What Three High Schoolers Have to Say on the Transformative Impact of Youth Apprenticeships: A recent article by the Brookings Institution described the impact of youth apprenticeships on the employment and postsecondary outcomes of high school students. Specifically, a panel of students shared their experiences and takeaways from the Indianapolis Modern Apprenticeship program. The first two cohorts of this youth apprenticeship included 78 students and 40 employers in diverse fields such as health care, advanced manufacturing, information technology and financial services. The youth apprentices shared that their experiences helped them make more informed postsecondary choices and even helped one young woman earn a scholarship. However, they faced challenges navigating between school, work and extracurricular activities, which can be helped by flexibility from teachers, supervisors and counselors; transportation supports; and preparation activities like mock interviews.

State Funding Models to Support Youth Apprenticeships: Advance CTE and the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA) recently produced a report evaluating state-level youth apprenticeship funding models and systems across the nation and describing sustainable funding strategies to embed youth apprenticeship within states’ career preparation systems. A survey of state CTE directors found that youth apprenticeships are typically funded by block and competitive grants, formula distribution, performance-based funding and allocation to intermediaries, with competitive grants and formula distributions as the most common funding models. Additionally, only eight states reported having dedicated funding for secondary youth apprenticeship programs. The report includes case studies of youth apprenticeship funding in Wisconsin, Utah, Michigan and Georgia.

Decoding the CareerWise Youth Apprentice Journey: The Harvard Business School recently released a report analyzing the success of the Colorado CareerWise Youth Apprenticeship program, which launched its first cohort in 2017. This apprenticeship program was created in partnership with business leaders, education innovators, public officials and other leaders. So far, this program has seen more than 1,400 apprentices hired by over 120 employers. The researchers found that nearly two-thirds of CareerWise students progress to postsecondary education, the workforce or both, with 20% of program participants becoming retained apprentices with the same employer and 27% becoming dedicated postsecondary students. In addition, the researchers found the following:

• Apprentices who are interested in remaining in the career field or industry in which they are apprenticing are much more likely to persist and complete the experience.
• Registered Apprenticeships have higher retention rates than other apprenticeship programs.
• Apprentices are more likely to complete financial services, IT and advanced manufacturing tracks, while business operations and health care tracks have lower retention rates.
• Apprentices from high-poverty schools and Black apprentices are more likely to leave the program in the first year.

Teacher Apprenticeships Are Booming in The Wake of Shortages: Teacher apprenticeship and residency programs across the United States are gaining popularity and momentum as a promising solution to the teacher pipeline problem. Education Week recently released an article detailing the most important facts that leaders and advocates should be aware of as these programs continue to boom. There are currently 16 states with U.S. Department of Labor Registered Apprenticeship programs for teachers across the country, which opens the opportunity for federal funding to pay for tuition assistance, wages, textbooks and other supportive services. Teacher apprenticeship programs can serve as powerful tools for reducing barriers to entering the teaching field and are often designed for paraprofessionals or high school students with an interest in teaching, with the idea of recruiting individuals who are rooted in a community. Research indicates that teacher apprenticeship and residency models help teachers stay in the field longer and lead to positive student outcomes.

While both chambers of Congress were in session this week, only a few votes were held. The House did vote on the Republican debt limit package, the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 (H.R. 2811), and it passed on a party-line vote of 217-215. The package proposes significant cuts to non-defense discretionary spending and limits on future spending, which could impact education and workforce development programs. As this discussion continues, ACTE is continuing to communicate with congressional staff and stakeholders about the potential impact of these cuts and advocate for the highest possible levels of education spending. The House will be out of session next week, but the Senate is expected to continue discussions around this bill and the debt limit more broadly. In the meantime, here are some news and notes from the week:

• College Scorecard Update: The Department of Education has announced enhancements to the College Scorecard, including data on the median earnings of former graduates four years after completion of their requisite field of study; new demographic data, including race/ethnicity data for full-time staff and student-to-faculty ratios; and greater information for prospective graduate students on fields of study, earnings and student debt trends. Visit the College Scorecard here.

