Huntington Ingalls Industries is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected class. U.S. Citizenship required for most positions.
Huntington Ingalls Industries is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected class. U.S. Citizenship required for most positions.
Huntington Ingalls Industries is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected class. U.S. Citizenship required for most positions.
Huntington Ingalls Industries is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected class. U.S. Citizenship required for most positions.
Huntington Ingalls Industries is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected class. U.S. Citizenship required for most positions.
New initiative to support job readiness in underserved communities
WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh joined leaders from North America’s Building Trades Unions, the National Urban League and graduates of pre-apprenticeship programs in construction and construction-related industries to discuss how Registered Apprenticeship programs can train the future workforce to help fill jobs in critical sectors.
During the event, Secretary Walsh announced a $20 million cooperative agreement between the Department of Labor and the TradesFutures non-profit to advance equitable opportunities in construction through the department’s “Scaling Apprenticeship Readiness Across the Building Trades” initiative. TradesFutures seeks to enroll more than 13,000 participants in apprenticeship readiness programs – giving them hands-on learning experience and skill development – and expects to subsequently place at least 7,000 of them into Registered Apprenticeships in the construction industry.
“The U.S. Department of Labor is committed to making sure the jobs that President Biden’s historic investments in infrastructure will create in construction and its related industries provide equitable and accessible opportunities for all workers,” said Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh. “Our cooperative agreement with TradesFutures and other partners will build on their proven success in using pre-apprenticeship and Registered Apprenticeships to develop an open and inclusive talent pipeline for construction and construction-related industries.”
In partnership with the department and the National Urban League, TradesFutures will lead a coalition of community partners to develop a unified strategy that creates a gateway for women, people of color, veterans, Native Americans, justice-involved people and other people from underrepresented communities to access and succeed in Registered Apprenticeship programs. The project will explore programs in Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee to support identification of best practices, as well as to provide technical assistance to these states and other apprenticeship readiness programs in additional states that may be supported by future expansion efforts.
“TradesFutures is ready and humbled by the historic opportunity to expand Apprenticeship Readiness Programs across the country. This cooperative agreement with the Department of Labor and the National Urban League will uplift people by recruiting and expanding building trades’ workforce development pipelines in communities that have been historically underrepresented in the trades while simultaneously meeting demand for the unprecedented federal infrastructure investments,” TradesFutures Executive Director Nicole Schwartz remarked. “We welcome this opportunity to help recruit the next infrastructure generation and look forward to maximizing these investments to the greatest extent possible by empowering communities with a stronger, more diverse and skilled local workforce.”
“The historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will create thousands of new, family-sustaining jobs in the construction industry and this partnership will help to ensure that the communities most in need of these infrastructure investments have equal access to those jobs,” said National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial. “We’re proud of this partnership with TradesFutures and grateful to the Department of Labor for making it possible.”
The cooperative agreement also provides a mechanism for the partners to develop best practices that will be used throughout the Registered Apprenticeship system to scale across other industries.
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — There’s a need for skilled workers in the growing electric vehicle (EV) supply chain field. A new national initiative will create a strong apprenticeship hub to fill those workforce needs.
The Electric Vehicles Hub will be led by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) in partnership with Tesla and Panasonic. AACC was awarded an $8 million Apprenticeship Building America (ABA) grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to develop the hub.
AACC Executive Director of Apprenticeships Adrienne Summers outlined the initiative during a session at the association’s Workforce Development Institute this week.
“New technologies are stimulating demand for new jobs and new skills, and employment in the sector is growing throughout the country in the international energy agency projects,” Summers said. “The federal government, along with the nation’s community colleges, will help to address the anticipated growth in EV manufacturing and EV lithium-ion battery production.”
AACC will build upon its success in apprenticeship expansion to equip potential employees with cutting-edge training to create more equitable employment pathways while sustaining the growing talent needed in the industry.
