Sec. 2. Findings and purposes
476 words·~2 min read·
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Congress finds the following: A highly skilled workforce is necessary to compete in the global economy, support economic growth, and maintain the standard of living of the United States. The apprenticeship model is a longstanding, on-the-job training and education model that prepares workers for the skill demands of particular occupations and employers while, at the same time, providing the workers with recognized, portable credentials, and wages while in training. The registered apprenticeship program model has been successful in skilled trade industries, including construction and manufacturing, as well as service industries, such as health care, and holds great potential for expansion into other industries.
Registered apprenticeships are becoming increasingly innovative and diverse in their designs, partnerships, timeframes, and use of emerging concepts such as competency-based learning, and will continue to evolve to meet emerging skill requirements, while maintaining high standards and quality. Registered apprenticeship programs are an essential element of an effective workforce development system and help individuals attain a recognized postsecondary credential, contributing to their personal economic sustainability.
According to a report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, by 2020 the United States will face a shortage of 5,000,000 workers with recognized postsecondary credentials. According to a 2012 report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, youth employment in the United States has reached the lowest point since World War II. More than 6,000,000 young people ages 16 through 24 are disconnected from school and work. A 2012 evaluation of registered apprenticeship programs in 10 States by Mathematica Policy Research found that— individuals who completed registered apprenticeship programs earned over $240,000 more over their careers than individuals not participating in such apprenticeship programs; the estimated social benefits of registered apprenticeship programs, including additional productivity of apprentices and the reduction in governmental expenditures as a result of reduced use of unemployment compensation and public assistance, exceeded the costs of the programs by more than $49,000 per program; and the tax return on every Federal Government dollar invested in registered apprenticeship programs was $27.
The purposes of this Act are— to increase the number of highly skilled workers in the United States, particularly in in-demand industry sectors and occupations; to increase the attainment of recognized postsecondary credentials by participants; to increase awareness about the value of the registered apprenticeship program model as an effective earn-and-learn model for students, workers, and employers; to support the development and expansion of registered apprenticeship programs with employers, joint labor-management partnerships, trade and professional associations, and other program sponsors, that offer jobs that lead to economic self-sufficiency; to support the development and expansion of effective pre-apprenticeship programs that lead to success in a registered apprenticeship program; to support a closer alignment between registered apprenticeship programs, the workforce development system, career and technical education, and postsecondary education, including institutions of higher education; and to support innovative models of effective work-based learning.