BANNOCKBURN, Ill., USA, October 31, 2018 – Leaders of the U.S. electronics industry today unveiled the IPC Workforce Champions program and pledged to create at least 1 million new skilled workforce opportunities over the next five years.

The IPC pledge came during a White House meeting with President Trump and other senior U.S. officials. In addition to IPC President and CEO Dr. John Mitchell, the event was also attended by representatives of four IPC-member companies who spoke with the president about their companies’ experiences with workforce efforts:     

Darryl Graves of Zentech in Baltimore, Maryland;
Meredith LaBeau of Calumet Electronics in Calumet, Michigan;
Joe O’Neil of Green Circuits in San Jose, California; and
Shane Whiteside of Summit Interconnect in Anaheim, California.

In July, President Trump signed an Executive Order establishing the National Council for the American Worker, which was charged with developing a national strategy for training and retaining workers for jobs in high-demand industries. The administration also invited companies and trade groups to sign a new Pledge to America’s Workers, committing themselves to expand programs to educate and train American workers. With the new pledges received today from IPC and others, the total number of such opportunities to be created is rising from 3.8 million to more than 6 million.

 “As a leader in education, training and certification, IPC is proud to join with the Trump administration and our private sector colleagues in this effort to expand training and career opportunities for American students and workers,” said IPC’s Mitchell. “The chronic shortage of adequately skilled workers is one of the most difficult challenges facing the electronics industry in the United States. We are totally committed to expanding and improving our industry’s efforts to engage young people and train American workers with the technical skills they need to be successful in this industry.”

In support of its pledge, IPC is making unprecedented, multi-million-dollar investments in its education, training and workforce programs. The multifaceted effort will include investments in training and credentialing programs, STEM programming in secondary and post-secondary schools, “Earn & Learn” programs, and new job opportunities.

To learn more about IPC’s Workforce Champions Pledge, visit http://go.ipc.org/gr-pledge/.