“The demand for software developers, electric battery assemblers, battery engineers and chemical engineers will soar and open up thousands of opportunities for manufacturing workers to upskill,” said Summers. “The shift toward EV technology will also require a massive build-out of EV charging infrastructure, which will have a largely positive impact on the workforce.”
Expanding access to training is necessary to “meet the new manufacturing demands and the Biden administration’s 50% EV goal by 2030,” Summers added.
Workforce partnerships
Panasonic Energy of North America (PENA) has a “model” partnership with Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC), according to Randy Fricot, training supervisor for PENA.
Fricot announced the opening of an advanced manufacturing center at TMCC in 2023 to support the growth of the lithium battery manufacturing industry. He said that “community colleges can have a significant impact on the growth of this emerging industry and we are excited to work together.”
Teresa Grant from Tesla told the audience that Tesla is investing heavily in workforce development and is proud to be a partner in the EV Hub.
“Apprenticeships are one way that Tesla is building its workforce in partnership with community colleges to ensure that students are learning the skills needed to be successful in a dynamic manufacturing environment that is dedicated to building and maintaining EVs now and in the future,” Grant said.
Speaking Wednesday at an Urban Institute event, U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh says it is time to scale apprenticeships. (Screenshot of streamed event)
U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh this week emphasized the Biden administration’s support for using registered apprenticeships as a key workforce development strategy to fill job openings — particularly in technology — and as a way to grow diversity in the sector.
Walsh, who spoke Wednesday at an Urban Institute event to discuss how registered apprenticeships can help small- and medium-sized tech businesses, said the U.S. needs to scale up its use of apprenticeships for them to have the same impact as in Europe. Apprenticeship advocates are helping to develop and expand apprenticeship programs through high schools and community colleges as alternative career pathways, he said.
“Registered apprenticeships [are] one of the most proven, powerful strategies we have,” he said, noting that employers in myriad industries are recognizing the value of the programs. Although technology is relatively new to apprenticeships, in 2022 nearly 5,000 apprenticeships were offered in just information technology, he said.
A diversity tool
Apprenticeships can also help to advance equity by including more women, people of color, veterans, individuals with disabilities, and those who need second chances, Walsh said.
“If we’re thinking about creating a pathway into an industry, the best way of doing that for someone who may not have the skills or the ability or the revenue to go to college or go to a community college is through apprenticeship programs,” he said.
Google at the event announced a $2 million grant to Urban Institute to support small business owners in designing quality apprenticeship programs, with a focus on North and South Carolina.
Panel talk
Tal Frankfurt (center), founder and CEO of Cloud for Good, explains how apprenticeships benefit his small business. (Screenshot of streamed event)
Wednesday’s event also featured apprentices and leaders of several small tech businesses that have had success with apprenticeships. Historically, many small and medium-sized companies have said running registered apprenticeships is too time-consuming and costly for them. Business owners on the panel agreed that there are upfront costs associated with apprenticeships, but in their experiences the programs have paid off in only a few months.
Several panelists also echoed that it’s time to change hiring practices, with companies often requiring a bachelor’s degree for entry-level tech jobs. Odette Nemes, head of growth at Onramp, noted apprentices at tech companies are often promoted faster than new hires with four-year degrees because they already have valuable work experience.
Karan Bhatia, global head of government affairs and public policy at Google, agreed that the technology industry shouldn’t be limited to just those with college degrees, adding that degrees can exclude potential talent. There’s also an equity issue, he said, noting that requiring a degree excludes 70% of African-American workers and 80% of Latino workers.
As big cities across the country recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, they are staring down some formidable challenges in their downtown commercial and office districts, as well as in their labor markets. Today, most U.S. downtowns have lower levels of activity compared to before the pandemic, especially in larger cities—and the federal relief that has compensated for lost sales taxes, transit fares, and other revenue is running out.
At the same time, what many initially called a “great resignation” in the labor market turned out to be more of a “great reshuffle”—a rapid shift of workers from one job, industry, or career into another as people re-evaluated their living and work arrangements during the pandemic. Both job openings and job quits reached record highs in 2021.
