USNews: Obama's Budget to Boost Funding for Workforce Programs

Obama's Budget to Boost Funding for Workforce Programs

The president's proposal will include billions of dollars aimed at connecting people to their first job.

President Barack Obama will make an ambitious pitch to Congress next week in his fiscal 2017 budget, asking lawmakers to approve nearly $6 billion to help more than 1 million young people gain work experience and nab their first job.

The U.S. is in the midst of the longest streak of private-sector job growth ever, according to the administration, with more than 14 million new jobs created during the past 70 months and 5 million jobs currently open?. Yet 1 in 7 young people ages 16 to 24 are either not in school or don't have a job.

"The challenge is that if employers are looking for experience, how does a young person convince a company to give her a first shot to show what she can do," Jeff Zients, director of the National Economic Council, said on a press call Wednesday afternoon.

To that end, the president's budget proposal will include a $5.5 billion request – nearly double the $3 billion included in last year's proposal – to connect people to their first jobs over the summer and throughout the year.

Read the rest of the US News article here.

U.S. and Switzerland to partner on apprenticeship program

At a June 25, 2015, press conference in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Dept. of Labor announced a collaboration with Switzerland to launch an apprenticeship program in the U.S. modeled after the Swiss vocational education system. The U.S. and Switzerland are planning to sign on July 9, 2015, a Joint Declaration of Intent to collaborate on this venture and to exchange policy information and best practices in vocational education and training.

In Switzerland, students as young as 15 sign 3- or 4-year contracts with an employer’s apprenticeship program, which pays them as they learn skills, according to Martin Dahinden, Swiss ambassador to the U.S. Two-thirds of 16-year-olds in Switzerland choose to start their careers via an apprenticeship as they attend school.

Read SHRM's full article here!

Holland Sentinel: Apprenticeship programs priority for area businesses

Excerpt from the Holland Sentinel:

In desperate need of skilled labor employees, some Holland area business have turned to apprenticeships – teaching employees the skills necessary to advance and become a certified journeyman.

The labor market in West Michigan has become slim as Ottawa County and surrounding counties are facing unemployment rates below 4 percent. In April, Ottawa County’s unemployment was 3.1 percent.

While those rates are good for the economy, it’s created a problem for area employers that need to fill vacancies.

Read the entire article here!

Yahoo Finance: 'The other 4-year degree’: Why everyone’s talking about apprenticeships

Apprenticeships are having a moment.

Youth employment rates are still abysmally low in the U.S. (for 16- to 19-year-olds, the unemployment rate is 17.9%, nearly three times the national rate) and college has never been pricier. Apprenticeships, which some have dubbed “the other four-year degree,” offer a low-cost way for young people to get jobs and an education without incurring loads of debt.

The better-looking, higher-earning sister of the internship, an apprenticeship matches workers up with employers who offer one to four years of job training. The average starting pay for apprentices is $15 an hour, double the federal minimum wage. At the end of a program, workers are rewarded with an industry-recognized certificate and, ideally, a full-time job offer.

Apprentices earn an average starting salary of $50,000 a year and go on to earn $300,000 more over their lifetime than those with just a high school diploma, according to the Department of Labor.

Read the complete article here!

Presentations from 2015 Spring Apprenticeship Conference Now Available

MEATA's 2015 Spring Apprenticeship Conference held at the UAW Black Lake Conference Center in Onaway, MI was the organization's biggest conference yet!

There were a lot of great, info-packed presentations, and now most of them are available in PDF format here on the MEATA website. To access them, click here.

MEATA News