House stimulus bill would authorize $500m for apprenticeship expansion

Last week’s data on new unemployment claims pushed the number of jobs lost to the coronavirus pandemic above 30 million, a figure that still likely underestimates the true economic toll of the crisis so far. On the heels of the CARES Act, whose $2 trillion price tag included welcome support for the United States’ patchy unemployment insurance system, House and Senate legislators have now introduced a fifth stimulus bill aimed at supporting the massive effort of education, training, and job services that will be necessary to get unemployed Americans back into safe, well-paid jobs. It’s no surprise that apprenticeship, which combines the near-term security of a wage and the longer-term advantages of career training, plays a big part.

The bicameral Relaunching America’s Workforce Act (RAWA) would authorize $15 billion to supercharge existing American workforce development and education investments under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 (WIOA) and the Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) Act of 2006. The bill’s support for apprenticeship would be channeled primarily through $500 million in new apprenticeship expansion grants: half of this funding would go directly to states, and half would be granted or contracted out to intermediary organizations tasked with supporting industry engagement and demographic diversity in apprenticeship. RAWA’s $2.5 billion in new grants for adult training and employment activities under Title I of WIOA could also be used to support apprenticeship programs. All told, these new investments would bolster apprenticeship’s value proposition for employers through the current economic downturn, and ensure that well-paid apprenticeship opportunities remain available to American jobseekers.

Social distancing requirements create several unique challenges for the American apprenticeship system, both in the on-the-job component of Registered Apprenticeship and in its classroom-based related technical instruction (RTI). Remote work and online learning are already the norm for some tech and business occupations, but are practically impossible in many health care roles, for example, where apprenticeship training will need significant additional safety precautions. Jobs in construction and manufacturing, which have historically been apprenticeship stalwarts, have been hit by slowing labor market demand, but training may need to ratchet up quickly once the pandemic eases, especially if future federal relief efforts include funding for new infrastructure projects. And just as in academic higher education, apprenticeship leaders across sectors have had to quickly transition to online instruction without sacrificing quality or job-relevance.

Each of these new challenges to Registered Apprenticeship programs will require calculated responses from local workforce development boards, intermediaries, and apprenticeship agencies and labor departments at the state level. And apprenticeship on its own will not be enough: continued reforms to our unemployment insurance systems and further investments in transitional jobs will be necessary to provide all jobseekers with a stable income and a toehold in the labor market. Still, RAWA’s proposed investment in apprenticeship expansion is nothing to sneeze at. In one swoop, the bill would add another half billion to the $1.2 billion in steadily growing federal appropriations and discretionary awards that have supported Registered Apprenticeship expansion since 2015. Far from overambitious, the size of the proposed investment suits the scale of the mounting coronavirus employment crisis and Registered Apprenticeship’s potential in the recovery process.

An especially noteworthy feature of RAWA is its inclusion of apprentice wage subsidies. Under the bill’s Title I provisions, governors and local workforce boards may use the coronavirus employment crisis to justify wage subsidies up to 75 percent for employers hiring workers into Registered Apprenticeships and other types of on-the-job training. RAWA’s apprenticeship-specific provisions go even further, allowing grantees to use federal funds to pay apprentices’ wages for the hours they spend in RTI—a huge advantage for workers as well as for employers, who might chafe at paying apprentices to study and not to work. In boom times, wage subsidies for apprentice employers can be a slippery slope, creating a windfall for businesses that might need to invest more in wages and training anyway. But the boom times are gone, and wage subsidies may be necessary to keep apprenticeship training viable, available, and equitable as businesses and jobseekers alike struggle to make ends meet.

With national unemployment likely to reach or exceed 20 percent, and higher education systems strained by new operational challenges and vulnerable state budgets, apprenticeship will play an indispensable training role in America’s economic recovery strategy. Three years ago, the Trump administration endorsed Silicon Valley mogul Marc Benioff’s moonshot goal of increasing the number of American apprentices tenfold, to five million nationally. Now is a better time than ever to redouble our efforts.

Looking for more information on other workforce-related responses to the coronavirus economic crisis? Consult this collection of policy resources from the experts at the Center on Education & Skills at New America (CESNA).

Interested in staying up to date on education and workforce policy? Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates on the latest from our experts.