President Trump continued his administration's efforts to put the American worker at the forefront of his agenda, by signing an executive order to help expand apprenticeships and vocational programs across the US on Thursday.
Trump's Executive Order mandates that the Department of Labor review current federal workforce programs, charging the Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, with developing a program that enables private sector businesses and trade associations to develop their own apprenticeships.
Trump's proposed budget does not increase funding for apprenticeships over last year's funding, though he has called for an additional $200 million to apprenticeship grants-doubling existing funding-by shifting money from other workforce programs. "So we're empowering these companies, these unions, industry groups, federal agencies to go out and create new apprenticeships for millions of our citizens", Trump said. Apprenticeships would give students a way to acquire new skill without having the crippling debt that often comes with a degree from four-year college.
Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit that helps promote skills training and job opportunities for low-income people, supports apprenticeship programs that have the Labor Department's stamp of approval, says the group's president, Maria K. Flynn.
"While President Trump is signing an executive order pledging to support apprenticeship programs, the reality is that his 2018 budget will undermine our public workforce system".
The act "has given states the flexibility and tools they need to foster strategic partnerships, invest resources into innovative methodologies, and educate their workforce", said Michelle Paczynski, South Carolina's deputy assistant executive director for workforce and economic development.
"We must work to help individuals get the training they need for the jobs of today and tomorrow".
Until now, the president has raced to unwind Obama-era energy regulations to save coal industry jobs that may soon be extinct anyway due to market forces tipping toward clean energy.
Trump was in southeastern Wisconsin to join Walker in a tour of Waukesha County Technical College and talk about the importance of providing on-the-job training to workers in industries that sometimes struggle to find qualified people.
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Seleznow argues that apprenticeships are best for workers with some skills and educational background, but for those lacking basic skills, job training programs tend to offer more classroom time.
Apprenticeships and job training, by contrast, generate nearly no partisan bickering, and mainstream economists generally approve.
The Trump administration's position is in some ways a continuation of the Obama administration's effort to revive apprenticeships across industries. It is seeking more than 450 apprentices in its inaugural year.
Economists and politicians in both parties have focused in recent years on promoting apprenticeships and vocational education.
Trump will speak about the initiative from the White House at 11 a.m. And in history, nobody has gotten rid of so many regulations at the Trump administration.
Matthew Hora, an assistant professor of adult and higher education at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, says he's also concerned about making sure apprenticeship programs are done fairly (though he says that is typically a bigger issue with internship programs than with apprenticeships).
Trump's resume includes the hit television show, "The Apprentice". It should help fill numerous almost six million jobs that now are open, including 350,000 in manufacturing, Mr. Trump said.
In his yet-unrealized efforts to revamp the Affordable Care Act and cut taxes, Trump and congressional Republicans are trying to use a parliamentary maneuver that would allow them to pass bills without any Democratic buy-in.
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