Vance, Rubio announce launch of the Foundry School to prepare workers for U.S. manufacturing push

The Trump administration officially launched the Foundry School, a new nationwide training initiative aimed at preparing entrepreneurs, engineers, technicians, and industrial leaders to help revive American manufacturing.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance headlined the launch event at the Trump Institute of Peace in Washington.

The State Department said the program is designed to prioritize American workers, giving them the training needed to help bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. and build careers in sectors the department considers vital to national economic security.

"We woke up to the reality just a few years ago that we are suddenly, as a nation, dangerously dependent, dangerously dependent on other nations for all sorts of things that we need, not simply for our economic vibrancy, but in many cases for our national security and our very survival as a prosperous nation-state," Rubio said.

"And so now we are involved in this endeavor across the board to try to reverse those mistakes," he said.

Officials said the Foundry School is meant to turn recent industrial investment into jobs.

They pointed to trillions of dollars in manufacturing investment already flowing into the U.S. under the administration's reindustrialization push, and said the new program is intended to make sure American workers—not just companies—benefit from that spending.

"We're sending a message to all of America's kids, both at the leadership level and those below them, that we believe in making things again and we're going to give you the tools and the education and the networking in order to do it," Vance said.

"Working with your hands is very much the work of the future," he said.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.