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.
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There are 64  user Comments for “U.S. Gov't Calls IT Training Grant Program "Ineffective"”
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| 4/27/02: Pete says: |
I have my MCSE, a two-year degree, and a decent job right now. Unfortunately, there are a couple of these "highly qualified" foreigners working in my organization. Though one has bachelors degree and another a masters degree in Computer Science, neither of them have a basic understanding of how to troubleshoot software, hardware, or networks. They make twice what I do and are almost helpless. Companies who hire and pay based on "education" are getting exactly what they deserve. Quit passing over those with actual skills for those with "education". The shortage of "qualified" IT people is a fabrication of american HR people, who all have a worthless Arts degree. |
| 4/28/02: Anonymous says: |
I think that most of you so called Americans are very ignorant, conceited and misinformed about immigration issues. Very few of you can claim to be "real" Americans. Only the American Indians can claim that title and look what you foreigners did to them-took their land and forced them into settlements! Every immigrant here is entitled to work and reap the rewards. They all pay taxes and get nothing in return. They do not get social security etc at retirement age if they have not attained citizenship at that juncture. Who would care for your aged parents that you tuck away at nursing homes or pick the fruit that you enjoy daily? Who would clean you big mansions and be nannys 24-7 whil you try to chase the American dream? Is is not any different with skilled workers. If an immigrant is chosen by a company, it is because they see something in them instead of you arrogant Americans!! It would kill some of you to take the pay,jobs and treatment that most immigrants take. Anyhow, if you so loath the immigrants, start by loathing your parents, grandparents and great grandparents who were immigrants! just because you were born here does not make you superior to other human beings. Remember that we are all equal in the eyes of God and so who are you to say that some people should receive preferential treatment over others. Put God first, not country first. |
| 4/28/02: Anonymous says: |
In these times that try the souls of the technology unemployed, the preference that if one is not an American, then that person should receive a job, while an American should not. This preference, dominate in America for the last several decades needs to be clearly examined in the light of today. Decency is not a common trait today. Americans apply for technology jobs and never hear a response. But, to promote the indecency that if one is an American, then they should not be considered for a position, I think goes beyond the bounds of the minimum we, as Americans, shoudl expect from American corporations. I think that this proposal is indecent, immoral, and inappropriate as Americans in the technology sector are vastly under-employed, or unemployed. |
| 4/29/02: p. chandra sekhar from mumbai says: |
this is an excellent step that he took... he is the only person that knows about the technology... thanq MR President... |
| 4/29/02: ITManager from Chicago,IL says: |
"this is an excellent step that he took... he is the only person that knows about the technology... thanq MR President..." Oh please, for the life of me that is like saying Al Gore invented the www. |
| 4/29/02: ITManager from Chicago, IL says: |
Here is the scenerio being played out in the case example of an insurance company called Screw You exploiting the useage of H1-B's to their advantage. Screw You is a mega company posting profits into the millions over the past few years, definitely not a company in a financial crisis by no means. Over the years since its founding it regularly grew at a steady pace and only within the last 10 years or so the growth rate was phenomenal and as a result the IT staff size exploded to meet the demands of the business. When they initially started the IT area they wanted everything to be perfect in everyway. They researched all new software products and tested and retested the products endlessly and meanwhile in their efforts they set up elaborate standards and processes in their DP shop to their liking. Enter the 1990's with the year 2000 looming and online web dominance upon them. Screw You engages in a panic mode and to meet the demands turn to using external staff. Their original intent conveyed to their staff was that by using external staffing they could deploy services to their consumers at a faster pace and the staff of externals would be used only when peaks requirements deemed it necessary. So Screw You began using external outsource firms which ultimately brought H1-B's onto the staff. They engaged in hiring some new staff but that was only briefly to meet the requirements for Y2K conversion of their programs written in various languages, Assembler, COBOL, and PLI. As time passed Screw You became locked into using the external staff not on a temporary basis but permanently. See as the company grew so did their layers of management and subsequently job functions were subdivided into micro positions extending the staffing layers horizontally and vertically across the company in a majority or all of the functional areas. Now structured worse than any governmental unit. What formally took several hours to accomplish now takes days. [Note: A building contractor would never send 100 or more workers out to frame a house.] Currently Screw You is engaged in deploying DB2 V5 and the first live deployment won't be until early 2003. Screw You's IT