A wide-ranging Senate hearing on expanding apprenticeships held on Wednesday included discussions on the critical role that community colleges can play in growing the training programs into industries that need skilled workers.
The hearing held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee included views from employers, unions and others, addressing ways to lessen red tape to encourage more companies to use apprenticeships, reach into high schools to foster interest in the trades and apprenticeships, ensure the programs are flexible enough to adjust to workforce changes, and more.
Josh Laney, vice president of apprenticeship and work-embedded learning at the Competency-Based Education Network, kicked off the hearing by highlighting Alabama’s success in developing a statewide apprenticeship for nursing, which includes the state’s community colleges as partners. That program has helped drive women’s participation in apprenticeships in the state, increasing from 6% to more than 20% in just a few years, he noted.
Alabama’s success is based on its employer-driven development model, Laney said. But to get more businesses on board to use apprenticeships will require changes. He estimated that about 45,000 new employers are needed to reach President Donald Trump’s goal of 1 million new apprenticeships annually.
To foster expansion and better oversight, Laney asked the lawmakers to move oversight of apprenticeships to state agency systems, which are better suited to meet the needs of local programs.
“We would find it odd if the U.S. Department of Education were directly overseeing a high school,” he said. “Why then should the U.S. Department of Labor be directly engaged with apprenticeship sponsors on everything from pay scales to printing completion certificates?”
Laney also called on lawmakers to create a formula funding model for state agencies, similar to the Perkins model.
“It is impossible to build a cohesive system when the participants are whipped back and forth chasing grants to keep the lights on,” he said.
Laney also recommended replacing time-focused training requirements with competency-based requirements for the programs.
“There’s nothing magical about a minimum of 2,000 hours of on-the-job training. Time does not measure skill,” he said.
What makes it work?
Several Senators asked Laney what makes Alabama’s apprenticeship efforts work, especially in nursing. He explained that the Alabama hospital and nursing home associations drove the nursing apprenticeship program because “they were the ones feeling the pinch” due to the shortage of skilled workers.
The healthcare associations worked with the Alabama Community College System and the Alabama Board of Nursing, which created a nursing apprentice license that designates a scope of practice. The state currently has more than 1,000 nurse apprentices, with 87 employers and 28 colleges and universities participating in the programs, Laney said.
Another key to the nursing program is last-dollar scholarships, covered by participating employers, to reduce student debt, Laney noted.
“At first, we thought they (employers) might balk at that. But they absolutely have not. They see the value in it,” he said.
In his written testimony, Laney noted a registered nurse at Huntsville Hospital who attended a nurse apprentice program through Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Critical to her completion was the apprentice program paying her enough to cover her expenses.
Kudos to community colleges
Several committee members focused their questions on the role of community colleges in apprenticeships. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) proudly stated that he and his wife both attended community college, calling them “the bright start of education in Kansas.” Marshall, who attended Butler Community College (Kansas), asked how programs like Perkins and career and technical education programs support apprenticeships.
Several of the panelists said funding from these programs can help develop pre-apprenticeships in high schools and purchase training equipment that both colleges and high schools can use. Several hearing participants also noted the potential use of new Workforce Pell grants to help cover some costs.
Politicking and opportunities
The hearing started with both sides noting bipartisan support for apprenticeships, but it occasionally slipped into partisan bickering. Democrats and a union official testifying at the hearing called out the Trump administration for cutting funding for various federally funded projects, particularly infrastructure and semiconductor manufacturing. Scaled-back funding means fewer jobs, which impacts apprenticeships, they said.
Committee chair Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) bridged over the bickering by saying they could find common ground on apprenticeships. Kaine said President Donald Trump could allow for those projects — which he noted were started by the Biden administration — to finish and then start his own big projects for which apprenticeships can provide a worker pipeline, such as revamping the nation’s air traffic infrastructure.
“I think there is really an opportunity for bipartisan work,” Cassidy concluded at the end of the hearing.
