Labor Department awards grants to expand Trump goal of one million apprenticeships

The Department of Labor awarded nearly $84 million to 50 states and territories in grants to expand apprenticeship programs, a move that will facilitate President Trump’s goal of supporting more than 1 million apprenticeships per year.

Since the beginning of Mr. Trump’s second term, more than 134,000 new apprentices have signed up for programs across the country, according to a release put out this week by the Labor Department.

The funds will advance the expansion of programs in traditional and emerging industries, including technology, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, supply chain, transportation, building trades, and construction.

It will help further accelerate programs and incentivize new ones, reduce barriers to entry for new employers and industries, and enhance transparency.

“Registered Apprenticeships are a vital tool for skills development, national economic competitiveness, business growth, and individual opportunity. They will become even more important as President Trump continues to create jobs in critical sectors like manufacturing and construction,” Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement.

“I am committed to providing states and territories with the resources needed to meet their unique economic demands,” she said.

The funds were awarded through the State Apprenticeship Expansion Formula grants. Awards to each state or territory ranged from $75,000 to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Department of Labor Workforce Investment Agency Division to the highest award of roughly $1.9 million to the New York Department of Labor.

The department also awarded competitive State Apprenticeship Expansion Formula grants to 9 states with “immediate readiness to adopt multiple innovative research- and evidence-based elements that expand Registered Apprenticeship, as well as the capacity to expend additional funding that supports innovation, sector strategies, and workforce system alignment.”

The competitive funding award ranged between $4-5 million.

Becoming an apprentice seems to be more attractive to Americans now than it was 10 years ago.

A poll from Pew Research Center from June 2024 found that only 22% of Americans feel the cost of getting a four-year college degree today is worth it, and four in 10 Americans say a college degree is not too or not at all important to get a well-paying job.

According to the Labor Department, there are currently over 678,000 active apprentices in the U.S., which is up roughly 88% from 2015.

Mr. Trump has signed multiple executive orders that call for the advancement of apprenticeships in the U.S.

One order he signed in April aims to prepare Americans for high-paying, skilled trade jobs, with a goal of 1 million new active apprentices.

The order’s fact sheet said the strategy “will further America’s global economic leadership and domination of key sectors by, among other things, capitalizing on the AI revolution.”

“After years of shuffling Americans through an economically unproductive postsecondary system, President Trump will refocus young Americans on career preparation,” the fact sheet said.

A second order signed on the same day advancing A.I. education for American youth, called for the Labor Department to seek participants for A.I.-related apprenticeship programs.

A third order signed in May calling for the reinvigoration of the country’s nuclear industrial base also called for department heads to increase participation in nuclear-based apprenticeship programs.

Trade groups celebrated Mr. Trump’s orders.

North America’s Building Trades Unions President Sean McGarvey said in a statement that the unions look forward “to working with the Administration and Congress to strengthen and uphold our proven building trades apprenticeship model — the most effective workforce development system in the nation — and demonstrating how it can serve as a blueprint for other industries in desperate need of a successful apprenticeship model.”

However, some think that the administration isn’t putting its money where its mouth is.

The National Association of Workforce Boards pointed out that the president’s topline discretionary Budget “proposed to dramatically reduce non-defense discretionary investments” by roughly $1.6 billion and eliminates the Job Corps, a career training program for young Americans, and the Senior Community Service Employment Program, which provides job training for low-income seniors.

The administration’s proposed new program, Make America Skilled Again, would require states to spend at least 10% on apprenticeships.

NAWB called for its members to reach out to their representatives and urge them to prioritize workforce development programs.