With last week being National Apprenticeship Week, this piece asks: What role can apprenticeships play in solving these challenges and bringing about more inclusive downtown economic development?
The pandemic’s workforce impacts are still challenging downtowns
Downtowns are confronting two challenges that will take collective effort to address.
First, even as the share of workers (and their share of days) working remotely has gradually declined since the onset of the pandemic, office vacancy rates in large downtowns have continued to rise, and at a faster rate than across the overall region. Even if this divergence eventually reaches a new equilibrium, it is opening up a gap in the relationship between downtowns and work.
The second challenge relates to dysfunctional labor markets. The pandemic’s initial economic shock was concentrated in Black and Latino or Hispanic neighborhoods, which saw severe job losses. These jobs have been slow to return and workers have been slow to return to them, as the protracted pandemic led to accelerated retirements and low immigration, while surging consumer demand, lack of child care, and other factors contributed to tight labor markets and high employee turnover. Employers are now finding that the old ways of hiring and retaining workers aren’t working anymore. Even in sectors of the economy that did not experience sharp job losses, these old ways of recruitment and selection are reproducing an opportunity gap, with degree-centric candidate screening leaving many workers and neighborhoods on the sidelines.
By embracing apprenticeships, downtowns are uniquely positioned to create a new competitive advantage and value proposition for themselves as talent engines for the future. And the wave of federal funding earmarked for workforce development, infrastructure, innovation, and climate adaptation will create additional opportunities to strategically engage local talent in the reinvention of downtown neighborhoods.
Apprenticeships are not only for the trades
It is time to rethink how we connect local talent to careers and provide more options for people to access high-quality jobs. In the U.S., apprenticeships have a long history of being limited to skilled trade occupations such as electricians, plumbers, and construction workers. These are relatively high-paying jobs, and they remain important for the success of downtowns, particularly as federal infrastructure funding hits the streets.
What is an apprenticeship?
Apprenticeships combine long-term, paid, work-based learning opportunities with structured educational curricula to ensure that the learner gains both education and hands-on experience in a profession of occupation. Apprenticeships are most suitable for jobs that require a mix of hands-on experience and conceptual foundations learned in the classroom. They can be an attractive option for learners who prefer learning by doing, who are seeking paid routes into a profession and/or college degree.
Yet there are many other industries and occupations concentrated in downtowns that are struggling to fill openings and retain workers (see Figure 1). Finance and insurance, professional and business services, and many government administration jobs could benefit greatly from offering apprenticeship pathways from high schools and community colleges into roles that are currently hard to fill, such as project managers, account managers, cybersecurity technicians, and graphic designers.
In Switzerland, apprenticeships are offered across a wider range of industries and professions, and 70% of high school youth participate in them. The most popular choice among apprentices there is the commercial sector, which includes banking, retail, public administration, and some information technology occupations.
Businesses typically benefit from training apprentices as well, although the costs and benefits can vary. Apprenticeships show promise in helping companies become more innovative, build a more diverse workforce, save on hiring and turnover costs, reduce overtime, and recruit and retain workers in jobs that are hard to fill. Researchers Samuel Muehlemann and Stefan C. Wolter found that businesses in Switzerland and Germany were more willing to train apprentices when they could recoup their costs, which was more likely to occur with longer apprenticeship durations, competitive labor markets (apprentices helped reduce hiring and recruitment costs), and/or conversion of apprentices into full-time employees for at least a year.
Barriers to scaling apprenticeships in the US
Overcoming the long-standing pattern of restricting apprenticeships to a handful of skilled trades will require some transformative shifts in our K-12 institutions, postsecondary education, and hiring/career pathways. Although there is bipartisan support for expanding apprenticeships and other earn-and-learn opportunities, most of the efforts to date have come in the form of grant-funded initiatives and pilot programs rather than systems-level changes such as formula funding for apprenticeship intermediaries, redesigning registration processes to suit 21st-century jobs and professions, and creating incentives for states and educational institutions to develop degree apprenticeships or give academic credit for work-based learning.
