Departments of Commerce and Labor partner to help companies create jobs, invest in America The Obama administration today announced a $40 million multi-agency competition, the Make it in America Challenge, to accelerate the trend of insourcing, where companies are bringing jobs back and making additional investments here in America. The competition, which is being funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) and National Institute of Standards and Technology Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST-MEP) and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA), will build upon the administration’s bottom-up approach to strengthening the economy and creating jobs by partnering with state, regional, and local economies.
“The modern global manufacturing landscape has changed the way companies do business, but it has also changed the way companies do training,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “This initiative will provide comprehensive assistance to those companies and those communities committed to make it in America through innovative training programs that lead to industry recognized credentials and arm our workforce with the skills employers want to see from day one.” The national competition announced today will help provide the critical infrastructure, strategic planning, capacity building, technical assistance, and workforce skills training necessary for American communities to be the desired home for more businesses.
The challenge is expected to give out approximately 15 awards, depending on the number of eligible applications.
To be eligible for an award, projects must encourage insourcing, either through on-shoring of productive activity by U.S. firms, fostering increased foreign direct investment, or incentivizing U.S. companies to keep their businesses and jobs here at home, as well as train local workers to meet the needs of those businesses.
A Federal Funding Opportunity will be published by early 2013 which will provide detailed guidelines for submitting an application, including the deadline for applications.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
