Gov. Pritzker Welcomes U.S. Department of Labor to Illinois for Final Regional Convening of the Year

CHICAGO—Governor JB Pritzker joined U.S. Department of Labor Acting Secretary Julie Su and regional stakeholders for the USDOL's Employment and Training Administration (ETA) Vision 2030 Conference:

Investing in America's Workforce. The plenary session, "Setting the Vision," involved discussion of current workforce development landscapes by industry leaders, workers, and private and public sector partners.

"As governor, I've been proud to not only build up Illinois as a state that puts working families first, but also to take a whole-of-government approach to opening up doors and careers for residents all across the state," said Governor JB Pritzker. "When I enacted the largest infrastructure program in state history, we paired it with a program called Illinois Works that sets apprenticeship participation goals on state capital projects and invests in pre-apprentice training grants to kickstart opportunity for women, people of color, and veterans as they build their careers. When workers and their families win, we all win."

During the session, the Governor remarked on Illinois' workforce and apprenticeship accomplishments. He highlighted the administration's passing of the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act and Reimagining Energy and Vehicles Act, which have created thousands of jobs across Illinois. Governor Pritzker also emphasized the workforce development programs launched during his administration as well as the downstate manufacturing training academies.

"President Biden is ‘Investing in America' to build new roads and bridges, to make sure that clean drinking water flows from every faucet and high-speech, reliable, affordable internet reaches every home, and to protect our climate so every child breathes clean air," said Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su. "And this isn't just an opportunity to build new infrastructure. It's an opportunity to create good-paying, union jobs, whenever possible. That requires investing in ETA's mission to strengthen our workforce system."

The ETA Regional Convenings across the nation followed a theme of "Expanding Access to Quality Jobs and Ensuring Job Equity," and focused on creating a national dialogue on the workforce system, fostering partnerships to address the present and future workforce needs, and scaling successful practices by providing a platform for engagement between federal, state, and local entities.