I want to talk to you about two things that may be connected. Many manufacturing workers may not necessarily have a high level of education. Continuing education, including the basics and literacy training, might be of interest to older workers as a way of helping them to find a new job.
Let’s say that we know that a company is going to be closing, not right now, but gradually, in a year or two. Would it be worthwhile to have a flexible program that would train workers while they are still working with the company, knowing that they are going to lose their jobs? They could be trained so that they can get jobs in another industry. Perhaps employment insurance program could be used as a way to provide training to those workers so that they can be transferred somewhere else. In that way, they could split their time between their training and their work with the company that is going to close.