Sign North Carolina Banking Memorandum Of Understanding Later

Industry sign banking north carolina memorandum of understanding later

good good eye good morning good morning could I have you all sit down take your places good morning my name is Robin West I'm the chairman of the the German Marshall Fund and secretary Pritzker deputy secretary Lew state secretary Rahel Vassar Witek distinguished guests on behalf of the board of trustees of the German Marshall Fund I welcome you all to this important signing ceremony that has brought us together at gmf the document about to be signed is a joint declaration of intent on the shared belief in the importance of promoting education and training as a factor in individual development and achievement economic development and social growth as well as a means for strengthening the ties between the United States and Germany beyond the significance of the signing of this document today is G mf's birthday june fifth is an important day in the history of the German Marshall Fund on that day in 1947 George Marshall announced at Harvard what would become known as the Marshall Plan 25 years later on a June fifth 1972 speech again at harvard university chancellor german chancellor brunt delivered what would be known as response and the thank you in a speech calling for the establishment of gmf as an expression of special gratitude for the german decision in not for the american decision in 1947 since that time GMF has been strengthening transatlantic cooperation of local national regional and global challenges and opportunities in the spirit of the Marshall Plan and so today we couldn't be more excited to mark GMs 43rd anniversary with an event that reinforces the strength and durability of the German American partnership and the friendship between our countries through its work gmf has demonstrated the unique ability to explore issues critical to the transatlantic agenda in ways that bridge local and global significance strengthening the competitiveness of the US and German economies developing a skilled workforce and enhancing innovation are examples of issues that impact local national and transatlantic relations GMF just released the findings of its task force on the future of the German American relations the report highlighted the role that workforce development can play as an area in which Germany and the United States can learn from each other this should not be surprising Germany is the u.s. largest trading partner within Europe and the United States receives the largest amount of German exports outside of Europe GMF has long advocated cooperation on these issues through the flagship Marshall memorial fellowship program and the urban and regional policy programs these programs help to build bridges between transatlantic leaders in order to enhance their knowledge grow their leadership skills and advance new ideas and solutions in their home communities for example Germany's education and vocational training system has been a source of inspiration for local leaders engaged in our work through study tours and workshops leaders from Pennsylvania Michigan and Ohio have found ways to translate elements of the German system to improving opportunities for training and education in high-growth industries as for our Marshall Memorial fellow alumni network of over 3,000 hundreds of work directly in business and workforce development education science and technology and innovation these leaders are clustered throughout cities and regions in the US and Germany and they're ready to engage in this partnership and make it a powerful testament to transatlantic cooperation this memoranda of understanding is about competitiveness job creation and workforce development it's a reaffirmation of what we do together and what we must continue to do in sporting and solidifying bilateral ties between Germany and the States that's why gmf supports this initiative some of our best work is done when we learn from each other I applaud the officials here today for their diligent work to remote this understanding our support of this mou does not end with the signing ceremony rather we plan to use our network of stakeholders and our us-german task force to help reinforce the value of the shared learning and to help promote this agreement will continue to host roundtable discussions on this theme and encourage our audience to join us in support of transatlantic cooperation across the US and Germany in fact jun 9th to 12th across cities in North Carolina gmf is supporting roundtable discussions on dual education and apprenticeship it's now my honor to serve as master ceremony today and I'm proud to turn the microphone over to the Honorable Thomas Carr held the German parliamentary State Secretary of Education and Research Secretary of Commerce Pritzker deputy secretary Lew assistant secretary vu assistant secretary Williams acting assistant secretary Irvin mr. West ambassador we take we are very happy to have you here today ladies and gentlemen it's my great pleasure to speak to you today on location on signing of a joint declaration of intent on cooperation in the field of vocational education and training between the United States of America and Germany I'm so pleased that we are signing this bilateral declaration of intent it is the first time that the United States of America and Germany signs such a cooperation agreement at ministerial level and it's also the first time but as many as three departments have been involved on each side namely the American and German departments for education for Economic Affairs and labor I think this clearly speaks for the good and friendly relations between our two countries ladies and gentlemen youth unemployment is one of the greatest global challenges we have in our times it has a direct impact on our country's economic development as well on the social peace no nation can afford to give up an entire generation in March 2015 youth unemployment in Greece for example stood over fifty percent while the average in Europe was about twenty percent and the figure for the United States was about twelve percent in many countries we can currently observe a big gap between the need for skilled workers on the one hand and sustained youth unemployment on the other hand we need good basic qualifications for the young people in order to solve this discrepancy in the state of union address 2013 President Obama emphasized the importance of the vocational training system in Germany this is