The U.S. departments of Labor, Commerce and Education on Tuesday released their blueprint to revamp the federal government’s approach to workforce development.
The departments, which were directed in April by President Donald Trump via executive order to develop the plan, said the strategy aims to address workforce needs, integrate workforce development systems to maximize efficiency and effectiveness, provide accountability for workforce training programs, upskill incumbent workers and develop alternatives to four-year college degrees.
The 27-page paper — “America’s Talent Strategy: Equipping American Workers for the Golden Age” — said the plan is based on five pillars geared to “empower more Americans to access good-paying jobs, build pipelines of skilled talent for critical industries, prepare the workforce system for an AI-driven economy, and position the U.S. as the dominant global economic leader.”
The pillars are:
- Industry-driven strategies: Expand proven work-based learning models like registered apprenticeships and other high-quality work-based learning models and align education programs to career pathways in priority industries to ensure direct connections to employer needs. This will include immediately working to streamline program administration and simplify governance requirements to empower states to integrate funding streams and improve service delivery.
- Worker mobility: Bring more Americans into the workforce by identifying skills and credentials for in-demand jobs and connecting them with personalized support, including through AI-powered tools, to help them advance.
- Integrated systems: Streamline federal workforce development programs to empower states, unify access points to the system for workers and businesses, and advance the president’s proposal to Make America Skilled Again, which includes block grant to states.
- Accountability: Improve transparency and accountability for federally funded workforce programs by improving mechanisms for measuring success and redirecting funding to programs that are proven to connect Americans with good-paying jobs.
- Flexibility and innovation: Ensure the workforce is prepared to adapt quickly to an AI-driven economy by prioritizing AI literacy, creating new pathways to AI jobs and fueling rapid reskilling and other innovation pilots.
“Whether it’s expanding proven workforce models like registered apprenticeships or improving AI readiness, at President Trump’s direction, we have developed a concrete plan to put the American Worker First,” said Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer in a release. “Together, we will ensure our workforce is prepared to fill the hundreds of thousands of good-paying, in-demand jobs created by the President’s bold efforts to restore America as the world’s leading economic superpower.”
More details
The report dives into more details of each pillar and how to achieve the goals. For example for industry-driven strategies, the three agencies observed that federal workforce investments must prioritize talent pathways that start with companies identifying critical, hard-to-fill-demand occupations with high wages that can be immediately filled upon completion of a training program. This will require employers to play a central role in defining in-demand skills, validating training models and steering investments toward the roles and credentials that matter most.
The departments continued that developing strong workforce paths requires investing earlier and building career pathways with more intention, starting in middle school with exposure to occupations and extending through high school and beyond with registered apprenticeships and industry-aligned training. They noted that federal funding will prioritize results, rewarding programs that place workers directly into apprenticeships or other work-based learning opportunities that lead to in-demand jobs.
Registered apprenticeships front and center
Much of the training component of the plan focuses on registered apprenticeships. Making them more appealing to business and industry will require revising regulatory requirements to lessen red tape, the departments said. The agencies will also explore how other federal funding streams might be better leveraged to support the expansion of registered apprenticeships. In addition, the departments will look at short-term models, including pre-apprenticeships, internships, micro-internships and other work-based learning models as potential on-ramps to registered apprenticeships.
Apprenticeships are also woven into broader workforce development, including career and technical education in high schools. The report cites as an example that employers could work with school systems and community colleges to create dual-enrollment programs that lead to an apprenticeship or job immediately after high school.
Impact of AI
The report also notes how AI is rapidly changing workforce needs, which presents challenges and opportunities.
“AI represents a new frontier for workers, including new high-wage careers and enhanced productivity, but will also require new skills and transitions in the labor market for workers to share in the prosperity that AI will create,” the report says. “The greatest workforce challenge of AI may be the speed of change itself. As AI accelerates shifts in job tasks and skill requirements, the education and workforce system must adapt in real time.”
To ensure broad access to AI-era training, the departments said they will support creating regional AI learning networks, with employer-led, cross-sector partnerships that serve as training and innovation centers for the AI economy.
“These networks will build on federal investments in advanced industries and be supported through competitive grants that reward partnerships between employers, community colleges, and training providers,” the report says. “Special focus will be placed on ensuring all communities gain access to these opportunities, creating shared prosperity in the AI era.”
The departments also said they will partner with the National Science Foundation’s AI Institute to convene a network of community college and university AI centers to explore how best to integrate AI education across institutional offerings to equip graduates for an AI-driven economy.
To help address some of workforce challenges created by AI, Labor and Commerce will rapidly pilot new approaches, which may include areas such as rapid retraining needs driven by worker displacement and shifting skill requirements for entry-level roles, the report says. States and workforce intermediaries will carry out the pilot programs.
