Registered Apprenticeships: Finding Common Ground
As we celebrate National Workforce Development Month throughout September, it is the perfect time to talk about our responsibility as a sector to help the future workforce, current employers, and businesses in our great state of New York. Even in a society deeply divided by politics and culture, virtually all Americans support economic growth, thriving businesses, and workers achieving career success and economic security. Unfortunately, roughly half of New Yorkers are falling short of that standard.
Earlier this year, United Way of New York State published research measuring how many families qualified as ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed). It found that 48 percent of households in New York State are struggling to make ends meet. The report looks at people who work but still struggle to afford basics like housing, food, health care, childcare, and transportation. According to this analysis, fully one-third of New York families earn above the poverty line but don’t make enough to cover the real cost of living.
Beyond the current economic pressures on household budgets, there are ongoing challenges affecting financial stability for many families. face an increasingly urgent need for an infusion of new talent in key sectors that power our economy. A recent report from the Brookings Institution projects that from 2021 to 2031, an average of 1.7 million infrastructure workers (12.2 percent) will leave their jobs each year for retirement or other opportunities, leading to huge replacement needs. New federal infrastructure funding could create up to 1.5 million additional new jobs annually over the same period.
One way to close both gaps is by expanding registered apprenticeships. Just earlier this year, the New York State Department of Labor announced $2.5 million in grants to help expand apprenticeship across New York State, including in vital sectors such as semiconductor manufacturing and the building trades—a vital input to infrastructure development.
So, what are registered apprenticeships?
Registered apprenticeships are paid, on-the-job training programs that combine real work experience with classroom learning, typically lasting between one and five years. They are “registered” with the U.S. Department of Labor, which means they meet national standards for quality, safety, and career advancement. At the end of the apprenticeship, workers earn a nationally recognized credential that shows employers they have the skills to succeed and allows for consistency across the various sectors—and usually transition into full-time roles that offer pay well above the national average.
For businesses, apprenticeships are more than a workforce strategy—they are a growth strategy. They give employers the ability to shape talent to meet their specific needs, reducing costly mismatches between open jobs and available skills. Apprenticeships also help companies retain workers longer by fostering loyalty and creating clear pathways for advancement. At the same time, they strengthen competitiveness by ensuring businesses have the skilled teams required to innovate, expand, and thrive in a rapidly changing economy.
Especially as traditional supports for upward mobility are eroded apprenticeship offers rare potential to find common ground. In its April 23rd executive order on workforce development, the Trump administration called for a plan to support more than one million registered apprenticeships each year. Citing registered apprenticeships as a central pillar of the administration’s new talent strategy, the order called for alleviating the barriers that deter employers from applying and expediting the process/certification itself, and for prioritizing transparency and accountability.
Registered Apprenticeships are and should be considered a pillar of strategy for the future. Even as our sector struggles with the prospect of deep cuts to safety net programs and potentially severe reductions in federal funding for core workforce services, our obligation is to find new answers to help skill the current and future workforces, to support our state’s workforce, economy and for future generations. Identifying, placing, and supporting more New Yorkers into apprenticeship programs can yield enormous benefits for families, businesses, and communities—an outcome that virtually all of us would celebrate.
