Ivanka Trump, in her role as special adviser to the president, will be pushing the president’s priority policy focus this week: workforce development.
Ivanka Trump spoke about the effort, which includes an update of the Perkins Act, during an interview on “Fox & Friends” on Monday.
Specifically, Trump praised the Perkins Act, which will be looked at in Congress next week, as “a very good piece of legislation.” Among other things, the update to the act simplifies the process for states to get federal funds for job training initiatives and expands support for those efforts.
“It’s all about skills-based education and really making sure people have the technical skills to really succeed in this modern economy,” said the first daughter.
“This is honestly what it is all about. We moved down to Washington, we want to be helpful, we want to do big things, important things, and there’s nothing more important,” she said.
She said it was hard sometimes to keep focused on the important things given how events have played out.
“There is a level of viciousness I was not expecting. I was not expecting the intensity of this experience. But this isn’t supposed to be easy,” she said.
But she said she was trying to keep her head down, “ignore the noise” and focus on making a positive impact.
“At the end of the day, if you want to think about difficult, it is the factory worker who’s been laid off, difficult is the mother who has lost a child to opioid abuse.”
Workforce development will be a major focus of the administration. But in keeping with Trump’s pledge to rein in government, the effort will focus on helping states, which are more attuned to local labor conditions, expand apprenticeship programs, and vocational training rather than expanding the federal Department of Labor.
Ivanka Trump is expected to join the president for several discussion with business leaders on workforce development throughout the week.
