COLUMBUS, Ohio — First lady Jill Biden was in Columbus on Wednesday as city leaders announced the launch of its Workforce Hub, an initiative designed to help train Ohio’s future workforce.
The first lady joined city leaders at Columbus City Hall Wednesday afternoon.
She participated in a panel discussion with leaders from Columbus State Community College and Intel, as well as Stephanie Hightower from Columbus Urban League, Representative Joyce Beatty, and Mayor Andrew Ginther.
The launch is part of an effort from the Biden administration that it says will expand opportunities for more Ohioans to land good-paying jobs.
In May, Columbus was one of five cities in the country chosen for the Workforce Hub initiative. Pittsburgh, Augusta, Baltimore and Phoenix were the other cities.
The Biden administration is working with Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther and Columbus State Community College (CSCC) to create opportunities to train the upcoming workforce to be able to meet labor demands.
Over the next five years, Columbus State Community College says it will work with partners across the state to quadruple the number of students trained for engineering technology jobs.
This fall, Columbus State will also launch a new certificate program for semiconductor technician roles that was developed in partnership with Intel through the Ohio Semiconductor Collaboration Network.
The Biden administration says partners will prepare at least 10,000 construction workers to help with expansion projects in central Ohio. Construction worker unions plan to expand their apprenticeship programs over the next two to four years in order to meet these demands.
Additionally, OhioHealth and Columbus State announced a $120 million investment to double the number of professionals trained in high-need healthcare occupations, which includes nursing, surgical technology, medical imaging, respiratory therapy and sterile processing.
The Workforce Hub launch aligns with President Joe Biden’s “Bidenomics” philosophy where he sees the government using the tax code in a more targeted fashion and fashioning other programs to foster investment in new technologies, create jobs and boost upward mobility. He also wants to do more to educate workers and foster competition within the U.S. economy in hopes of reducing prices.
For Republicans, it’s a philosophy of government spending and anti-oil policies that they say fueled a spike in inflation last summer to a four-decade high.
The first lady also plans to stop in Augusta and Pittsburgh as part of the “Investing in America Tour.”