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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| 5/17/02: Gary from Tucson says: |
You've read the above testaments. The H1-B program is wrong and us normally passive IT guys & gals must resist. How to resist? Don't let the H1-B's in your company feel welcome. It's not necessary to be rude or disrespectful to your fellow human, but resist efforts to make them "part of the team". Undermine your company's efforts to hire H1-B's any way you can. Write your federal reps. and, in polite terms, accuse them of undermining the USA. Break the ice and discuss this issue with your fellow Americans. Don't cave in to the PC garbage! Speak out & act out! Ultimately, our livelihoods depend on it. |
| 6/3/02: ITManager from Chicago,IL says: |
What we have here is a form of slavery sanctioned by the government and businesses as being okay. Call it what you may but in many ways it parallels exactly what the plantation owners did in the 1800's only just a different century on a different scale. Oh the businesses just love this. They can use and abuse them anyway they can see fit to do. Whereas natural citizens fall under the protection of the labor laws that allow them due process. H1-B's can forget it. Businesses love it because it allows them to do more or less what they want and not to be sued. The government loves it because they immediately rake in the $$$ for the H1-B process and in the short term short lived durable goods (cars, food, clothing, etc.) are bought by these temporary employees generating tax dollars. Trust me this nation can't continue economically on these short lived durable goods and services. Just the other day I heard another American citizen was let go by one of those fake so called American companies. One friend says he fears one of those H1-B's will strap a bomb on them on carry it into the company setting it off during a large meeting someday as a retaliation against us. I say get them the heck out of this country. |
| 5/21/03: Howie from Florida says: |
OK, enough crap... cut to the chase. I am an engineer. This H1-B thing has been decimating the US technical workforce for a decade. If you dont believe me, ask the grades from 1992-93. OK, we bit the bullet, retrained. What happend to us? Well, enron for one. I retrained, and in the post enron leadership crisis lost my job. Getting a new one is nearly impossible. So now I have to come to a decision. Will another masters degree in a technical discipline help me out. Sorry, I kick ass as it stands now. What i think is the problem is: 1. us corporations are using cheap foreign labor 2. us corporations have a leadership crisis. Basically the things the value also increase their levels of corruption. Want to hire that guy that cuts corners and is basically immoral and without ethis. Well, damn dont hire him, make him a VP. Or better yet, lets make him a distinguished journalist. Never mind if what he says he does, he never really did in the first place. Promote people who are unethical. Now you know the rest of the story as Walter Cronkite might say. Sorry folks, our societly is in decline. Why? Go check out the values that we are looking for. Check out why there are so many highly prominent people who build their careers on a sucessfull mountian of lies. That is why our stock market looks like the EKG of a terminal patient. It's in the basics folks. The society. The bad folks got the upper hand. They got more power than every before, and why is that? It is because we got complacent with the behavior. Sex sells, money talks. Man, If the people from 2 generations ago, were to look at the US, they would shrivel in disgust. What did they sacrifice for? This? Ok not to be too over patriotic, but what happened to compassion for your fellow american? We should be building a better nation. Great to help the world, but you know what, americans should come first, and right now, they aren't. That is the plain and simple of where we are at today. If they could somehow get rid of the graft and corruption, and what I would term the evil people that have taken over our countries large industries we would be better off. In the long run, I know one thing. Complain about it if you must, but it will come back to bite them in the rump. Just give it a couple more years. Some of us have been watching this for over a decade. We knew the decline was coming, and now this is the phase where it accelerates. 10 more years, and the big corps aren't going to be making the money, because the foreign companies will be kicking thier butts. Wait, watch. It will happen. Then they can step off the lofty pillars and join the rest of us in the bitch sessions. Sooner or later it will happen. I guess what will be the trigger point will be when the society starts voting smart. Put guys in office that really will do what is best for the long term success of the country. Strip the corps of thier lobbyists. Get more non-lawyers in government. Get a government that reflects the needs of the people. Sooner or later it will happen. What we really need is an industrial policy which reflects smart planning. Legal reforms which can migrate us away from the litigous system we have today. Get back to basics man. Americans work hard, are very well educated. Sorry if I have to tell you it wont happen over night. This is now a long term problem. Bad planning during the past 20 years set the stage. And sooner or later, it will come down to taxes, education, and jobs. You can't run a powerful nation without a good plan in all those areas. Question is when is the public going to wake up. Remember... there are tens of millions of people that could be better off. Every one of them has a vote. At some point, they will have the swing votes to count. The question is when. My guess is within 10 years. |
| 1/9/04: Anonymous from CA says: |
Well, One person was right about the cost of living over here in the U.S. I don't think I can work for $2 an hour if most housing is anywhere from the high $400,000 to $650,000 in the bay area. What am I supposed to do, live in a chicken coop? |
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