where the dual system of vocational education and training shows it worse it's one of the decisive reasons why germanys rate of Jews unemployment stood at the comparatively low but still not acceptable level of 7.2 percent in March this year in company training in particular you ensures the practical relevance which industry so urgently needs at the same time the early involvement of trainees in the business everyday work facilitates their transition into the labor market it is these features that are of particular interest to our partner countries then there are the questions of how to make vocational education training a more attractive and recognized career paths and why German companies are so strongly committed into vocational training ladies and gentlemen we in the drum ministry for research education science in the being behave are facing a huge demand from a board at the moment we have 17 ongoing bilateral partnerships in the field of vocational training most of which are based on a cooperation agreement the number of cooperation agreements and partnerships is growing steadily with the most recent adding addition being the United States of America here today the countries that request cooperation with the BN BF plan to reform their education systems and shape them along the lines that is where we want to support our partner countries and work with them to develop strategies to achieve their individual goals for reform this support is never about transferring the German dual system to another country that would not make sense and would therefore be doomed to failure instead it is about taking the specific conditions and situation of the individual partner countries into account and understanding the objectives of the proposed reforms at the end of the day our cooperation is always about transformation in the partner country this means that the partner country most enforce must enforce these changes itself we support our partners on this path with our know-how experience with a doer training system and we also assist in designing pilot projects our aim is to provide good practice examples of how elements of dual training can be introduced in the partner countries our dual system in Germany is somehow unique insofar as it strikes the right balance between the different interests of the various stakeholders in a social dialogue the German system the germ dual system could not work without this consensus on the part of all the actors involved the business the social partners the chambers and the ministries alike this so-called social dialogue also guarantees the flexible development of the system the German wet system is basically in a permanent process of dialogue there will always be stakeholders who see a need to improve the system this is a positive factor because it helps us to develop the system further we are open asked about the attractiveness of vocational education and training on the one hand there's the question of how businesses as the initial training venue can be motivated to invest in vocational training especially as investments in the initial phase of training a particularly high it is not enough to simply invite your knees to work in a company companies have to create a necessary conditions to increase integrate trainees in a structured process of learning in Germany companies pay their trainees if we want to convince employers to make such investments they need to regard training their future employees as their own responsibility it is important for trainees that their qualification are recognized throughout the country and enable them to perform the range of activities we will also follow an individual approach in our cooperation with the United States of America I believe that first of all it is important to gain a full understanding of the system we must therefore portray and describe the realities of the systems as it exists in Germany as a matter of fact we in Germany also learn from the corporation's through exchange of experience and mutual learning both of which teachers other ways of integrating dual components in a vocational training systems this helps us to develop our own system further there can be no doubt that this is a clear win-win situation for both sides we will definitely learn from each other and this is true for all stakeholders government departments social partners and business alike finally my ladies in German when German companies can play a substantial role in introducing the dual system through their subsidies in the partner countries these are familiar with the dual system and can often provide good practice examples for similar training programs in other partner countries I have learnt that many of the more than two or three thousand fauna German companies in the United States are already taking this pass among them we will we find well-known businesses such as 4v bmv Bosch or steel so we see that they are already some first examples and attempts to set up a dual training let me mention finally the German embassies successful skills initiative mr. ambassador in this regard this she supports the company's efforts and promotes regional cooperation with vocational institutions for instance local colleges all this provides an excellent starting position and therefore very pleased that we also laid the political foundations for cooperation in vocational education and training between our two countries by signing the declaration of intent in some minutes I am convinced that our dialogue and exchange will be fruitful for both sides and especially for the young generation in our two countries thank you very much how's my privilege to introduce deputy secretary of labor mr. Lu it's yours good morning it is a pleasure to be here with our colleagues from Germany and I want to thank the German Marshall Fund for hosting this important event I want to thank secretary Pritzker and the wonderful teams at commerce education and labor who have worked hard to get us to this day the US Department of Labor has employed a close working relationship with our German colleagues on labor and employment issues we appreciate the leadership that Germany has taken during its g7 presidency to promote greater respect for worker rights and improve occupational and safety and health in the supply chain we also admire the leadership that the German government has shown in promoting family-friendly workplace practices and I was honored honored in March to host ministers phasic for a meeting to discuss