In May 2018, the President’s Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion published its final report and recommendations to the President. The task force, chaired by Secretary Acosta, acknowledged that “apprenticeships have gained prominence as a proven training model for workers, yet they have not necessarily been an “easy sell” for businesses.” The report aimed to address this in part by introducing a new Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship approach. Among the report’s recommendations were to:
- Expansion of traditional work-and-learn models to incorporate the criteria of modern apprenticeship, including core components such as:
- Blended learning;
- Credit for prior learning;
- A focus on mastery and competency rather than seat time;
- Portable, industry-recognized credentials;
- Structured mentorship; and
- Paid work experience.
- Piloting an Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship program in an industry without well-established Registered Apprenticeship program.
- Consolidate the development of foundational, core curricula in each sector and “open source” it for learning providers.
- Evaluating all federal workforce development programs according to a robust set of criteria and realigning funding for underperforming programs to Industry-Recognized Apprenticeships.
The full report can be downloaded here: https://www.dol.gov/apprenticeship/docs/task-force-apprenticeship-expansion-report.pdf.
