President Trump signed an executive order April 23 calling on the Departments of Education, Labor, and Commerce to review the current patchwork of federal workforce investments and identify opportunities for improvements, consolidation, or restructuring, and to expand Registered Apprenticeships. While the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) represents the largest single source of workforce funding at the federal level, career-oriented education and training programs are scattered across numerous federal departments.

The Details
  • Registered Apprenticeship: The EO sets a goal “to reach and surpass 1 million new active apprentices.” It calls for expanding apprenticeship to more industries, improving connections between apprenticeship and educational institutions, and supporting program providers. 
  • Incumbent workers: Under the current system, workers often can’t access federal funding (through WIOA, for example) until they’ve lost their job. The EO asks agencies to identify opportunities to support upskilling so that workers can develop relevant skills to stay employed, rather than waiting until they’ve experienced job loss.
  • Data and outcomes: To improve the data and outcomes, the EO calls for improving data collection and quality (including using “the most reliable data sources), as well as pushing for greater transparency on the performance of federally-funded workforce programs. 
What They’re Saying

“The executive order marks the first time an administration has set an apprenticeship goal rather than simply continuing to shell out apprenticeship dollars to workforce boards and community colleges hoping for something good to come of it,” said Ryan Craig. “More important, there’s a roadmap for how we’ll get to 1 million apprentices and beyond. The order signals a culling of ineffective “train-and-pray” workforce development programs and redirecting those dollars to apprenticeships, likely on a pay-for-performance basis, like federal support for every apprentice hired and trained. The good news is that there’s already enough money in the workforce system to start catching up with other developed nations on earn-and-learn pathways and establish some needed balance to America’s approach to career launch.”

“As an organization representing 3,200 companies in the electronics industry, we’ve seen firsthand the urgent need for skill development.  It’s why we created the first-ever federally registered apprenticeship for electronics manufacturing in 2023,” said Dave Hernandez, vice president of education at IPC (the global electronics association). “We hope this executive order will create opportunities for high-quality, industry-aligned training programs and apprenticeships to flourish, through either additional funding or greater efficiencies.”

“We’ve seen the number of active apprentices nearly double in the past decade, thanks in part to investments at the federal level,” adds Karishma Merchant of JFF. “We are eager to see that growth continue, for apprenticeships to expand into new industries, and to make stronger, more direct connections between U.S. workers and businesses.”

What’s Next

The review and report on federal workforce programs is due in 90 days; the plan to increase apprenticeships is due within 120 days. The devil will be in the details, though, as funding stream consolidation or realignment will inevitably create winners and losers.