US urges AAPI firms to collaborate with community colleges

The US government is urging Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) owned small businesses to form partnerships with community colleges to improve skills of current and future employees.

This is expected to create jobs and help strengthen the nation’s economy as the government recognizes small businesses as “engines of economic growth,” the White House Initiative on Asian American and Pacific Islanders (WHIAAPI) said.
“We need to build a new kind of economy. One that does not have artificial booms,” WHIAPPI co-chair Chris Lu told AAPI business leaders at a White House forum on February 6.

The WHIAAPI is a federal interagency working group created to improve the quality of life of AAPIs. It organized the business leaders’ forum to inform AAPI leaders of the Obama administration’s efforts to support small businesses. The forum was also presented to media via live web streaming.

“Support for small businesses is important to all Americans, but it is especially important to [the AAPI] community,” Lu said.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) noted earlier that AAPI-owned small businesses contributed $300 billion in sales and two million jobs in 2010.

Records from the US Census bureau, meanwhile, showed that these businesses grew a massive 40 percent to 1.5 million from 2002-2007. The group’s growth is more than twice the national rate in that period, signifying its growing importance to the national economy.

At the February 6 forum, White House Domestic Policy Council Senior Advisor Portia Wu urged small businesses—or those that have less than 500 employees—to collaborate with community colleges to equip its employees with skills.

“We know that our economy, as it picks up again, will need more skilled workers,” Wu said.

“We want to be sure that degrees or skills that they get [from community colleges] are something that is useful in your businesses,” she told the AAPI business leaders.

Wu told the forum that President Obama had made it a priority to address the imminent need for skilled workers in the country in the coming years. This is by encouraging partnerships between businesses and community colleges.

In his “Blueprint for an economy that’s built to last,” the president noted that “the US will need to fill millions of mid- and high-level skilled positions in industries from healthcare to advanced manufacturing, clean energy to information technology.”

Obama noted that collaboration will result in workers being trained on skills that employers explicitly need.

Meanwhile, business leaders at the forum were also urged to participate more in bidding for government contracts to help strengthen small businesses.

“The federal government is the largest purchaser of goods and services,” SBA Deputy Chief of Staff Michelle Chang said.

She noted that firms should tap SBA for information and assistance on how to be a contractor with the federal government. Dymphna Calica-LaPutt/AJPress