SECRETARY POMPEO: Great.
Thank you, Sheree.
Good morning, everyone.
Welcome.
It’s awesome to be back home, and we were saddened that there wasn’t a basketball
game this weekend.
We missed it by a couple days.
(Laughter.)
But getting down to business, I want to thank Senior Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump
for her work in executing President Trump’s mission of making the American workforce and
the American worker the best trained in the world.
I also want to commend you on the work you do all around the world with the Women’s
Global Development and Prosperity Initiative.
It’s truly important work.
We’re helping women all over the world prosper in the workforce, succeed as entrepreneurs,
and obtain greater economic equality under the law.
And as we do all that, my mission as the Secretary of State is easier, because we build strong
and stable nations.
I also want to thank Dr. Utash for leading the conversation, the business leaders here
who are with us today.
You’re not chasing me around for my parts being late; this is a much better day.
(Laughter.)
I had a chance to work here and be part of the air capital of the world for more than
a decade.
Anyone who has ever run a business knows you can’t get far if your team doesn’t have
the right skills and the workforce is not prepared for the job.
That’s exactly what the Trump administration is focused on with our Pledge to America’s
Workers.
We’re maximizing America’s talent and we are equipping workers – great hardworking
Americans, Kansans, folks here from Wichita – for good American jobs.
And we’re growing our economy, too.
For a long time, America ignored upscaling our workforce, especially in the trades and
technical fields, especially too in places like in Wichita, Kansas.
We were told these jobs were going to be obsolete.
We told our kids they would have to go to a four-year college.
That was a mistake.
We ignored economic realities.
We discouraged talented young people from pursuing the career paths that were best for
them.
We made America less competitive as a result of that.
But President Trump is turning the ship, or perhaps the airplane.
He’s turning it around.
He is doing it in partnership with American companies like Spirit AeroSystems and Textron
Aviation and with great educational institutions like Wichita State University.
Just a little while ago, we had the privilege to take a tour and meet some of the young
people here, people who were graduated from the Aviation Pathway program and some who
are still here.
And I saw young people who knew that they had in front of them good jobs.
I saw smiles.
They all could see the bright future that this institution and these programs are presenting
for them.
We need to keep it up.
As Secretary of State, I can tell you that if we replicate this kind of success at home,
it will pay amazing dividends in America’s strength and security around the world.
Without a robust and successful economy, other nations won’t respect us.
We won’t have them in a place where they want to be our partners.
We won’t be as successful keeping Americans safe.
It’s also the case, too, that if we get this wrong, we’ll be more reliant on countries
like China for high-tech products, products that Americans need.
If we get this right, we’ll be able to sustain the prosperity that funds a strong military
and diplomatic corps, and I want to thank all the companies who signed the Pledge to
America’s Workers this morning.
You’re making us strong both here at home and abroad.
I thank you all for being here today, and I’d now like to turn it over to Senior Advisor
Ivanka Trump.
MS TRUMP: Thank you so much, Secretary Pompeo, and it is my honor to be here in Wichita for
the first time with you and your family as our host, and Sheree, thank you for hosting
us here at WSU Tech.
You have been an absolutely vital and constructive voice on our Workforce Policy Advisory Board,
and it is amazing to be here in your home and experience firsthand the great training
programs that we witnessed a sampling of earlier today, so thank you for hosting us.
To Senator Moran, thank you for joining us today and for your tireless effort to ensure
that the American worker is trained with the skills that are needed to thrive in this booming
and robust economy.
And Congressman, thank you for your great support right here in your district of this
great academic institution and your push back in Washington for more examples like what
we’re seeing here today to inform the work that we are doing.
I’d like to thank the CEOs who join us.
Scott from Textron was actually with us one year ago as Textron signed our Pledge to America’s
Workers at the White House, and since then and now with Spirit Aerospace [1] adding to
these numbers over 350 companies, domestic and foreign, have signed our pledge committing
to investing in the skills and the talents of over 14 million American workers.
So we couldn’t be more proud to have so many great American employers join us today
and reaffirm their commitment to this country’s greatest resource by far, which is our exceptional
workforce.
So with that, the most important people in the room today are the students and the next
generation of worker who’s going to keep our country competitive and keep our country
great.
The President campaigned on rebuilding the American dream and making it attainable and
accessible to all Americans regardless of age or background or level of academic achievement,
and he has been delivering on that vision time and time again.
We see it across the nation as every demographic is enjoying unprecedented success, the lowest
unemployment rates.
We’re certainly seeing it here in Kansas with an absolutely booming economy, where
the number-one challenge of employers is skilled workforce.
Well, that’s a good problem to have because it’s forcing employers like those here today
to get creative, to reach onto the sidelines of the economy, to bring people into the workforce
who may not have otherwise been given a chance, and to equip them with the skills they need
to secure not only a job, but a career for themselves and their family.
This isn’t some big government program.
This is private sector innovation and private sector desire to succeed, which workforce
is a critical component to that.
And it’s based on the fact that we’ve put in place policies – incredible pro-growth
policies, whether it’s tax reform or deregulation – that have afforded us this economic boom.
So it is all of you who have the grit and perseverance and desire to achieve that are
making these programs successful, and the combination of demand-driven education, the
demand coming from the private sector, the education coming from great institutions such
as we’re hearing – seeing here today, and hopefully the amplification and the acceleration
coming from us back in D.C. and at the federal government as we look to bring these opportunities
to more Americans, so that every American who wants to work can find a pathway to a
great-paying job, can feel selected, can feel chosen, because that’s what this economy
is allowing.
One of my favorite statistics – and there are many, many good ones that we are seeing
based on the results of our economic agenda – is the fact that over the past year, of
all new jobs secured in our economy, an average of 73 percent of those jobs were secured by
people outside of our workforce, who are coming back because there are more jobs and there
are better-paying jobs.
So we want to encourage that.
I’m grateful to be here today and to hear from everyone who’s going through these
programs and filling those very much in demand jobs and doing so by passing through one of
the great programs out there and enabling continued American dominance in aerospace.
So really a great honor to be here in Wichita, Kansas.
And Sheree, if you want to kick us off, I’d love to hear from the amazing students and
workers who join us here today.