WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) yesterday spoke on the Senate floor to recognize National Apprenticeship Week, which was created to help business leaders, educators, community based organizations, students, and workers learn about the real-world advantages of apprenticeships. 1,100 Delawareans are actively working through apprenticeship programs.
Full audio and video of Senator Coons’ speech available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDtau3ZlqD0&feature=youtu.be
Excerpt from Senator Coons’ remarks:
“In this body we often discuss the importance of, and the value of expanding early childhood education, strengthening our public schools, and making college more affordable. Indeed these investments are critical. But let’s not forget about what I call, ‘the other four-year degree.’ It’s a degree that guarantees you a well-paying job and a career path after graduation. It’s a degree that gives you experience that employers demand and teaches you skills that last a lifetime. It’s a degree that provides a paycheck even while you’re still in school and it’s a degree that leaves you debt-free. Where’s the catch? Well you might have to wake up early every day, might have to work nights and weekends, you’ll definitely have to complete thousands of hours of hands-on, on-the-job training and four, five years of work in your trade. And in many apprenticeship programs, if you miss even a few days of work – that’s it – you’re done. On-the-job training, years of work experience, and a limited number of absences doesn’t sound like a typical college curriculum, and it’s not. It’s an apprenticeship.”
Senator Coons’ full remarks:
“Mr. President,
“I rise today to shine a spotlight on apprenticeships. One of our nation’s oldest forms of education and one of the smartest investments we can make as a nation.
“This week, the week we’re in the middle of right now, this very week, is National Apprenticeship Week, and I am honored to be joined today by Senator Franken, who will also be making remarks in support of the value of apprenticeships.
“In this body we often discuss the importance of, and the value of expanding early childhood education, strengthening our public schools, and making college more affordable.
“Indeed these investments are critical. But let’s not forget about what I call, ‘the other four-year degree.’
“It’s a degree that guarantees you a well-paying job and a career path after graduation.
“It’s a degree that gives you experience that employers demand and teaches you skills that last a lifetime.
“It’s a degree that provides a paycheck even while you’re still in school and it’s a degree that leaves you debt-free.
“Where’s the catch? Well you might have to wake up early every day, might have to work nights and weekends, you’ll definitely have to complete thousands of hours of hands-on, on-the-job training and four, five years of work in your trade. And in many apprenticeship programs, if you miss even a few days of work that’s it – you’re done.
“On the job training, years of work experience, and a limited number of absences doesn’t sound like a typical college curriculum, and it’s not. It’s an apprenticeship.
“Broadly defined, apprenticeships are programs that train workers in highly skilled occupations by providing instruction, and on the job training.
“After apprentices complete their programs they receive journeyman papers and are set up for a job with the employer, the union, or the association that sponsored the program. These programs are long, challenging and competitive. And an appropriate question at the outset is, “Do they work?”
“Well ask Ed Woodrum, an instructor at the Carpenter’s Joint Apprenticeship Center in New Castle, Delaware.
“Ed tells the story of Scotty. Scotty is a Delawarean who was literally living on the streets, destitute, who was blessed to land an opportunity through the Challenge Program, a not-for-profit skills and rehabilitation program in Wilmington I know well and have always supported and have enjoyed seeing the impact of their work, both for the materials they produce, and for the impact in the lives of the young men and women they train.
“The carpenters have a partnership with the Challenge Program, and through that relationship; Scotty began working as an apprentice with the Carpenters.
“Fast-forward to today, years later, Scotty is still a journeyman with the Carpenters, he recently got engaged, he owns a car, and he is living in a townhouse in Wilmington. So do apprenticeship programs work? In Scotty’s case, it transformed his life.
“If you want to know if they really work, ask Jim Maravelias with Laborers Local 199. The Laborers’ apprenticeship program requires 4,000 hours in the field and at least five core classes in heavy construction, though most apprentices take over a dozen classes in that time.
“Jim has seen his Laborers journeymen, men and women, take on leadership and management roles in construction as foremen, or shop stewards or business agents. Jim knows how important apprenticeships are, not only for the construction industry, but for the lives and the futures of the Delawareans who are so deeply affected, positively, by their apprenticeship experiences.
“As Jim puts it, through these apprenticeships, “We offer them a career, not just a job.”
“So do apprenticeship programs work?
“Ask Tony Papili, my friend from the Glasgow area who runs Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 74.
“Fresh out of college, with traditional Bachelor’s degree himself, Pip went back to school as an apprentice. Today, Pip knows from firsthand experience how valuable apprenticeship programs are, which is why Local 74 trains fitters and plumbers, HVAC-certified technicians, welders, and instrument technicians.
“Local 74’s program is no cakewalk. Once an applicant is accepted, they commit to five years of night classes, on top of the 8,500 hours they’ll spend in the field, learning their trade before becoming a journeyman.
