Liccardo to introduce bill incentivizing employers to invest in job training: Legislation would promote private companies investing in degree, certification programs via tax credits

While federal investment in skills development and employee retraining is well-intended, it is not always effective, Liccardo said during a June 22 press conference introducing his new legislation at the West Valley-Mission Community College. In an era of AI-induced uncertainty, employers will often know what skills will make employees valuable faster than the government.

“It’s important for us to understand and appreciate what we don’t know in this AI-driven economy,” he said. “We don’t know what the jobs and the skills of the next decade will be, but we can be certain that our employers will know before we do.”

If approved by Congress and signed into law, the SKILL Act would apply to curriculum development, donations, internship and apprenticeship programs and lab provisions, among others, with a $2,500 tax credit for each student who completes a program and an additional $2,500 if a graduate is hired, per Liccardo’s office. It would authorize an annual $500 million in tax credits.

Students coming out of high school don’t just need to choose between minimum-wage work and an expensive four-year degree, Bradley Davis, West-Valley Mission Community College chancellor, said. Community colleges are uniquely positioned to offer students job-specific training built in conjunction with employers, something the SKILL Act would incentivize, he said.

“They require training that is current, that is hands on, that is built in direct partnership with the employers doing the hiring,” Davis said.

Louis Stewart, the head of ecosystem development at leading AI hardware and software developer NVIDIA, said during the press conference that getting ahead of workforce and economic disruption by investing in the “human layer” could be a successful pathway forward.

“[The SKILL Act] creates a framework that encourages stronger alignment between employers and public sector education,” he said. “That is the right direction for a fast-moving economy.”

Ultimately, Liccardo’s legislation is about investment in people and disputing the idea that there’s no solution to job destruction in the face of AI, he said.

“The antidote to this dystopian narrative that we continue to hear is straightforward — we need to invest in people,” he said. “To enable our workers to become more nimble, to be able to adjust and learn through this time of enormous technological transition.”