Within the next week or so, President Trump will make the expansion of apprenticeship programs the centerpiece of his administration’s labor policy. I agree wholeheartedly with this policy and recommend John Davidson’s article to explain why. Here’s a summary of it:

  • Currently, there are millions of unfilled jobs for skilled workers across the country.
  • For too long, Americans have prized college education as the sole pathway to a respectable middle-class life.
  • Not everyone has to go to college for four years to have a productive, fulfilling career or gain entry to the middle class.
  • Keeping more of America’s youth out of our hopelessly politicized institutions of higher learning, and putting them to work as skilled laborers, might do the country real and lasting good.
  • Last year, some 13 million Americans were enrolled in four-year colleges versus only about a half-million apprentices in training.
  • Most apprenticeship programs are sponsored by industries that want to hire skilled workers. They need these workers so much they’re willing to pay them while they’re learning the skills of the trade.
  • The vast majority of apprentices have a job waiting for them—with an average salary of $60,000—when they complete their apprenticeship.