Employee satisfaction, worker security, and corporate success require that the workforce be capable of reacting to change, challenge, and opportunity. This, in turn, requires ongoing training, education, and personal growth. By establishing the Institute for Career Development, the United Steelworkers (USW) and the participating companies are implementing a shared vision that workers must play a significant role in the design and development of their training and education as well as their work environments. In pursuing the goal to help every worker attain his or her full potential, both as an employee and as a human being, in the competitive and challenging environment that lies ahead, the Institute will:
- Provide support services for the education, training, and personal development of workers
- Provide leadership, guidance and expertise in the design, development and delivery of training and educational programs that will allow workers to have more stable and rewarding personal and family lives while meeting the requirements of the rapidly changing work environment within their respective industries
- Support new, non-traditional approaches to learning that build on workers' accumulated knowledge and skills
- Seek out and make use of the most effective and modern methods and educational technologies, develop such technologies where none exist, and utilize a curriculum and instructional program based on competencies required in the workplace and in the workers’ personal lives
