Has the Apprenticeship Moment Finally Arrived?

Apprenticeship in the United States is enjoying another moment in the spotlight—hopefully one that will last.

Most Americans appreciate that apprentices learn by doing, are productive workers who earn wages, and develop the skills for rewarding careers. Apprenticeships yield higher returns than other training programs, without requiring participants to forego wages while training. One survey found that American parents would prefer the option of a three-year apprenticeship leading to a career over a full scholarship to a college.

President Donald Trump has also supported apprenticeships. His April 23 executive order on skills called for a plan to support over one million registered apprenticeships yearly. Additionally, he made apprenticeships a key part of his new “talent strategy” plan, which the Departments of Commerce, Education, and Labor jointly released.

Trump’s goal is ambitious. Currently, there are 561,000 civilian and 117,000 military apprenticeships—far below the one million per year he envisions. Apprenticeships are also much scarcer in the U.S. than in most countries. For example, apprentices as a share of the labor force in France and the United Kingdom are 8 to 10 times higher than the 0.33 percent share in the U.S. Trump’s ability to scale the level of U.S. apprenticeships will depend on adequate resources, a smart implementation plan, and avoiding some of the obstacles that have stymied past presidents who have championed apprenticeships. 

Stops and starts on apprenticeships

Apprenticeships first gained bipartisan interest in the late 1980s and early 1990s, spurred by the widening earnings gap between college and high school graduates and increased awareness of successful Swiss and German systems. President George H.W. Bush proposed the Youth Apprenticeship Act of 1992, and President Bill Clinton persuaded Congress to pass the School-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA) of 1994. Unfortunately, STWOA minimized the importance of apprenticeship and mainly supported weak interventions like job shadowing and career exploration. Construction apprenticeships, primarily funded by unions and employers since the 1930s, continued under federal regulations, but apprenticeships were rare in other industries. And the apprenticeship system was also a backwater, even within the Labor Department. The STWOA law’s weak results had few defenders, and it sunset in 2001. 

It took another 15 years for apprenticeships to reappear on the political and policy agenda. President Barack Obama supported the American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) late in his term, a $175 million pilot project providing grants of $1 to $3 million over five years to 45 organizations to boost apprenticeships, especially outside the construction sector. Congress started increasing funding for the apprenticeship system from the modest $30 million that the Labor Department’s Office of Apprenticeship (OA) previously allocated to oversee existing programs. The first Donald Trump administration endorsed higher funding and encouraged large companies to develop more apprenticeships. However, instead of creating an expansion plan, the administration and Congress became enmeshed in a controversy over Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAPs), an alternative to the traditional “registered” apprenticeship system, largely dominated by construction unions.

One goal of IRAPs was to bypass the often opaque and time-consuming process of officially “registering” a program with the government, instead giving employers the flexibility to design an apprenticeship program that industry bodies, not government offices, would recognize. Critics argued that this industry self-regulation could limit government oversight and compromise quality. Over the past four years, President Joe Biden ended the IRAP initiative, even as Congress increased appropriations to $285 million for registered programs. 

How to “make apprenticeships great in America”

As Trump begins his efforts, resources for expanding apprenticeships are hardly sufficient. The only aid provided by the recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act is the improved ability of apprenticeship programs to use Pell grants. If Trump is serious about his goal of one million apprenticeships a year, here are five actions the administration and Congress should take:

Encourage employer participation with a “pay-per-apprentice” fund. The main challenge is motivating employers to offer apprenticeships. Many employers have little knowledge of the workings of apprenticeships and how they can improve their recruitment, training, and productivity. But once employers start programs, they generally find them worthwhile. A recent study found high returns on apprenticeship investments. Still, convincing employers to adopt apprenticeships enough to change their policies is difficult. Doing so usually requires intermediaries (say, industry associations, local nonprofits, colleges, unions, staffing, and training firms) that can persuade employers to launch apprenticeships and help them organize and register their programs. Paying these groups for the apprenticeships they help create makes sense. The experience of American grantees funded under Obama’s American Apprenticeship Initiative indicates that each apprentice hire costs the federal government about $5,000 to kickstart. This means that with $5 billion, the fund could create about 1 million new apprentices. Make employer participation easier with ready-made occupational frameworks for structuring apprenticeships. Employers interested in creating apprenticeships in welding, accounting, or information technology should be able to draw on best practices for what the apprentice is expected to learn and how much of that education will occur at the worksite or in class (online or in person). A public-private entity or set of entities could work with employees, trade associations, and education and training organizations to oversee the development of these skills frameworks and ensure they are updated regularly. Once approved, employers agreeing to hire and train apprentices using these frameworks could be fast-tracked for registration under the registered apprenticeship system and qualify for public funding. Using this low-cost initiative, the employer could register the apprentice easily online. Fund classroom learning opportunities for apprentices. Apprenticeships typically combine on-the-job learning with instruction off the job, such as classroom learning. The government could finance most of this off-the-job instruction, lowering the cost of apprenticeship programs for employers and students, and increasing early access to these programs. One way to do this is to allow employers and apprentices to reap already allocated state and federal funds, such as Pell grants, veterans’ benefits, and other sources. This would require expanding eligibility for these programs. Access to short-term Pell grants in the reconciliation bill can assist, but tweaking college Pell grants could boost apprenticeships by lowering employer costs for off-job training. Another option is to fund “dual-credit” courses for high school students interested in apprenticeships. State and local governments already support high school and dual-credit courses, providing the academic component of apprenticeships at little or no cost to employers or other government programs. Starting apprenticeships in late high school can increase young people’s engagement in learning. This is one reason countries like Germany and Switzerland engage 50 to 70 percent of their 16-19-year-olds in apprenticeships. Since the average age of U.S. apprentices is 28 or older, beginning in high school would be a significant shift that could benefit young adults. Streamline the apprenticeship registration process and strengthen assessments. Too often, starting an official federally “registered” apprenticeship program takes too long to approve, which is one reason employers can be reluctant to participate. Fast-tracking approval for programs using well-designed occupational frameworks could ease the bottleneck. If a proposed program matches the requirements in this standardized framework, it should win quick approval. In addition, federal and state apprenticeship offices should continue to monitor program quality with assessments every few years (rather than placing barriers in the approval process and then allowing programs to run on autopilot). Oversight systems operating in Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, and other countries offer useful models for how this can be done. For example, England’s Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) ensures that apprenticeship programs follow occupational standards and show adequate completion rates. Create apprenticeships in federal, state, and local governments. Expanding apprenticeships in the public sector for information technology, accounting, health care, and security (including police and fire departments) would reduce vacancies, enhance productivity, and demonstrate credibility when promoting apprenticeships to the private sector. Since HR managers in the public sector often lack experience with apprenticeships, the government will, in most cases, require help from apprenticeship intermediaries or staff in state apprenticeship offices to set up programs.

Building a robust apprenticeship system will take years. However, the experience of advanced economies demonstrates that it is worthwhile: success will enhance worker earnings, economic mobility, and national productivity and inspire a strong sense of identity and pride among apprenticeship graduates.

The post Has the Apprenticeship Moment Finally Arrived? appeared first on Washington Monthly.