Yesterday, Governor McDonnell traveled to Washington D.C. to address the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Education and the Workforce.

In his testimony to the committee, McDonnell highlighted Virginia’s national reputation as one of the best states in which to do business and discussed several major accomplishments including “the announcement that Northrop Grumman will move their headquarters from California to Virginia and Microsoft’s announcement that they would make the largest investment in Southern Virginia history, opening a $500 million state of the art data center in Mecklenburg County.”

Despite these announcements and improvements in unemployment over the last year, McDonnell shared that Virginia continues to be challenged by an unemployment rate of 6.7 percent, and over 280,000 Virginians out of work.

To combat these challenges, he discussed the “Top Jobs for the 21^st Century” initiative that will enable Virginia’s community colleges and other higher education institutions to issue an additional 100,000 degrees over the next 15 years.

It is fitting that Governor McDonnell’s testimony came one day after the “State of the Union,” in which President Obama identified community colleges as the place for Americans “to train for new jobs and careers in today’s fast-changing economy.”

Read the full testimony and learn how Virginia’s community colleges continue to improve the “State of the American Workforce.”

Posted by Lauren Von Herbulis