Biden Scraps Trump’s Industry-Focused Apprenticeship Program
GQ PAN
President Joe Biden,
in one of his latest executive actions, has discontinued an industry-led
apprenticeship system that was initiated under the Trump administration,
shifting the control of those programs back to the federal government.
The Trump initiative,
known as the Industry- Recognized Apprenticeship Program (IRAP), was created in
2017 as a parallel to the existing Registered Apprenticeships, which are
certified by the Labor Department or authorized state agencies. The IRAP model,
however, allowed third-party private entities, such as trade and labor groups,
to develop and certify apprenticeship programs they considered appropriate for
each industry.
The idea was that the
industry groups, rather than Washington, knew better what kind of
apprenticeship programs would meet their industry standards.
President Biden’s move
to end IRAPs will kill jobs. Period.
Rep. Virginia Foxx
Trump, when announcing
the IRAP, said federal regulations “have prevented many different industries
from creating apprenticeship programs.” He said he expected the program to
empower employers to “create apprenticeships for millions of our citizens.”
The IRAP was met with
opposition from congressional Democrats, who blocked funding, arguing that the
new apprenticeships wouldn’t be able to meet quality standards and uphold
worker protections without being overseen by the federal government. It wasn’t
until October 2020 when Raytheon Technologies, an aerospace and defense
company, announced the nation’s first IRAP.
Biden, who criticized
the IRAP as “watering down the quality of the apprenticeship system”
during his presidential campaign, signed an executive order on Feb. 17 to
revoke Trump’s June 2017 order that created the program.
“Industry-recognized
apprenticeship programs have fewer quality standards than registered
apprenticeship programs,” a White House statement explaining Biden’s order on
IRAP reads. “For example, they fail to require the wage progression that
reflects increasing apprentice skills and they lack the standardized training
rigor that ensures employers know they are hiring a worker with high-quality
training.”
Rep. Virginia Foxx
(R-N.C.), the top Republican on the House Education and Labor Committee,
condemned the scrapping of the program, calling the move “mindboggling.”
“President Biden’s
move to end IRAPs will kill jobs. Period,” Foxx said in a statement. “In the
last four months, 131 IRAPs have been created, the vast majority of which are
for nursing credentials.”
“Instead of catering
to union bosses and increasing Washington’s overreach into the private sector,
we should support and encourage efforts to cut the regulatory red tape that
stops too many employers from filling in-demand jobs,” she said. “Employer- led
apprenticeship programs account for more than 80 percent of all apprenticeship
programs nationwide. The success of these programs should come as no surprise,
employers know best what skills their employees need to excel in the workplace.”
TIMOTHY AEPPEL/REUTERS
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