in manufacturing.

Last year, a number of leading German firms participated, including BASF Corporation’s facility in Tennessee, the second-largest producer and marketer of chemical products in North America; and Rosenberger Group’s site in New Jersey, a world-wide leader in the high-frequency and fiber optic technology fields. U.S. subsidiaries of German manufacturers employ nearly 250,000 Americans – and this year, we want our young people to learn directly from all of these workers the possibilities available in a manufacturing career.

Today’s Joint Declaration is our second agreement this year between the Department of Commerce and Germany. In March, on behalf of the Administration, our Department accepted Germany’s invitation to be the official “Partner Country” for next year’s Hannover Fair – the largest industrial trade fair in the world. The Hanover Messe will showcase U.S. companies’ innovative, high-quality products in various sectors, including energy and advanced manufacturing, to hundreds of thousands of attendees from around the world. The Commerce Department’s SelectUSA team will co-host the USA Investment Center at the fair. We will showcase the advantages of investing in the United States to the more than 6,500 industry exhibitors and 210,000 trade visitors.

We enjoy a robust, active economic relationship with Germany, and our cooperation on developing a skilled workforce in the United States and on the Hannover Messe are just two examples of our strong partnership. Germany is our country’s largest trading partner in Europe and the sixth largest destination for our exports worldwide. To further deepen these ties, we are engaged in negotiations on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, to remove regulatory hurdles and other trade barriers. 

We also have significant investment from German companies, which employ over 620,000 American workers. And we appreciate the fact that you brought a delegation of 55 investors to this year’s SelectUSA Summit – the main event to support our whole-of-government effort to attract foreign direct investment into U.S. markets and communities.

Simply put, the U.S.-German relationship is thriving. While much has changed since the days of the Marshall Plan, it is critical that our alliance remains strong and that we continue to collaborate, as friends and partners. This Joint Declaration of Intent is simply another sign of how our countries are working together to deepen our dynamic economic ties and to ensure that our nations remain open for business. 

Thank you.