Glenn Grothman: “Apprenticeship programs are incredibly important for job growth in the State of Wisconsin and around the Nation; and…”

“Apprenticeship programs are incredibly important for job growth in the State of Wisconsin and around the Nation; and insofar as this bill highlights apprenticeships, that is a good thing. I was talking again to one of our programs this morning in Wisconsin, and they could desperately use more people going through these apprenticeships and making these $70-, $80-, $90,000-a-year jobs. I think it is particularly important to get more people in the trades because we have so many people going to 4-year universities and maybe they wind up going to apprenticeship 5 or 6 years later, maybe they wind up heavy in debt. If they had made the move to a construction apprenticeship earlier on, they would be a lot better. Unfortunately, this bill is not quite exactly what we need. The registered apprenticeship program through the Department of Labor is important. For many employers it works fine. However, it is a one-size- fits-all approach. In fiscal year 2019, over 250,000 individuals entered registered apprenticeships and only 81,000 graduated from the system. Over the years, some employers have expressed that participation in registered apprenticeships allows the Department of Labor to dictate skills an employer must provide to apprentices in specific industries rather than allowing the business to determine that themselves. Let's face it, employers know what kind of on-the-job training and vocational education their apprentices need more than the Federal Government does.…”