After an “infrastructure week” that was overshadowed by former FBI Director James Comey and President Trump’s tweets, the White House will try to make the coming week “workforce development week.”
Trump, his daughter Ivanka Trump, Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta and other administration officials will roll out administrative actions meant to encourage apprenticeships and promote career paths that do not involve traditional four-year colleges.
Acosta is a proponent of apprenticeships. Before becoming president, Trump hosted the television show “The Apprentice” for 14 years. Ivanka Trump is a fan of apprenticeships, she told reporters Friday, partly because they can provide a path for women and minorities in fields in which they are underrepresented. “As we think about and as we work toward the goal of creating 25 million jobs … we truly need full participations of all Americans in the workforce to achieve that goal,” she said.
“Workforce development week” will feature Trump traveling to Waukesha County Technical College in Wisconsin to tour its training programs and facilities with Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
On Wednesday, Trump will deliver a “major policy speech” on workforce development at the Department of Labor, said an administration official. The next day, Ivanka Trump will host a roundtable with Trump, Acosta and governors.
In speaking to reporters Friday, Acosta suggested that a major focus would be increasing the prevalence of apprenticeships.
“They’re proven, they’re effective, and our intent is to expand the apprenticeship program broadly and to scale it up,” he said, noting that most people in apprenticeship programs have jobs waiting at the end of the program and are given higher starting salaries than college graduates.
About 505,000 apprentices were in registered programs at the end of 2016, according to the Department of Labor.
The administration did not spell out any specific goals for its push for more apprenticeships.
Nor is Trump seeking additional funding for the programs. “The problem is not money,” said an administration official, but rather that the several dozen workforce training programs throughout the federal government are poorly managed and lack accountability.
Trump’s budget would institute major spending reductions to job training programs, although not ones involving apprenticeship, an administration official said.
The administration’s preferred model is that of “private-private” partnerships, in which businesses work directly with technical schools to find and train the workers they need.
The goal is to bring the U.S. more into line with countries that have much higher rates of apprenticeship, such as Germany.
