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From: bounce-844752-2253447@list.whitehouse.gov [mailto:bounce-844752-2253447@list.whitehouse.gov] On Behalf Of White House Press Office
Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 3:02 PM
To: Owens, Missy
Subject: Dr Biden Pool Report 1

By Colleen O'Connor
The Denver Post

arvada- Jill Biden, wife of vice-president Joe Biden, toured the training ground of the industrial shadow professions this morning, getting an up-close look at the technologies that keep the nation's infrastructure running at Red Rocks Community College.
Biden visited classrooms where students learn to operate the systems that "keep the lights on and the water flowing," said Chuck Beck, who coordinates the school's Industrial Science and Operations Department and was Biden's primary tour guide.
About 65 students are enrolled in Beck's program, where they learn to run and maintain the complex back-shop systems that are at the heart of manufacturing processes ranging from oil and gas refineries to big breweries.
Biden wondered if all 65 would be job-ready by the time they completed the two-year program.
Beck said he was optimistic.
"Great!" Biden said. "That's what a community college is all about."
For the past year Biden, a community college instructor, has been touring colleges across the country, observing their challenges, their innovations and the good ideas that will help advance the Obama administration agenda to make effective education more accessible.
She has been asked by Obama to host a summit on community colleges at the White House this fall.
Graduates of the program Biden toured this morning typically emerge with skills that make them elegible for entry-level jobs that pay about $40,000 per year, the school said.
Joined by Jane Oates, assistant secretary of Employment and Training Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor, Biden met with students, faculty, administrators and representatives of local businesses partnered with the college to learn about the school's renewable energy technology programs.
Biden said she was awed by the complexity of the systems the students were training on.
As she chatted with student Jeff Nachtreib near an instrumentation and control training unit, she joked that the machine "looks so complicated!
I'm glad I teach English."
Beck said the machine is used to help students understand the how systems fail and how to repair them.
"It's not just fixing it," Nachtreib said. "It's learning to fix it fast."
Nancy McCallin, president of the Colorado Community College System, said she was happy to have Biden in town for a second visit. Last May, Biden toured Community College of Aurora. She will visit Arapahoe Community College this afternoon.
"She is looking at best-practices throughout the nation in advance of the summit in Washington," McCallin said. "This shows what we are doing in terms of work-force development, alternative energy training and industrial processing."