Despite President Obama's recent call for companies to "insource" jobs sent overseas, it turns out that the federal government itself is spending millions of dollars to train foreign students for employment in some booming career fields--including working in offshore call centers that serve U.S. businesses.
The program is called JEEP, which stands for Job Enabling English Proficiency. It's available to college students in the Philippines through USAID. That's the same agency that until a couple of years ago was spending millions of dollars in U.S. taxpayer money to train offshore IT workers in Sri Lanka--until I reported that inconvenient truth in this story. The ensuing uproar led to the Sri Lanka initiative's termination.

A few days after the New York Times’ (embarrassingly belated and deeply flawed) article on Apple’s Chinese production facilities reignited a national discussion about offshore outsourcing, President Obama was confronted during a Google+ “hang out” about why during a brutal unemployment crisis his administration continues to support expanding the H-1B visa program that allows tech companies to annually import thousands of low-wage engineers from abroad. In his stunning answer, the president first expresses bewilderment that any American high-tech engineer could be out of work, because he says that “what industry tells me is that they don’t have enough (domestic) highly skilled engineers” and that “the word that we’re getting is that somebody (a domestic engineer) in a high-tech field should be able to find something right away.” He then goes on to insist that the H-1B program is “reserved only for those companies who say they cannot find somebody in (a) particular field” and that it shouldn’t apply to industries where “there are a lot of highly skilled American workers” looking for a job because he says his administration is focused on “encourag(ing) more American engineers to be placed” in open positions.

The Swords and Shields ceremony is an important Blizzard tradition that began fifteen years ago in 1996. With this ceremony, we recognize the years of dedication and commitment of those who help Blizzard create the most epic entertainment experiences...ever. Several times a year, Blizzard employees around the world gather to celebrate the five-, ten-, and fifteen-year milestones of their friends and colleagues with a ceremony where each recipient is honored with their service award. Five years of service are awarded a sword; ten year veterans receive a shield; fifteen years of service is recognized with a special ring; and this year marks the first time Blizzard employees will celebrate twenty years of service.

The type of sword given to five-year recipients is different each year, but the shield and ring designs have remained largely unchanged. We now present a gallery of the swords and shields that have been handed out over the years in recognition of the hard work, great resolve, and unwavering dedication that has helped make Blizzard the company you know today.

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