Trump Apprenticeship Plan Set to Launch Amid Funding Issues

(April 1, 2020) - The Labor Department rolled out a final rule to implement the Trump administration’s new industry-focused apprenticeship system, a move likely to heighten debate on Capitol Hill and spur at least one legal challenge.
 
The rule effectively establishes the Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Program, a centerpiece of President Donald Trump’s workplace policy agenda. It also bars building trades groups from participating in the new system and includes a clause to limit a potential lawsuit from the construction industry, consistent with an advance copy of the regulation that Bloomberg Law reported last week. The regulation will take effect May 11.
 
The IRAP initiative, which has yet to launch, is an effort to rapidly expand the Labor Department’s earn-as-you-learn job-training model by shifting oversight and credentialing authority to industry groups. Employers in booming sectors like health care and information technology will be given more control over identifying the skills and standards that best serve their industries, and the bureaucratic red tape that prevented some businesses from participating in government-run apprenticeships in the past will be minimized.
 
But the IRAP system’s long-term future is uncertain: Congress has yet to allot money specifically for the new model, and a group of mostly Democratic lawmakers has expressed concern that the industry-focused system doesn’t involve enough government oversight.
 
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