ABBRA Visits White House to Tout Need for Apprenticeships

In November, a group of ten small and medium-sized employers, including Pam Lendzion, executive director of the American Boat Builders and Repairers Association (ABBRA), met at the White House with officials from the U.S. Departments of Labor and Commerce to discuss apprenticeships and work-based learning initiatives and needs.

The employers shared stories of the challenges businesses face in finding skilled workers and the need to get more potential employees into training programs. They discussed the president’s executive order, “Expanding Apprenticeships in America” and the JOBS Act. The former can simplify the process for developing and expanding work-based learning programs, and the latter would extend Pell Grant eligibility to those in job training programs. The Promoting Apprenticeships through Regional Training Networks for Employers’ Required Skills (PARTNERS) Act was also discussed. The act would establish a grant program to help small and medium sized businesses develop work-based learning programs recognizing that there is a skills gap for jobs that require more than a high school diploma, but less than a four-year degree. Known as middle skill jobs, these jobs represent 53 percent of the labor market but only 43 percent of workers are trained at this level.

In a press release, ABBRA said that it is critical for business leaders to tell the story about how policies such as these support not just the needs of their industry, but the needs of workers back home.