Remarks Prior to a Workforce Development Roundtable Discussion at Waukesha County Technical College in Pewaukee, Wisconsin

The President. This is quite a place, with a beautiful speaker system, I will tell you. [Laughter] We can tell that immediately.

Well, good afternoon and thank you to my good friend, Governor Scott Walker—tremendous guy, tremendous Governor—for hosting us here in the great State of Wisconsin. It is a great State. I've been here many times since the election.

I'm also thrilled to be joined by Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta. Thank you, Alex. And Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. We're here today at Waukesha County Technical College to discuss one of the most important questions facing our young people: how to get education and training that they need to find a rewarding and high-paying job.

We have a lot of companies moving into the United States, and we're negotiating with a lot of companies. Just backstage, we were negotiating with a major, major, incredible manufacturer of phones and computers and televisions. And I think they're going to give the Governor a very happy surprise very soon.

During my campaign for President, I talked about crucial importance of vocational training: teaching young people the skills, crafts, and trades that are vital to our economy and our success as a country, and their success as an individual. America must not only teach, but celebrate the skilled laborers that produce and maintain the world's greatest machines, buildings, products, and infrastructure, innovations that improve our quality of life, help keep us safe, and have the power to inspire awe and wonder.

And I will say, when I was going to school and I was going to college, that I'd meet people that didn't have a great ability or, frankly, they didn't have a great liking for what they were doing, what they were studying. But they could take apart an engine. They could do drilling like I've never seen before. They could put up a brick wall better than all of the kids in that college or that university, a great school. They could put up a wall in record time and make it far better than anybody else could have done. They just had an amazing ability. And that's what we're about today.

We're here today to talk about the dignity of work and the greatness of the American worker and also loving the work you do. I just toured the classrooms, and I must say, they aren't your normal lecture halls, but in a certain way, they're far more beautiful. You learn incredible skills like welding, automotive repair, and machine tool operations. And I looked at the machines, and I'll tell you, what they have is incredible. And the knowledge to operate them is very, very, very amazing. This institution has pioneered the hands-on learning and apprenticeships that produce terrific careers for young Americans.

Governor Walker has developed workforce training—very important, workforce training—programs that open up more opportunities for all students, whether they want to go to a 4-year college, a technical college, trade school, or work and learn as a skilled apprentice. I love the name "apprentice." [Laughter] It's a great word. The Governor just announced $3.9 million in grant funds to place 4,300 high school juniors and seniors in apprenticeships in areas like agriculture, health science, hospitality, and engineering.

We want a future where every high school in America offers apprenticeship opportunities for young citizens—and studying things that they want to study, and studying things that they're going to be great at. Under this vision, high school students could learn, and they could earn. And, boy, when I say earn, they can make great, great salaries doing something that they love: learn invaluable skills, find a career they love, and enter the workforce faster and without debt.

Tomorrow you'll be hearing more about how my administration is going to expand apprenticeships all throughout the country for young people, and it's called earn while they learn. That's pretty good.

I look forward to hearing from all of you—especially from the students who are here today, great students—who will tell us about their experience learning some of the most important trades in our Nation. That's what keeps our Nation going. We're going to do everything we can to support you and help more young people have the opportunities we have here in Waukesha County and its incredible County Technical College. I'm very, very impressed with everybody I've met. I'm very, very impressed with the facilities and a lot of very talented people leaving here and going on to something they love and making a fantastic living.

So I just want to thank you all. And you have done a wonderful job. Thank you very much. Thank you.

I'd like to introduce now my daughter Ivanka, who is so strongly committed to what we are here for today. And she's going to say a few words. Thank you very much.

[At this point, Assistant to the President Ivanka M. Trump and Gov. Scott K. Walker of Wisconsin made brief remarks.]