The Trump administration’s push to reach 1 million new registered apprenticeships annually will need more public-private partnerships, as well as help from training providers such as community colleges, U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer told a House committee on Thursday.
The nearly three-hour House Education and Workforce Committee hearing on the budget request and policy priorities for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) covered a lot of ground: health plans, human trafficking, child labor, worker safety, wages, Job Corps pauses and funding cuts, and more. Republicans also repeated their game plan for workforce development, which includes block funding, registered apprenticeships and workforce Pell, which would extend Pell Grant eligibility to quality, short-term workforce education programs.
Committee chair Tim Walberg (R-Michigan) in his opening statement gave a plug for the committee’s bipartisan work on workforce Pell, which he said can help shore up the national workforce shortage.
“With more than 7 million unfilled jobs in the U.S. and over 7 million unemployed individuals, it’s obvious that we should be doing more to support those looking to gain new skills,” he said. “Therefore, the committee has advanced bipartisan reforms to allow Pell grants to support students in high-quality, short-term workforce education programs.”
Bipartisan support
Committee members from both parties gave their support for the president’s goal to reach 1 million registered apprenticeships, though–like in recent House and Senate appropriations hearings–Democrats questioned how such an expansion can happen without significantly more funding.
Rep. John Mannion (D-New York) calculated that, if 10% of block grants for workforce development are set aside for apprenticeship activities — as the Trump administration has proposed — it would result in a 4% increase in federal funding for apprenticeships. Meanwhile, the current number of registered apprenticeships hovers around 700,000, with about 83,000 added this year so far, according to DOL.
“If we’re going to increase funding by 4%, how are we going to increase the apprenticeship programs by 50%?” Mannion asked.
Chavez-DeRemer said several times over the hearing that expanding apprenticeships requires more public and private sector involvement. Community colleges would be a key part in providing the training, she said.
“If we address all those in a very succinct order and work hard, cause it’s going to take hard work, we will get more business investments in the apprenticeship programs within their local communities so we can get those young people into the pipeline,” Chavez-DeRemer said.
Mannion also questioned the administration’s proposal to eliminate funding for the $65 million Strengthening Community College Training Grants Program, which, across five rounds of funding, has served 207 colleges to date.
“How are we going to ensure that our community colleges can pivot, to the extent that they’ve already done, to make sure that we have these stacked credentialing programs and other advanced manufacturing programs?”
Mannion’s five-minute allotment for questions expired before Chavez-DeRemer could respond, but she said she would work with community colleges to help them with those efforts.
“I’ve worked with community colleges and trade schools for years as a former mayor, and I will continue to do so as the secretary,” said Chavez-DeRemer, who previously served on the committee as a House member.
On the road
Chavez-DeRemer repeated during the hearing that her role in workforce development, and apprenticeships in particular, is to bring various sectors together.
“I will be the conduit. I will bridge the gap. I will fill that table every single time,” she said.
The secretary noted a new fire and EMS apprenticeship program created by the International Association of Fire Fighters. She added that she has talked with law enforcement organizations to possibly create apprenticeships in their field.
“How exciting would that be, that our first responders and our law enforcement would step up and want to know that their pipeline is now respected and they could register with the Department of Labor,” she said.
Chavez-DeRemer also highlighted her America at Work listening tour, through which she aims to visit workforce development programs, with a focus on apprenticeships, in all 50 states. She has visited 15 states to date, with a couple of stops at community colleges. Most recently, she visited Suffolk County Community College in New York to see its National Offshore Wind Training Center facility.
The goal of the tour is to understand what employees and employers need to inform good policy and to share promising practices.
“So many times, I’m talking to the 25-to-27-year-old who is being reintroduced to the community college, who still is working 40 hours a week, who now goes to school at night, just to gain that extra certificate so they can improve on their life for their families,” Chavez-DeRemer said at Thursday’s hearing. “It is those kinds of stories that I’m hearing over and over again — that they want the flexibility to earn while they learn.”