these policies we are here today to continue to learn from Germany about your approaches to promoting a skilled workforce last October secretary Perez visited Germany to learn about the dual system that integrates technical vocational education and work to face training and he had a wonderful week of meetings with businesses training institutions government officials and trade unions and he was struck by the effect of pneus of this duel training process we just heard now about the youth unemployment rate in Germany and I would note that that sixty percent that seven point two is about sixty percent of what it is here in the United States so we have a great deal still to learn from our German friends the president and secretary Perez have made advancing apprenticeships a centerpiece of our strategy to meet the demand for skills in American industry the breadth of occupational training and Germans dual system can help inform our program development as we move apprenticeships into new industries such as advanced manufacturing information technology energy and health care we also recognize that skills and training are essential to the growth of our economy and the strength of our middle class and that's one of the reasons why we have set a goal to double the number of apprenticeships in our country over a five-year period so in order to accomplish this we know that we are we need to modernize our system and to do that we are going to borrow and blend the best ideas from abroad and some of those best ideas come from Germany and we're going to create a uniquely American system that we call apprenticeship USA and we've had some wonderful collaborations recently with German firms on this area of apprenticeship training Siemens MTU America Volkswagen and others are leading the way in apprenticeships for high-demand jobs and we are especially pleased that many German headquartered companies have also become apprenticeship USA leaders business leaders who have used apprenticeships both here and abroad are often the best ambassadors for why this method of training works and this leaders campaign is our new effort to raise the profile of registered apprenticeships in order to expand this goal to meet this goal that ultimately leads to greater opportunity and we are pleased that we already have seven five leader companies and organizations that are working with us with a goal to have a hundred by this summer so we are pleased by the collaboration that we are signing today we continue to look for greater ways to expand partnerships with our friends in Germany and we thank everyone for being part of this historic effort thank you thank you mr. deputy secretary it is now my distinct honor to introduce the key champion of this project and our keynote speaker the Honorable penny Pritzker Secretary of Commerce Secretary Pritzker joined the administration after a distinguished career in the private sector since taking the helmet Commerce Secretary Pritzker has broadened the department's priorities to include skills and workforce development today's decoration is a testament to that effort welcome Secretary Pritzker Thank You Robin and thank you to the German Marshall Fund and in fact happy birthday to the German Marshall Fund we're really grateful to you for hosting this event and for carrying forward the spirit of transatlantic cooperation that was envisioned in advance by the Marshall Plan I also want to recognize Senator Richard Lugar who has spent so many years in the Senate as a leading authoritative voice on the relationship between the United States and our key allies in Europe and around the world I know he continues that work through the Richard Lugar Institute for diplomacy and as a fellow here at the German Marshall Fund I also want to thank ambassador vidiq for your work to deepen the bonds of friendship between our two countries about a year ago the ambassador and I were together at the Aspen Institute when we had a it was a very difficult time actually in a tense period for our two countries the United States and Germany were about to play a much-anticipated world cup match luckily despite the results of the contest for the American fans the ambassador and I have managed to keep our bilateral relationship intact soccer matches aside our aspen event focused in the same area of our economic alliance that brings us here today together job-driven training and workforce development I've met with over 1,800 CEOs since becoming Commerce Secretary and almost every one of them has said that their need for a steady supply of skilled qualified workers to fill jobs throughout our economy is a key challenge for their companies in fact between now and 2020 to our dynamic private sector will need to fill 2.2 million openings for production workers a half a million openings for engineers and an untold number of openings in new emerging occupations to address this challenge and the greater challenges we must come together business leaders academics labor unions government and outside partners like the German embassy to develop talent pipelines to fill these jobs we cannot allow a skills disparity to slow the growth of our businesses or limit the prosperity of our workers our families and our communities to address this challenge for the first time the Department of Commerce has made skills and Workforce Development a priority through our skills for business initiative we are partnering across the federal government with agencies like the Department of Labor and the Department of Education who join us here today to assure that our training programs meet the needs of industry as well as prepare our workers for the jobs of the 21st century but federal policy efforts alone cannot address the skills mismatch are 17 billion dollars in federal training investments amount to a tiny fraction of the 450 billion dollars American employers invest in training their workforce this is one reason why educational institutions businesses economic development organizations and local governments must come together to identify specific solutions to their local workforce challenges to encourage collaboration and break down silos the Commerce Department recently laut launched the communities that work partnership with the Aspen Institute which will select six communities in the United States or cross-sector collaboration is already happening in addition to providing those communities with technical assistance this initiative will convene the selected communities not