|
|
|
|
U.S. Gov't Calls IT Training Grant Program "Ineffective"
4/24/2002 -- According to a story published April 15 in the San Jose Mercury News, the White House is looking to gut a $138 million fund for technology training in order to speed up the processing of H1-B visas.
The H1-B Technical Skills Training Grants program originated in 1998 as part of a compromise to increase the cap on H1-B visas, the article says. The goal of the the program was to encourage U.S. citizens to train for IT positions, thus offsetting the need for companies to fill jobs with foreign employees. However, according to reporter Jennifer Bjorhus, in a budget proposal sent to congress in February, the Bush administration called the program is "ineffective" and said that it "'has no prospect' of educating workers to take the place of people on H1-B visas."
"According to the Bush administration, the H1-B Technical Skills Training Grants are teaching low-level computer skills that aren't lifting US workers up to the level of highly educated foreigners on H1-B visas.." she writes.
Money for the program is currently taken in part from H-1 B visa application fees. According to the story, the Bush administration would rather use the $138 million in funds to speed up the processing of H1-B visas which, in some cases, can take up to five years to process.
To read the full story from the San Jose Mercury News, click here.  - B.N.
|
There are 64  user Comments for “U.S. Gov't Calls IT Training Grant Program "Ineffective"”
|
|
Page 2 of 7
|
| 4/24/02: John from the midwest says: |
Stop whining. If you don't have the skills, or your employer can hire someone else with the same skills at a cheaper price, what's to hold him back? That's why this is called "the land of the free" -- fredom is not just for you, it goes both ways, funny how people have such a hard time accepting that. |
| 4/25/02: Ray from Los Angeles says: |
John from Midwest is wrong. That party line crap is what is killing the U.S. currently. That's the Enron mentality. Business always does what's in the best interest of business. But in the U.S. we'd like to believe that as an employee you can get fair market wages for the job. You must take into account the cost of living HERE John. Not in India, or some third-world country. Because we don't live there. Right wingers always believe that the market will set the tone and society will benefit. If that's the case why have workers constantly had to fight to create legislation that didn't allow business to exploit citizens. If labor called the tune, we'd all be at work from dusk 'til dawn, and at the end of the day owing the company. Bush himself couldn't complete an I.T. training course, and he has the nerve to displace and discourage Americans attempting to upgrade their skills and compete. Also, this Government program comes from OUR tax dollars, not out of business's pocket. Shouldn't WE be able to capitalize and create opportunities via H1 B Tech Skills upgrades? John and the rest of the right wingers are always for profit margins and screwing the worker. Their the same people that would have Mexicans enter illegally and pick the lettuce and produce for sub minimum wage, then turn around and cry about illegal immigration. Their hypocrisy knows no boundaries. |
| 4/25/02: Sam from NJ says: |
America for Americans!It appears it is tme for a new Federal saying that you want to work in the US you have to be an American citizen . Being an American citzen has lost its meaning. Thousands of Amricans cannot find work now because of greedy American corporations. Lets clean out America and take our country back!!!! |
| 4/25/02: D from Rochester says: |
It's very convenient to ignore the benefits of this program and label them as "ineffective" when it is obvious that the someone wants to use the funds for other initiatives and projects. These funds have been allocated for the purpose of training unskilled people and reduce the dependency on the foreign labor for technical skills. While the trade of labor in the global environment will never end but rather increase in the coming years, should the adminstration have higher expectations or want higher level IT skills from the program it should say so and make this a requirement of the adminstrators and recipents of the program rather than try and render the program trash and prepare disregard it. |
| 4/25/02: Anonymous says: |
If they would just pump some money into getting clearences done faster and cheaper all of this would be moot. |
| 4/25/02: American says: |
I think true Americans should have the jobs in America and no one else. Kickem all out! :) |
| 4/25/02: H1B Visa holder says: |
Maybe American is right... but don't forget to kick all the Americans out of the other countries that they're in. Another ignorant idea. |
| 4/25/02: Seymour says: |
Hey, I read that the U.S. House of Representatives has just voted to abolish the INS... |
| 4/25/02: Another American says: |
Well, H1B Visa Holder, why don't we remove the Americans from the other countries? Because we taught the Japanese how to manufacture and the Indians how to program. We keep the commies out of South Korea, and brought down the Berlin Wall. All you foreign dudes need to remember your place, World War I and World War II... |
| 4/25/02: jw from ca says: |
The best you can hope is to change the H1b system. It is, as noted, flawed in several ways. How about establishing a minimum 'wage' - if these workers truly have rare skills, skill the market would ordinarily reward, then a floor wage of USD 100,000 per year would server all interests fairly well... That is, for U.S. workers, such a floor would mean that they are not being shut out by poorly paid foreign labor, and indeed could compete, by investing in themselves. Businesses would still be able to buy 'cheap' foreign labor - a good Oracle DBA, or Medical doctor would likely be 'underpaid' at a hundred thou... And processing times would likely decrease... because fewer businesses would higher external labor... therefore the existing staff could indeed focus more attention on the high-value external labor. The only losers here are people doing $90,000 jobs, for 40,000 a year. They would of course lose a great deal... On this last point lies the crux of the matter... at what point is it reasonable to set a floor? I think a floor should be some multiple of the 'living wage' - and would be intrinsically enough to prevent corporations from casually abusing the system. If the national living wage is $15k, and 4 seems a good multiple, then the floor would be $60k - just enough to live on in Silicon valley (not comfortably, tho...) Beyond the dollars - as noted above, remember that these folks are granted fewer of the priviliges we deem normal and reasonable - a minimum wage is small compensation. As to a cert program... hell a cert doesn't get you a job anyway... I suspect it probably is ineffective... |
First Page Previous Page Next Page Last Page
|
|
|
|
