Last Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to dramatically expand investment and access to apprenticeships with the passage of the National Apprenticeship Act of 2021 under the leadership of Rep. Bobby Scott. This legislation had been passed in November in the last Congress, however, the Republican Senate Majority failed to take up the bill for a vote. With Democrats now in the majority, there is renewed hope that the country’s underfunded and outdated apprenticeship system can finally be modernized to meet our 21st-century workforce needs.
The reauthorization of The National Apprenticeship Act is estimated to create nearly one million high-quality apprenticeship opportunities and includes provisions that target opportunities for key groups, such as young adults, childcare workers, and veterans. The bill also aims to increase apprenticeships in industries that do not require a four-year degree for well-paid jobs, such as healthcare, IT, and financial services.
For the more than 10 million workers who have lost jobs or been laid off, there is no guarantee that their jobs will be there once our country returns to normal. Some estimate that at least 3.7 million Americans will not have jobs to return to. Many will have to reinvent themselves and apprenticeships can play a critical role in helping workers get back to work better after the pandemic.
Apprenticeships are an overlooked option to put workers on a path to better employment and the National Apprenticeship Act would remedy this gap. The United States lags behind many other OECD countries in investments to apprenticeships to provide immediate options for laid-off workers. Currently, there are only about 440,000 registered apprentices in the U.S. and often, in states where apprenticeships are available, there are too few slots to meet demand. If the United States were to create as many apprenticeships as a share of our labor force as in Europe that number would be nearly ten times higher.
As policymakers consider how to help American workers weather the Covid recession, PPI strongly supports an increase in public investment in apprenticeships and work-based “career pathways” training programs that connect workers, including those laid off during the pandemic, to well-paying careers. We look forward to its progress in the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee under Senator Patty Murray, and we encourage the Senate to pass this important workforce legislation.