• House Small Business Committee Holds Hearing on Strengthening Small Business: On April 26, the House Committee on Small Business’s Subcommittee on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Workforce Development held a hearing titled “Help Wanted: Exploring How Alternative Paths to Student Debt Can Help to Strengthen Small Business.” The hearing featured several workforce development advocates that discussed a variety of career opportunities for students, and how CTE can help provide these opportunities. Read more about the hearing here.

• National Apprenticeship Act of 2023 Introduced: On April 25, House Education and the Workforce Committee Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA) and Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) introduced the National Apprenticeship Act of 2023. Read more about the bill here.

• Coalition Partner Sends Letter on FY 2024 Appropriations: This week, the Campaign to Invest in America’s Workforce (CIAW), one of ACTE’s coalition partners, sent a letter calling on Congress to support robust funding for education and workforce development programs in FY 2024. ACTE joined the letter in support.

• National Apprenticeship System Enhancements Listening Session: On May 5, the Department of Labor will host a National Apprenticeship System Enhancements Listening Session at 3:00pm EST. You can register for the listening session here.

• HELP Committee Approves Julie Su’s Nomination as Secretary of Labor: On April 26, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee votedto favorably report the nomination of U.S. Deputy Secretary of Labor Julie Su to serve as U.S. Secretary of Labor. It was a party-line 11-10 vote, and the future of her nomination is uncertain.

• Members of Congress Re-introduce College Transparency Act: On April 27, the College Transparency Act (CTA) was reintroduced in the House and Senate by a large group of lawmakers. The bill would improve the information available about postsecondary programs and outcomes and ease information sharing. ACTE has endorsed the legislation again this Congress.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE) recently held its second webinar series on equity titled Equity in Career-Connected Education: Advancing Economic Mobility.

The first webinar in the series, Work-based Learning Opportunities for Native American Students, featured guests from the Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC) Employment and Training Services Department such as Megan Mielke, the organization’s Youth Services Manager. This series opener covered how CITC provides work-based learning opportunities to learners through its Youth Services Program, which serves individuals aged 14-24 by assisting them in finding employment, furthering education and identifying leadership development opportunities. More specifically, this program provides students with the opportunity to engage in a 10-to-12-week paid internship in which they are employed by Cook Inlet or with a partner employer. Other services provided by the Youth Services Program include assistance with postsecondary education, GED completion, work-readiness training, career assessment, resume and cover letter writing, and interview coaching, among other activities.

The second webinar of the series titled Second Chance Pell and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) featured Kathie Stromile Golden, Ph.D., Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Rochelle McGee-Cobbs, Ph.D., Lead Official of PEPP at Mississippi Valley State University (MVSU). In this webinar, speakers discussed MVSU’s Prison Educational Partnership Program (PEPP) with the federal government designed to offer incarcerated students the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree. MVSU will be the first HBCU in the state to provide postsecondary education to incarcerated learners. The program aims to advance enrollees’ educational attainment levels to improve employment prospects once released from prison, reduce their odds of recidivating and increase their levels of civic engagement and self-esteem. Students can pick from one of three majors with different concentrations: Business Administration, Computer and Information Science and Engineering Technology.

Lastly, the third webinar in the series was titled Michigan Vocational Village and the Second Chance Pell Grant and featured Heather Gay, the Education Manager for the Michigan Department of Corrections. This webinar focused on Michigan’s unique model for prisoner education, rehabilitation and preparation for release. Michigan uses vocational villages for its skilled trades training program, a first-of-its-kind format that aims to provide learning opportunities through CTE. Currently, three facilities throughout the state have a vocational village on-site. Prisoners who participate in the vocational village are housed together to create a positive learning environment. They have full days of training and classroom instruction to mimic a typical workday and upon completion of their courses, they receive state and nationally recognized certifications in their trade of choice. A total of 1,580 villagers have been paroled since 2016, with a 70% employment rate for graduates and only 193 recidivists.