only to learn from one another but to develop common practices from their individualized solutions practices that can be applied and shared across our country Aspen will then use the lessons learned from these initial efforts to inform and improve workforce efforts nationally and support the creation of new partnerships around our country the Obama administration is laser focused on building a well prepared workforce to drive our economy forward we have much to learn from many sources such as the communities that will gather at Aspen or the pathways to prosperity Network which I learned about recently on a visit to Harvard which they are helping 11 states develop pathways young people to jobs in IT healthcare and advanced manufacturing and we have much to learn from our close allies close allies like Germany we recognize that Germany's centuries of excellence in this field should inform and improve our own efforts in job-driven training so I want to repeat what I said last year at the invent with Ambassador vidiq the effort to bring your dual system of training to America may be one of the most valuable German imports to our country over the long term the impact is already visible through the work of the German embassy skills initiative which has introduced dual training models to companies manufacturers community colleges and state governments across the United States more recently this initiative was introduced to charlotte north carolina where a german company festo AG formed a partnership with Central Piedmont Community College to open a state-of-the-art training facility on their campus this new center will go beyond classical basic education and it will offer customized training for a number of specific companies in the region and connect students with local manufacturers where their skills will be most applicable festo AG's program is just one example of our bilateral effort to close the skills gap in the United States bringing more of Germany's experience to the United States and exchanging best practices in Workforce Development are the central goals of our joint declaration this agreement will formalize our cooperation in technical and career training this agreement will include exchanges of information fact-finding visits and meetings among expert from businesses and government from both of our countries this agreement has the potential to expand on the job training internships and apprenticeships as well these commitments are critical but it's up to all of us all of us in this room our Department of Commerce our Department of Labor our Department of Education the three German ministries of Education and Research Economic Affairs and energy and label labor and social affairs along with all of you in this room to translate our declaration of intent to action and outcomes we're calling upon our German partners to expand the skills initiative and bring this effort to the supply chains of larger German companies operating here in the United States and if we work together the embassy skills initiative can have an even greater impact the Department of Commerce has manufacturing extension partnership excuse me we have manufacturing extension partnership centers in each one of our states which they can connect the skills initiative to small and medium-sized manufacturers so by partnering we can ensure that us suppliers develop training programs as rigorous as those that are enjoyed by larger German and American firms that these small companies support for example in partnership with the skills initiative Central Ohio Technical College trains workers for jobs in nearby businesses including Owens Corning the biggest fiberglass manufacturer in the world but they also train workers for German firms like bear material and Experian we all win if we bring this training effort to smaller enterprises that support our large company I have another request we would like to include all the us-based German manufacturers in our manufacturing day on October second this day offers students their parents and teachers and their guidance counselor's nationwide opportunity to see up close and personal firsthand the innovative face of their communities 21st century manufacturing base last year a number of leading German firms participated including BASF corporations facility in Tennessee the second-largest producer and marketer of chemical products in north america and rosenberger groups site in new jersey also participated they're a worldwide leader in the high frequency and fiber optic technology fields us subsidiaries of German manufacturers employ nearly 250,000 Americans and this year we want our young people to learn directly from all of those workers the possibilities in a manufacturing career today's joint declaration is not our first agreement with the German Embassy in march on behalf of the administration our department accepted Germany's invitation to be the official partner country for next year's Hanover fair the largest industrial trade fair in the world the Hannover Messe will showcase US companies innovative and high-quality products in various sectors including energy and advanced manufacturing to hundreds of thousands of n10 DS at this fair from around the world the Commerce Department select USA team will co-host the USA investment Center at the fair we will showcase the advantages of investing in the United States to the more than 6,500 industry exhibitors and the two hundred and ten thousand visitors to the fair we enjoy a robust active economic relationship with Germany and our cooperation on developing a skilled workforce in the United States and our cooperation on the Hannover Messe are just two examples of our strong partnership Germany is our country's largest trading partner in Europe and the sixth largest destination for our exports worldwide to further deepen these ties we are engaged in negotiations on the transatlantic trade and investment partnership to remove regulatory hurdles and other trade barriers between our countries we also have significant investment in the United States from German companies which employ over 620,000 American workers and we appreciate very much the fact that Germany brought a delegation of 55 investors to this year's select USA summit which is the main event to support our whole of government effort to attract foreign direct investment to the United States markets and communities so simply put the us-german relationship is thriving while much has changed since the days of the