In comments submitted March 12 to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), ABC expressed support for the agency’s efforts to update federal apprenticeship rules by incorporating the use of competency-based training, recognizing technological advances in the delivery of technical instruction and adding flexibility to the registration and oversight of apprentices.
“ABC has long advocated increased recognition by the Labor Department of the benefits of competency-based training in apprenticeship programs,” ABC stated. “The traditional time-based model requiring a set number of years and hours of classroom instruction for every apprentice has acted to discourage some apprentices from entering or completing their apprenticeship training, as it has been evident for some time that ‘one size does not fit all.’”
“Different apprentices learn at different speeds, depending on their personal background and intuitive skills, as well as their ability to devote more or less time to their training in the face of competing demands at work and at home. There is no reason why an apprentice who grasps the concepts of his or her craft more quickly than his co-trainees should not be allowed to proceed to higher levels more quickly or to graduate earlier from an apprenticeship program,” the comments stated.
ABC called on DOL to add flexibility to the registration and oversight process for apprentice programs, an area where labor politics have traditionally led to the exclusion of merit shop apprenticeship programs, limiting training opportunities for the 85 percent of the construction industry not represented by a labor organization.
“Unions have long recognized that restricting non-union access to apprenticeship training can be an effective means to preserve union enclaves in the construction industry,” ABC stated. “Union-sponsored restrictions on approval of new and expanded apprenticeship programs have had a direct impact on limiting the number of non-union apprenticeship opportunities throughout the country.
“The solution to the construction industry’s skill shortage can hardly be to allow entrenched union apprenticeship sponsors to continue preventing new and expanded unilateral programs from being approved. Rather, strong action from the Labor Department is needed in order to encourage and expand apprenticeship opportunities in the merit shop sector of the industry.”
For more information, contact Bob Hirsch at hirsch@abc.org.