25 June, 2017
It will also provide more funding and create a task force of business leaders to help promote the programs across new sectors, as well as assess the effectiveness of the job-training programs now in place.
Trump plans to sign an executive order that would reorient and expand ApprenticeshipUSA, a grant program that was previously championed by the Obama administration and has been supported by Democrats and Republicans alike.
Trump's executive order also requires all federal agencies that participate in apprenticeship programs or workforce training to examine whether their efforts are duplicative or could be combined with other programs to greater effect.
The new program the president and his daughter are promoting doubles the amount of money that goes toward apprenticeship programs from $90 to $200 million.
.The White House said Mr Trump's push is aimed at training workers with specific skills for particular jobs that employers say they can not fill at a time of historically low unemployment. "We have regulations on top of regulations, and in history no one has never gotten rid of so many regulations as the Trump administration".
"We are excited about working with the administration to help create more job and career opportunities in the restaurant, foodservice and hospitality industry through apprenticeship", said Rob Gifford, the NRAEF's executive vice president, in a statement. Trump's apprenticeship rollout, he said Thursday, will "place students into great jobs without the crippling debt" that often comes with it.
The president said the on-the-job training and earn-as-you-learn programs would prepare students for many rewarding careers, including high-tech jobs operating state-of-the-art machinery. Those programs would then be left to industry to design under broad standards from the Labor Department.
By definition, apprenticeships link education with skills that are in demand, and evidence suggests they are effective in terms of wage and job outcomes.
President Donald J. Trump, center a podium, announces an executive order to expand apprenticeships in an effort to close the skills gap in America.
Apprenticeship programs, run by the companies who know what their needs are, will help address this massive mismatch.
The apprenticeship expansion is being rolled out as part of what the White House has dubbed "workforce development week".
There are about 500,000 apprenticeship positions in the USA, representing less than a percentage of the US workforce. Bipartisan legislation was also introduced in the House to strengthen the Perkins Act, which provides federal support for technical education by modernizing it for the 21st century, a bill Ivanka Trump praised on Fox and Friends earlier in the week.
Last year, the NRAEF was awarded a $1.8 million contract by the Department of Labor to create a hospitality apprenticeship program in conjunction with the American Hotel and Lodging Association.
Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca said Trump is pulling a "bait and switch" by claiming he cares about workers while cutting resources to train them. The White House estimates there are 6 million vacant jobs that companies can not fill due to a lack of skilled workers.
The White House is seeking to focus attention on Trump's economic agenda amid scrutiny over a federal investigation into possible coordination between his presidential campaign and Russian Federation.