Marshall Plan it is critical that our alliance remain strong and that we continue to collaborate as friends and partners this joint declaration of intent is simply another sign of how our countries are working together to deepen our dynamic economic ties and to ensure that our nation's remain open for business thank you the Secretary has agreed to take a few questions so Madam Secretary excellency thank you very much for your leadership Natalie Hartman representing the lufthansa group sure we know firsthand the important process and due diligence and fitness tests when thinking about investments and the proximity to a skilled workforce into the training academies that we need in order to have that tailored approach that you discussed through your leadership and the select USA program as well as the ambassador and the skills initiative we were able to really put together and through a tough fitness test a very competitive process very proudly able to invest last year in Puerto Rico where we have 400 skilled workers and happy to say that most of those are in the pipeline right now and we're training and they're on the job and we're on time and on budget for a great opening this year if so thank you for your efforts and great leadership and partnership in that how can we also harness this new initiative for our current investments in enhancing them and then also from an international business perspective how we can also really capture this as we think about new investments in the u.s. thank you well first of all thank you for lufthansa's investment in Puerto Rico we all worked very hard on that it was extremely competitive and we're very grateful that you chose to put your facility in Puerto Rico and I think if I recall the process correctly a significant portion of your decision to invest in Puerto Rico had to do with the workforce and and the commitment that was made to make sure that you would have a robust pipeline of technical workers to make sure that your facility which is designed to repair airplanes is never down but always functional and I also want to congratulate our select USA team frankly they worked very hard to make sure that all the partners came together for that to happen you know I think there are a couple ways that we can continue to work together first of all the skills initiative is one that we can continue to build on in new areas and for example as I mentioned in my speech really making sure that the supply chain that supports your efforts in Puerto Rico but others efforts are we engage those companies which tend to be smaller and can't really do their own workforce training in the initiatives that we have put together the second thing would place I think we can work together as through our manufacturing extension partnership in every state we have manufacturing extension partnership for those of you who don't know this is an effort it that where the commerce department works with a local partner to work with manufacturers within that community to help them have global standard first class manufacturing processes it also helps them to evolve if they're let's say changing a line or they're having a major change in their customer base so that they can remain viable and competitive and if you told me when I've spent 27 years in the private sector if you told me that the federal government was what was helping manufacturers stay globally competitive I was highly skeptical until I came in and actually saw this in action it's an amazing service and this is some another place where we can work together I think the other thing that we hope to do through the skills initiative in our joint declaration is to make sure that the alumni of our programs are connected by a network so that we can not only companies know of what each other are doing but also the workforce so I think those are a few ways that we could work together the question thank you madam secretary my name is andrew rogers on with the District of Columbia Workforce Investment Council I want to commend you all on this great initiative as well as the administration's continued support with job-driven training apprenticeship models especially at non-traditional apprenticeships as well as support for post-secondary education how do you see our has there been any preliminary thoughts on how this initiative and the partnership that's being developed will in the in the local are the labor exchange outcomes how those will actually kind of feed down to local governments local communities both rural and urban as well as to the businesses especially small businesses well as I said I think there's a couple ways that we can that we've thought about moving forward but we're always open to more suggestions so are you know we're all years but I think through the existing manufacturing extension partnership sui can use them they are you know tend to have dozens and dozens of people in state so there and they are connected with small and medium-sized businesses so that's a great place for us to take our skills initiative and really use those connections to work with smaller and medium-sized businesses and the second is this it is manufacturing day not to underestimate this is an opportunity for large and small and medium-sized manufacturers to really showcase themselves in their communities what we're trying to do is not only elevate manufacturing but frankly address the fact that I think manufacturing has an image problem in general I think there's a lack of understanding among particularly guidance counselors and in some respect parents which obviously influenced children as to what are the career opportunities available in manufacturing and as well as how do we and and what that career is it doesn't look like the career of my father or my grandfather my grandmother's manufacturing day it's very different it's very dynamic it's very technical and so the other thing is is that the German Marshall Fund is also sponsoring next week in North Carolina something that I think can be replicated which is a set of roundtables talking about imprenta ships and the apprenticeship programs in Germany and how they could be evolved to be applicable here and working with our department of labor you know and one of the other issues that they'll talk about is return costs return on investment and what are the costs of running these types of programs you let me just reemphasize something important that chris said the president has tasked us with doubling the number of registered