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" Preview: Obama's 2013 Budget February 13, 2012 - 3:00am By Libby A. Nelson WASHINGTON -- President Obama today will propose spending $8 billion on job training programs at community colleges over the next three years, part of a budget for the 2013 fiscal year that also would increase spending on Education Department programs and some scientific research. The president will outline the job-training proposal in more detail in a speech at Northern Virginia Community College this morning. But unlike past calls to spend more on community colleges, this plan is aimed squarely at an election-year message of "jobs, jobs, jobs" rather than the administration's goal of increasing the number of Americans with college degrees. The proposal, as outlined by Education Department officials Sunday evening, builds on job training programs already in existence -- especially the Trade Act Assistance Community College Career Training Program, which began making grants to community colleges in September. If approved by Congress, the president's proposal would provide $1.3 billion each per year to the Education and Labor Departments, on top of the trade act grants. While it's unclear whether the money would create new federal programs or build up existing ones, the funds would be spent at community colleges that train workers for jobs in high-demand fields, according to materials released by the Education Department. Programs that are especially successful at finding jobs for their graduates, or at placing those who traditionally have difficulty finding work, would be eligible for additional money. The grants would also be used to encourage partnerships between businesses, states, local governments and community colleges, and to create an online course to encourage entrepreneurs. The money would also support paid internships for low-income college students. But the plan would shut out for-profit colleges, which would not be eligible for the additional funds -- a move alm

Summary * Sixty percent of students change majors before graduating. * There are many factors that contribute to choosing a major. * If you're in the wrong major, it may be time to change. Picture yourself in a room with nine other college students. Before you graduate, at least six of those students will have changed their major at least once. And one or two of the remaining four will likely leave school regretting the major they chose and wishing they too had switched to another major.

"Kent Niederhofer can't find enough mechanical engineers to work for him - in southeastern Michigan. You know, where Detroit is, with its 13.3% unemployment rate. Niederhofer is president of the American branch of Ricardo, an engineering consultancy that designs the power trains of some of the coolest stuff around: Bugatti sports cars, huge wind turbines and unmanned aerial vehicles. "We are doing rocket science every day," says Niederhofer. "It's just not on rockets." So Ricardo got a little desperate, renting a billboard to place a help-wanted ad that featured a picture of a sexy-looking sports car, the tagline "Why you became an engineer" and a Web address for job seekers. He calls it engineer porn."

Could you pass a Facebook background search? The next time you apply for a job, don't be surprised if you have to agree to a social-media background check. Many U.S. companies and recruiters are now looking at your Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and other accounts and blogs -- even YouTube -- to paint a clearer picture of who you are. Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903461104576464823762727188.html#ixzz1Tnrdf6Qk

More and more career advisers are bemoaning the practice of revising one's resume to death. Leave it alone once you're happy with it, we advise. That can be a Catch 22 for those of you who are never happy with your resume. The point is some of you are putting too much effort in perfecting your resume and not enough at seeing the whole picture.

Most career advice you receive focuses on the big picture: how to get ahead, how to "win," and such things that are on a much larger scale than the daily grind that most of us face. In fact, it is that day to day grind that pulls down many of us - we go to work, come home exhausted, and often feel as though we're just spinning our wheels.

Dear J.T. & Dale: My husband and I both have worked in high tech for more than 20 years. With all the stress from outsourcing and reorgs and overly aggressive management, we feel like Lucy and Ethel in that famous "I Love Lucy" episode where the assembly line keeps gets cranked up faster and faster. We've been investigating alternative careers, but none of the resources we've used addresses how the work environment fits into the picture. We fear making a career change that ends up trapping us in a new toxic environment. - Kathy

Social-media profiles are increasingly important in building your business identity. "It's a hugely powerful branding tool-and you have to be very strategic about building it," says Nicole Williams, connection director for LinkedIn.

"Invisible Transfer Students February 28, 2012 - 3:00am By Mitch Smith Enrollment managers have long spoken about the mobility of students, citing the high number of credits transferred in and out of their colleges and grumbling that federal graduation rate calculations fail to account for those transient degree-seekers. Data released today by the National Student Clearinghouse back those assertions, showing that a third of those who were first-time college students in 2006 had attended at least one other institution by summer 2011. The study followed 2.8 million full- and part-time students of all ages at every type of institution. Students were counted as transfers if they enrolled at a second institution before earning a degree. Thus, students who moved to a four-year institution after earning an associate degree were not counted, but university students who took a community college class over the summer were. High school students who enrolled in concurrent enrollment courses were not counted as transfers. The Clearinghouse researchers found that a quarter of those who transferred did so more than once and that the greatest number of moves, 37 percent, took place in a student's second year. It also found that 43 percent of transfers were to public two-year institutions, making them the most common transfer destination for students from every type of institution except other public two-year colleges. This study, unique in including part-time students and in following students who might transfer several times, joins a small but growing body of research on the mobility of students. The findings don't surprise Clifford Adelman, a senior associate with the Institute for Higher Education Policy whose research agenda includes national transfer patterns. Loyalties to a particular institution or location, which can discourage transferring, have long been eroding, Adelman said. He calls the phenomenon "geomobility" and said it has called attention to ineffi

Expect something fun and outlandish on April Fools Day.