staff is so bogged down in endless meetings, policies and procedures that they can't keep up with new technology. By mid 2003 they will be behind on at least 2 releases of DB2. Enter changing business conditions into the mix. Higher number of claims and payouts coupled with the fact that the company is a mutual company which precluded Screw You from increasing it's cash flow by offering stock, not to mention the fact that with nearly one quarter to one third of it's IT staff were externals and the payout for salaries and wages for those staffing numbers compared to it's own staff was nearly half of the total budgeted dollars for IT salaries. Now they are locked in, the job functions are so horizontally spread out and so diversified that no one can hardly tell what is going on. Call it Micro level confusion. They can't let the external staffing go because they have with no control relinguished job responsibilities. It is easy to move forward in that environment but pulling back to reorganize and downsize is even harder. Screw You's pledge to their employees was no layoff's, but at what cost? To internally push the effort the management bombards the staff with so called "cultural diversity" programs to brain wash them. |
| 4/29/02: ITManager from Chicago, IL says: |
Meanwhile over the more recent years one of Screw You's top influencial person embroils the educational community and governmental units and convinces them that the fault for not being able to get good qualified technical staff is mostly because of "teachers" and their lack of continuing their education to keep up with trends. So ultimately teacher certification kicks in pissing off teachers along with standardized testing tied with funding which even further pisses off teachers and administrators causing them to leave the profession. Not just bad teachers but good teachers. What better position could Screw You be in. They have justified their reason for not getting technical staff, based on the low number of qualified graduates because of the educational system. So spread the reason among the business community and present that case to the government to justify their need for H1-B's. Oh what happened to the disgruntled teachers? Ironically they found it easier to work for Screw You rather than put up with the educational system hassles. There is no reason for any grant program to succeed in this country. The business community, companies like Screw You, have no use for them, hell they proved their case to the government and the paying American public is just as ignorant about it as they ever will be. Screw You goes on advertising just as if they were as wholesome and pure as the company could ever be meanwhile in the background undermining and eroding the standard of living in the United States. Forget applying there for a job with all the certification you may have. So long PeopleSoft, who needs it. Some call it by the name of "greed". Heck every politician needs insurance for those special lawsuits and Screw You or like company provided that necessity to people like William Jefferson Clinton. What better way to pay back the industry and business leaders? It was no Act of God or revelation that all of this came about and for sure Abraham Lincoln doesn't sleep in his bed at the White House anymore, thats for sure. Unfortuneately people like Peter F. Drucker theoritically present their case in a published periodical but never address with completeness all ramifications surrounding the subject, namely the underlying associated costs. He lacks any intellegence to address the faults that lie within companies like Screw You, outside moral and ethical realms Screw You plainly lacks the ingenuity and initiatiive to redefine themselves internally and stop the horizontal and vertical expansion. Once a group of farmers opposed the locating of a sanitation facility at or near their farms outside a large city. Ultimately they lost their case before the local zoning board. One farmer when asked described it this way: "those people in town don't give a damn about nothing. They set their garbage out on a Monday or Thursday and someone picks it up and it is out of there. They go into their bathrooms and flush their toilets and don't care where it goes or what happens to it. Just get it the hell out of here." Think about it! |
| 4/29/02: Anonymous says: |
No wonder! Look at the first three postings from 4/24/02. How can you expect anybody to see these programs as anything but "ineffectual" when your grammar sucks and you can't even spell things like your own job title. Examples: 1. Maxime Darbouze from PA. I am a Biomendical Engineer/Chemist Who is also MCP in Win2000 and Server soon MCP in Infrastructure to become MCSA then MCSE. Don't you mean Biomedical? What about grammar? Go back to school! 2. Kelvin from Georgia. I am currently not employed I think that American citizen should be hire first in the IT industry. Dude, if you want a job, try losing the ebonics and learn how to speak English. 3. Tom from Maryland. I'm have a BS in Computer Science and a MBA. I'm have?????? Hello????? If you can't speak English better than the H1B visa holders, which by the way is not very hard to do, then maybe you shouldn't try to get one of the "intelligent people" jobs! |
| 4/29/02: Anonymous says: |
Well now, this a very heated topic I see. As United States citizens with the worlds largest economy we have a moral obligation to help take care of the rest of mankind. Are domestic affairs and foreign affairs are becoming more and more as one in the same. - US Citizen |
| 4/29/02: by all means says: |
Blaaa.... blaa blaa... and blaa.. blaa.. blaa... Get to works everyone and get your job done. |
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