Security News > 2020 > September > With H-1B workers not exactly rushing to America this year, Uncle Sam plans to spend millions home-growing IT staff

The H-1B One Workforce Grant Program will give up to 30 grants to training organizations to upskill US citizens for "Middle to high-skilled H-1B occupations... including information technology and cyber security" and so "Train a new generation of workers to grow the future workforce."

The announcement comes one week before new restrictive visa rules are due to take effect that will greatly reduce the number of foreign workers that will be admitted to the US through the H-1B work visa.

It estimates it will hand out 30 awards that will range in value from $500,000 to $10m. The department stressed that it is particularly interested in training up people that are currently unemployed, part-time workers that want to work full-time and "Incumbent workers needing to update or upskill to retain employment or advance into middle to high-skilled positions." US military veterans and their spouses get priority on the training schedule.

While the desire to upskill Americans, particularly those out of work, for jobs that are in high demand is admirable, it will not resolve a major issue for tech companies facing work visa restrictions: what to do for the next several years while waiting for adequately qualified American workers.

Even if the program does work and DoL-funded programs release sufficient numbers of qualified US workers to cover the shortage gap caused by visa restrictions, it is still unlikely to satisfy tech giants who proudly use their vast resources to pull in the world's best programmers and then pay them high wages in order to stay one step ahead in the global IT market.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/09/28/h1b_training_staff/