Yesterday Washington Post reporter Suzy Khimm posed a question on Ezra Klein’s blog:  Can job training help solve the jobs crisis?

In short, yes—but as Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM) Executive Director Scott Paul discussed in a recent op-ed in The Hill, job training programs are just one piece of the comprehensive approach Congress and the Administration must take in order to spur job creation and kickstart the economy.

That being said, training programs are certainly an important part of the solution and will benefit both unemployed Americans and industries such as manufacturing that are constantly seeking skilled workers.  In fact, in the southern U.S., 51 percent of current job openings are middle-skill, but only 43 percent of the region’s workers are trained to that level, reports Khimm.

President Obama is expected to tackle these skills disparities as part of his latest job creation push, which he plans to outline during a speech next week. Though the exact details of his new jobs plan have not been released, it is likely that this proposal will include the expansion of  job training programs geared toward getting Americans off of unemployment and into skilled positions.

We’ve written in the past about successful public-private job training programs implemented at the state level, as well as popular national programs like ArcelorMittal’s Steelworker for Future program and the United Steelworkers’ Institute for Career Development. When programs such as these are strategically implemented and adequately funded, they really can make a difference for communities and the manufacturing industry.

But, as we mentioned before, these programs represent only a small piece of the larger job-creation solution. If the administration is serious about ending the jobs crisis, it must act quickly and deliberately by implementing a coordinated manufacturing policy that includes expansion of job training programs as well as several other important provisions.

Click here to read more about key steps that could provide a significant boost to the productive sector of the American economy.