White House Expands Apprentice Program

President Trump last week called for an expanded apprenticeship program in the U.S. and signed an executive order to double its funding to $200 million.

The move follows the president’s endorsement last March of a “moonshot” proposed by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff to create 5 million apprenticeships in five years. Today, 505,000 apprentices are in the registered apprenticeship system: 410,000 in civilian sectors and 95,000 in the military. Data is hard to find on how many apprentices works in companies that have not registered their programs with the state or federal department of labor.

Reaching the 5 million target might sound impractical, but in fact, it would only require that the United States attain about the same share of apprentices in its workforce that Australia and England have already achieved.

Apprenticeship expansion enjoys across-the-aisle support in D.C., where bipartisan bills in Congress call for providing tax credits to companies that offer apprenticeships. Several Republican and Democratic governors are taking steps aimed at expanding apprenticeships. For example, Governor Scott Walker (R-Wis.) recently doubled the funding for Wisconsin’s successful youth apprenticeship program.

The president’s initial steps include a call for expanding apprenticeships in high schools, Job Corps, community colleges and four-year colleges; widening access to apprenticeships to the formerly incarcerated, members of the armed forces and veterans; and mandating that the secretaries of commerce and labor encourage business leaders to use apprenticeships in such key sectors as manufacturing, infrastructure, cybersecurity and healthcare.

The executive order establishes a task force to examine other administrative and legislative reforms, strategies for creating industry-recognized apprenticeships and the best ways to encourage the private sector to create apprenticeships.

Source: The Hill