Acting U.S. Labor secretary visits Phoenix West-MEC campus, talks workforce needs with businesses

Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling was in Phoenix Wednesday, visiting one of the campuses of West-MEC — a public career and technical education school district.

Sonderling toured the West-MEC Southeast Campus and talked to students in artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing programs. He then met with local business leaders for a private roundtable.

Sonderling said he was impressed by how those leaders are driving the curriculum at West-MEC to fill workforce needs.

“That’s what really we are pushing in this administration," Sonderling said. "No longer do we want students to go to school and just graduate with a lot of debt and not have the skills they need for that job.”

West-MEC Superintendent Scott Spurgeon said their talk centered around some of the obstacles West-MEC faces that might be fixed at the federal level. For example, as a public career and technical education school district, West-MEC doesn’t qualify for Department of Labor funding the way universities do.

“And when you’re looking at a system that’s innovative and a system that’s being creative and thinking outside the box, we have to sit in a space where we have the opportunity for the president and his team to be able to invest," Spurgeon said.

Spurgeon said West-MEC's model lines up with the Trump administration's workforce development plan to align education and training with modern economic needs.