The funding for the grants will come from taxpayer money, specifically, existing apprenticeship programs. The government will review and streamline some 43 workforce programs across 13 agencies. By streamlining programs according to broad, flexible standards to be set by the Labor Department, the plan intends to open up more opportunities for women, minorities, and other underrepresented groups.
Filling jobs
The reasoning behind the new executive order is to help fill some of the 6 million open jobs in the skills field in the U.S. Only about 0.35 percent of the 146 million jobs in the United States in 2016 were filled by apprentices. Increasing apprenticeship programs is a way of filling millions more jobs through apprenticeship programs.
Private companies wanting to establish apprenticeship programs will still have to register with the Labor Department, but the executive order calls for greater flexibility and broader standards which it hopes will encourage more companies to engage in creating apprenticeship programs.
Read more by visiting abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/trump-orders-cash-industry-input-apprenticeships-48058121
