May 10, 2018 – NABTU Statement on Administration’s Efforts to Expand Industry Regulated Apprenticeship Programs
North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) supports the Administration’s efforts to expand apprenticeship into industries that currently lack this important form of workforce training. As an industry with over 100 years of experience in establishing a world-class apprenticeship and training infrastructure, we know first-hand that high quality, registered apprenticeship programs provide reliable pathways to middle class careers and long-term economic security. The hundreds of thousands of hardworking American men and women in the building and construction industry can attest to this.
NABTU appreciates and welcomes the continued opportunity to impart our experience and expertise on successful apprenticeship models. We will remain fully engaged in the establishment of “Industry Regulated Apprenticeship Programs” to ensure rigor and quality while mitigating any potential negative impacts to the apprenticeship brand – especially to NABTU and our contractor partners’ $1 billion collectively bargained investment in construction apprenticeship training.
In 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that there were 190,000 new apprentices nationwide – across all sectors of the economy. Of that total, NABTU is proud that one-third of these new apprentices began their training in our joint labor-management training programs in the construction industry – a longstanding partnership between our unions and our contractor partners.