“Apprenticeship programs aren’t just difficult, they’re competitive too. Take the program at IBEW 313 in New Castle, Delaware, of which Doug Drummond is one of the leaders and trustees. The IBEW’s apprenticeship program is the largest in Delaware today with 120 active apprentices.
“Every year 313’s apprenticeship program has 2,500 applicants competing for just one of 24 open spots. That’s a 1% acceptance rate.
“The Fitters, the Electricians, the Carpenters, and these programs are just some of the 1,100 Delawareans actively working through apprenticeship programs with lots of different businesses, unions and organizations.
“Last year my home state saw 119 apprentices complete their programs and get their journeyman papers. So far, 109 have gotten their papers this year and we want to see those numbers continue to steadily rise.
“Right now across the entire country, over 440,000 aspiring journeymen are working through apprenticeship programs, knowing if they put in the time and effort, they’ll earn an opportunity to unlock a steady, high-paying job.
“On average, the starting salary for an apprentice is $50,000, which is several thousand dollars more than the average starting salary for a college graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree, and typically with no debt as an apprentice.
“The benefits of an apprenticeship program are sustainable. Over the course of their career, American workers who have completed an apprenticeship program can expect to earn $300,000 more than their peers who don’t go through a comparable program. If that isn’t a ticket to the middle class, I don’t know what is. So I just want to commend today the 150,000 employers across this whole country who host apprentices, who partner with apprenticeship programs.
“Businesses aren’t doing it as a public service, they’re investing in apprentices because the typically get a $1.50 in return for every $1 they invest.
“Tony Papili and the members of Local 74 pay for their own apprenticeship program out of pocket. They take money that would otherwise go to a pay raise or their benefits and put it back into the program.
“The electricians at Local 313 put in over a million of hours of work every year, and for every hour they work, they put 55 cents back into their apprenticeship program.
“These are significant investments, and more importantly they are smart investments, helping to fill a much-needed gap in the American workforce with high-quality, high-paying jobs and by helping train workers for skilled trades and the vital manufacturing jobs of this century.
“Strengthening America’s 21st-century workforce is essential to the competiveness of our economy in the world today, and to the continued revitalization of our manufacturing sector. That’s why it’s one of the four core pillars of the Manufacturing Jobs for America Initiative, which includes a number of additional proposals to strengthen career development and on-the-job training programs.
“Last year’s reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which was a real win for job training programs across the county, included five different policy ideas, many of them bipartisan, which came from the Manufacturing Jobs for America Initiative.
“And I’d like to see this momentum continue by making a sustained commitment to expanding apprenticeship programs. The thousands of hours of on the job experience produced journeymen with a keen understanding of the techniques and tools they need to do their jobs and it makes them safer, more skilled, and more productive employees.
“Employers know this too. Electrical contractors in Delawaare are hiring journeymen straight out of the IBEW’s apprenticeship program because they know they’re well trained, well-equipped and ready to work. Same for the pipefitters. As Pip says, he’s training apprentices to be “smarter and better skilled than the last generation.” But he adds, “ I don’t think people realize what we do to train these young men and women to become journeymen in the field.”
“Pip’s right. That’s why my first stop after I get off the five o’clock train I’m taking home to Wilmington tonight is a trade and apprenticeship open house at Delcastle High School.
“I urge my colleagues to learn more about the apprenticeship programs in your states. Go and visit employers who depend on apprentices. Talk to your constituents who have gone through these programs and I know you’ll be impressed.
“Mr. President, too often we define education too narrowly here.
“We talk about education as a ticket to the middle class, but we often don’t include apprenticeship programs, and that has to change. Apprenticeship programs work.
“Ed Woodrum with the carpenters sees it as simple math. He describes apprenticeship programs, as “opportunity plus resources plus support, which equals changed lives.” And Ed’s right.
“That’s why I’m so proud to join Senator Franken in co-sponsoring Sen. Murray’s bipartisan resolution honoring the inaugural National Apprenticeship Week this week.
“I’m also proud to join President Obama and Delaware’s-own Vice President Joe Biden in support of their goal to double the number of apprenticeships in five years, a goal all of us should share.
“I especially want to recognize and thank the Vice President for his effective and long leadership in reviewing our nations job training programs and finding ways to meaningfully improve them.
“I commend the Administration’s efforts to expand access to registered apprenticeships that make it easier for apprentices to turn their experience into college credit.
“You know, besides apprenticeships there’s very few other federal programs we know that are estimated to return $27 in economic productivity for every dollar which we invest.
“Budgets are tight today and we are all looking for smart, cost-effective investments that will create jobs and that can help revitalize manufacturing. That’s why apprenticeship programs deserve our continued support.
“Before I yield the floor Mr. President, I simply wanted to thank my colleague, Senator Franken, for his passionate, engaged and sustained leadership in making sure that community colleges and apprenticeship programs work for the working men and women of this country, and to help create new opportunities for manufacturing jobs that are high skill, high wage and high quality for folks all over this country.”
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