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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Vice President

For Immediate Release November 18, 1997

                     VICE PRESIDENT GORE ANNOUNCES 
             NEW ADMINISTRATION STEPS ON LIFELONG LEARNING

WASHINGTON -- In a speech to a large conference on lifelong learning today (11/18), Vice President Gore highlighted the Administration's record and announced several new steps to promote lifelong learning for all Americans.

"These new steps will ensure that every American worker can keep learning -- and earning -- for a lifetime," Vice President Gore said. "In this new economy, working Americans can look forward to the promise of a better life -- but only if we give everyone the tools they need to succeed."

The Vice President also praised the work of the Commission for a Nation of Lifelong Learners, an independent commission comprised of leaders from labor, business, higher education, philanthropy, and state government.

Citing the commission's finding that 75 percent of those currently in the workforce will need significant retraining over the next decade, Vice President Gore announced that:

A major summit on lifelong learning will be convened next year by the Clinton Administration. This summit will bring together leaders from business, labor, higher education and elsewhere to discuss how to better support lifelong learning for their employees, union members, and students. Vice President Gore pledged his personal participation in the summit, as did the commission's chairman, Morton Bahr.

An executive memorandum will be sent from President Clinton asking federal agencies to support the effective use of technology to promote lifelong learning. The memorandum will ask agencies to make better use of technology in training their own employees. It will also ask the National Economic Council to lead a government wide effort to explore how federal programs and initiatives could better support the use of technologies for lifelong learning nationwide.

The Department of Labor is launching "America's career kit" -- a series of four Internet-based tools to help workers find good jobs and the right education and training. This electronic career kit incorporates two existing Department of Labor websites, and it will include two new ones. The new websites are "America's Learning Exchange" providing on-line information about education and training opportunities nationwide and "America's Career Infonet" providing such helpful information for job-seekers as information on wages, projections of job growth by sector and region, and an extensive on-line library of resources ranging from job search tips to relocation guides. The existing websites are "America's JobBank" listing over 750,000 job vacancies each day and a large on-line resume service called America's Talent Bank.