The top barriers to scaling apprenticeships outside the trades include:
Low awareness of apprenticeship options among businesses, students, parents, and society has led to a poor understanding of what it is or what its value proposition is outside of a narrow set of industries and occupations where it is normalized.
State and federal apprenticeship registration processes can be onerous for businesses and may include rules and terms that seem irrelevant for roles outside of the trades (e.g., “journeyman” is gendered and is not commonly used in an office environment).
Siloed governance structures and funding streams between educational institutions, employer organizations, and learners has made coordination onerous and reduced alignment between available curricula, skills that employers need, and career awareness.
Misperceptions rooted in the history of apprenticeships and vocational education in the U.S. have contributed to the stigmatization of apprenticeships as a lower-status alternative to a college degree (rather than a paid pathway to a degree). Another common misperception is that apprenticeships require the presence of a labor union.
Despite these barriers, there is growing momentum to expand apprenticeships beyond traditional industries and integrate them into educational systems and degree pathways. These “new collar” apprenticeships (a phrase coined by IBM) focus on professional occupations in industries such as insurance, finance, business, and technology. In Chicago, an employer-led network started by Accenture, Aon, and Zurich North America—the Chicago Apprenticeship Network—brings together employers, education partners, and apprentices to shift hiring practices away from an overreliance on college degrees and supports apprenticeship expansion to cultivate talent from a more diverse range of backgrounds. And in September, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced a historic investment in a new public-private partnership to connect 500 youth to paid apprenticeship roles in finance, technology, and business operations. Technology apprenticeships are also expanding in response to unfilled openings and a need for more racial and gender diversity in technology; San Francisco’s TechSF program was one of the first to expand registered apprenticeships into several information technology occupations.
Watch the recent event | Racial equity and inclusion in tech: Can apprenticeships help change hiring practices?
Such apprenticeship pilots can provide a proof of concept, but real change requires investment in new institutions, pathways, and systems over time. Place-based governance organizations in our downtowns are well positioned to engage local talent that has been kept on the sidelines of economic prosperity, strengthen linkages between education and employment, and expand youth apprenticeships as an opportunity multiplier. What is required for the downtowns of the future is not a new program or pilot, but a realignment of existing institutions that makes it easy for both individual employers and workers to participate.
The pandemic accelerated trends in America’s downtowns, workplaces, and labor markets, so in many respects the future is already here. Expanding apprenticeships to strengthen pathways for local talent into hard-to-fill professional jobs will help cities leverage the workforce they already have to foster inclusive innovation and regional growth.
This week marks the eighth annual National Apprenticeship Week. The City of Pascagoula and Ingalls Shipbuilding are showing how much they appreciate their apprentices.
Apprenticeship Week is a time to celebrate those men and women in training to become full time workers at certain organizations.
While this is a national celebration, officials at Pascagoula City Hall are showing their appreciation on a more personal level by adopting a proclamation officially approving the recognition of the special week in the city. Training Rep and former apprentice Lloyd Stringer said, “It makes me feel so wonderful, so wonderful being an apprentice one time, being an alum now. It’s like Christmas.”
To help celebrate this proclamation, Ingalls Shipbuilding held a party where apprentices with the company gathered at the Maritime Training Academy for good food and good spirit.
City Manager Michael Silverman read the proclamation to the crowd. “It’s an extremely special moment just to be a part of such an amazing company and part of such an amazing community. I think these workers are crucial to our economy and crucial to the safety of this country.”
Ingalls has about 300 apprentices under its wing, who focus on a variety of different skills, each crucial to the workforce. “It’s a wide variety from pipe fitters to welders that helps build the great ships that Ingalls produces.”
This program is key for the shipyard because it helps bring in highly skilled workers to the team in an effective and efficient way. “The apprentices are the future of the shipyard. They are the future of the community because without the shipyard and the apprenticeship, we would have a lot of unskilled craftsmen.”