apprenticeships in the united states and that is an ambitious goal today I think we have about 400 15,000 apprenticeships registered apprenticeships we know if someone gets a job in an apprenticeship program registered apprenticeship program 87,000 of or eighty-seven percent of those folks will end up with a job so it's a very successful way to train someone so doubling makes sense but we also know if you took the population of Germany and the number of folks who in Germany who are in apprenticeship programs and applied that percentage to the United States we should have seven million apprenticeships so we got a lot of work to do I applaud you know all of us are working hard to reach the president's ambitious goal to double by 2020 the number of registered apprenticeships that's requires partnering with with our businesses so lots that we can do together and obviously you as an economic development officer in onion and in your DC Workforce Investment Council role yo can really help us to you know partner because at the end of the day this is all about partnership Madam Secretary I appreciate your mentioning this manufacturing day on May the second likewise the president's apprenticeship challenge I think both of us are aware of it's a good part of the dilemma for the unemployment of young people in our country comes from the fact that they have dropped out of school at various stages or they have gone to schools that were not very satisfactory terms of gaining basic literacy and the ability to carry on I don't want to get into a sort of a class warfare discussion but sort of the bottom third of income people in our country have a very very high percentage of young people who are failing at this particular point now the manufacturers day sounds much like job fairs we used to have in Indianapolis for example in which we tried very hard to bring together the people who might offer jobs or some incentive for people to take this on but I'm wondering and this really stretches what is already an ambitious program discussed today how are we going to meet the needs of the American educational system simultaneously with getting apprenticeships or people prepared for the apprenticeship level which probably would lead to jobs I'm just deeply concerned about the strategies in Germany and the United States and the cooperation that is going to lead to a new voices for those who are underprivileged and are not achieving in America and I mentioned simply I know President Obama it's been interested in the community college with this bit more elevated in the elementary level but I went with him to Indianapolis to community college affair there there were people from all ages 13 to a 50 who are potential job horrors but are not prepared really in terms of the basics I'm afraid even of getting to the apprenticeship level so could you comment on how what we've discussed today might be extended to help these people well I think that first of all senator thank you so much for all of your good work on this you know I was just this week my team and I were up at Harvard talking about this very issue and I think there's a significant opportunity in what I would call 9 through 14 education and I know when I sat on the school board in Chicago one of the things we did is open five high five high schools that really went 9 to 14 so they were a total continuum what's critical is is as we do each one of those schools and I the pathway to partnership network which I spoke about earlier is doing this in 11 different states what's critical is each of those schools is sponsored by a business and has business local business partnerships the idea being we really need our business leaders to take a leading role in our education system focusing the education system on on making sure that our young people are getting valued skills more and more young people need to work sooner in life or can't afford to go right to a four-year college or they need to stack their credentials over time and we've got to create more flexible pathways for that are practical for what our youth need in order to be able to continually improve or gain more learning but also recognize the realities of what they need to be able to do you know will help either support their family or support themselves and so I think that these kinds of more flexible practical programs deserve more elevation by all of us and deserve to be viewed as with a great deal of esteem and prestige we have sort of vocational education in our country for some reason went out of favor and out of respect and I think we need to play a role in reversing that the same way I think we're working really hard to reverse the image of manufacturing and why manufacturing day this year will be october second i I think we should be doing the same for that kind of training for our kids and that was one of my major takeaways from my own experience a thank you very much to the German Marshall Fund for hosting us and really thank you very much to the German government for being such great entrepreneurial partners with the United States not only in this effort on working on our skilled workforce but in so many other areas so thank you very much thank you very much for your questions and thank you madam secretary this point we'd like to begin the signing ceremony please join me in welcoming to the front the u.s. signatories for today's joint declaration assistant secretary of education training administration at the Department of Labor Porsche woo and acting assistant secretary for career technical and adult education at the Department of Education Johan oven and the US Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Jay Williams they're joined by state secretary Raquel who will be serving as the German signatory to of his colleagues from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and energy and the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs have already signed the agreement back in Germany finally let me welcome up to the front the Honorable Peter vidiq a very good friend of the German Marshall Fund German ambassador the United States and deputy secretary Lew to join secretary Pritzker as witnesses to the signing okay everybody get their pictures everything signed right oh we're going to take a quick formal photo here stand up straight okay great to everyone in the room and those watching online thank you for joining us this morning for those present in the room please join us for lunch in the forum thank you for coming