On April 26, the House Committee on Small Business’s Subcommittee on Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Workforce Development held a hearing titled “Help Wanted: Exploring How Alternative Paths to Student Debt Can Help to Strengthen Small Business,” featuring workforce development advocates that discussed a variety of career opportunities for students, , and how CTE can help provide these opportunities.

Subcommittee Chairman Marc Molinaro (R-NY) opened the hearing with a reminder of the value of CTE. “In addition to being shorter and less expensive than a traditional four-year degree, CTE represents a complete range of career fields across the entire economy, and is driven by the needs and demands of employers, said Chairman Molinaro. “Preparing students with the technical skills needed to obtain high-paying, in-demand jobs will prove to be crucial to bridging our nation’s skills and workforce gap.”

Subcommittee Ranking Member Morgan McGarvey (D-KY) called attention to the significant workforce needs created by new federal investments. “It is estimated that in 2023 alone, the construction industry will have to recruit 546,000 workers on top of its regular pace of hiring – just to keep up with demand. As we implement the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act over the next decade, the demand for workers will continue to grow,” said Ranking Member McGarvey. “Whether we are talking about apprenticeships, CTE or any other workforce development initiative, it is imperative that we look for ways to incentivize their use and make them more attractive to new demographics of workers.”

Meloni Raney, President and CEO of TEXO, which aims to unify, advocate and advance the construction industry in North and East Texas said in response to Chairman Molinaro that "There's a perception issue with construction.” TEXO is working to change these perceptions by providing salary ranges for construction trades jobs and offering examples to students that construction is an inclusive career field. Raney also emphasized the importance of industry partnerships and Perkins funding.

“CTE programs are expensive to administer and fund, with cost-intensive classrooms and equipment, and quality CTE instructors in short supply. This is especially true in construction where there is a shortage of quality instructors, as they are often recruited to work in the private sector at higher salary levels than school districts can provide. The modest funding increases for the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins) in recent years is a good start, as it’s the primary source of federal support for CTE programs.”

“If we’re active in the schools and we build relationships with these students for four years, they are coming into our industry,” said Raney. “We have a school that sends us about 25 welders every single year that graduate and they come into our industry. But that is a very specific school that we targeted and that we are in partnership with for four years to get those graduates. So, we are seeing glimmers. What we have to do is get a scalable approach.”

Additionally, other witnesses spoke of the challenges of finding qualified workers to fill positions in vital industries in their states, labor regulations and the immense benefits of apprenticeship in the construction trades.

You can watch the full hearing here.

The Career and Technical Education Research Network (CTERN) is now accepting applications for the 2023 CTE Research Training Institute, which will be held virtually August 7-11.

The training institute takes place over the span of five days and supports researchers with an interest in CTE and quantitative experience. Early-career researchers and individuals from underrepresented backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Those who are selected to be a part of the training institute will
receive a $500 stipend and a Certificate of Training from the Institute of Education Sciences upon successful completion.

The deadline to apply is May 22, 2023. A doctoral degree or enrollment in a doctoral program is preferred but not required. Further requirements for eligibility include the following:

• Possess some training in quantitative research methods (for example, linear regression)
  
• Have experience using Stata and/or R for statistical analysis 
• Work in academia (faculty or graduate student) or at an organization that conducts education research (for example, an applied research organization or state agency) 
• Show a demonstrated interest in CTE evaluation research 
• Be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident 

The course will cover topics such as an introduction to CTE policies and theories, randomized control trials for CTE research, causal research design, regression discontinuity designs and many more. To learn more and apply, visit the CTERN Research Institute application page.  

ACTE is one of the Network leads, supporting CTERN’s goal to increase the number and quality of CTE impact evaluations and strengthen the field’s research capacity. 

Congress returned from recess on Monday, April 17, and most of their focus was on appropriations hearings, judicial nomination issues and congressional Republicans’ debt ceiling proposal, which you can read more about below. Both chambers will be back in session next week as well, where the House in particular is expected to continue discussions on the debt limit proposal and potentially hold a vote. As we wait to learn more, here are some news and notes:

• FY 2024 Appropriations Update: Earlier his week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) released House Republicans’ debt limit proposal. It would raise the national debt limit in exchange for significant cuts to non-discretionary defense spending and limiting future spending. Specifically, it would roll spending back to at least FY 22 levels and limit growth to 1% per year over the next 10 years. These cuts could have detrimental impact on education and workforce development programs, including Perkins. Speaker McCarthy plans to hold a House vote on the bill by the end of next week. You can read a copy of the debt limit proposal here.

• Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Secretary of Education Cardona at Axios Summit: Earlier this week, House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona attended Axios’s Skills Summit, where they discussed their respective focuses on skills-based hiring. Both Secretary Cardona and Chairwoman Foxx shared that institutes of higher education, including two-year colleges, must evolve to meet workforce demands amid changing economic conditions. Both also emphasized the importance of industry partnerships. Read more from their comments at Axios here.

• Federal Register Publishes Notice on National CTE Research Study: The Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences has released the second draft of two surveys that will be conducted in 2023 to collect information about CTE policy and program implementation under Perkins V: a survey of all state directors of CTE, and a nationally representative sample of district coordinators of CTE. Comments on the surveys must be submitted by May 22, 2023. Read more from the Federal Register notice here.

• Introducing Senator Ted Budd, New Co-Chair of Senate CTE Caucus: On April 21, ACTE and Advance CTE announced that Sen. Ted Budd will become the new co-chair of the bipartisan Senate CTE Caucus! He will be taking the place of former Sen. Rob Portman, who retired at the end of last Congress. He had helped to lead the Senate CTE Caucus for 11 years. Read more about the announcement here.

• Secretary of Education Cardona Testifies Before House Appropriations Subcommittee: Earlier this week, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies to discuss the Biden-Harris Administration’s fiscal year 2024 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education. Cardona was also asked about his support for extending Pell grants to short-term workforce programs. Read more about the hearing here.

• National Science Foundation Director Emphasizes Workforce Development in Budget Hearing: During testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Sethuraman Panchanathan emphasized the importance of rapid workforce development investments and scaling training programs to fill jobs created by investments in key industries, such as manufacturing, semiconductor research and development, and infrastructure. Read more about the hearing here.

• OCTAE Blog Recognizing Community Colleges: Assistant Secretary Amy Loyd of the Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education (OCTAE) published a blog post celebrating community college during National Community College Month. Read the blog here.

• Department of Labor Announces Funding to Attract and Retain Women in Registered Apprenticeships and Nontraditional Occupations: The Department of Labor Women’s Bureau Director Wendy Chun-Hoon and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced a $5 million funding opportunity during the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America tour. Funding would be available to help increase gender equity in apprenticeships and nontraditional occupations for up to 14 grant recipients. Read more about the funding here.

• Department of Labor Announces Job Training Grants and Services for Rural Communities: The Department of Labor has announced $44.2 million in funding in Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities (WORC) initiative demonstration grants. The WORC initiative seeks to address persistent economic distress and create pathways to high-quality careers for people living or working in the Appalachian, Lower Mississippi Delta and Northern Border regions, helping them to remain and thrive in these communities. In concert with community partnerships, the initiative aligns with existing economic and workforce development plans to support local and regional workforces’ employment and training needs. Read more about the funding here.

On April 21, ACTE and Advance CTE announced that Sen. Ted Budd will become the new co-chair of the bipartisan Senate CTE Caucus! He will be taking the place of former Sen. Rob Portman, who retired at the end of last Congress. He had helped to lead the Senate CTE Caucus for 11 years.

Sen. Budd represents North Carolina in the U.S. Senate. First elected to the Senate in November 2022, he previously represented North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District from 2017-2023. He is a member of the Senate Health, Labor, Education and Pensions Committee, and a strong supporter of workforce development and expanding access to CTE programs in Congress.

The Senator also currently serves as a member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and Senate Committee on Armed Services. He is a graduate of Appalachian State University, Dallas Theological Seminary and Wake Forest University.

ACTE looks forward to a strong relationship with Sen. Budd and his staff as we work together to provide more opportunities in CTE for learners across the country. Read our press release announcing Sen. Budd as the new co-chair here.