The U.S. House of Representatives is now in recess until September 5. Before they left last week, the House Education and the Workforce Committee held a hearing on apprenticeship. We’ll recap the hearing, a couple bills that were introduced in the last month and provide information on how to receive news about what is happening in the world of higher education data below.
House Hearing Highlights Different Approaches to Earn and Learn
On Wednesday, July 26, the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development held a hearing on “Expanding Options for Employers and Workers Through Earn-and-Learn Opportunities.” The hearing included testimony from Mike Bennett (Vice President, Cianbro), Robert Peglow (Student at Kentucky Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (KYFAME), Rob Hogan (Vice President of Manufacturing and Material Distribution, Newport News Shipbuilding) and Stacey Johnson Hughes (State Chair, KYFAME). Most members’ questions of the witnesses focused on the components of registered apprenticeships and other industry-led programs that provide opportunities to earn and learn. Many of the witnesses mentioned the importance of employer and industry engagement in their programs and how their programs intentionally connect local K-12 schools and postsecondary institutions. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) asked about those connections specifically and highlighted the recent House-passed bill to reauthorize the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (Perkins) and how it promotes work-based learning opportunities, including apprenticeship. To learn more about the connections between apprenticeships and secondary CTE, check out the resources from Advance CTE and the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE) here, including two videos.
In Case You Missed It: House Introduces CTE Legislation
On June 21, Rep. Pocan (D-WI) introduced H.R. 2933, the Leveraging Effective Apprenticeships to Rebuild National Skills (LEARNS) Act, which would:
- “Support closer alignment between registered apprenticeship programs, employers and other program sponsors offering good jobs,
- Increase the attainment of recognized postsecondary credentials by program participants,
- Create national standards for registered apprenticeship programs, and
- Establish a permanent advisory council at the Department of Labor to oversee the actions and implementation of registered apprenticeship programs”
Find more about the bill in the press release here.
On June 30, Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) introduced H.R.3137, the Promoting Women in STEM Act, which would amend Perkins to “require existing state programs funded by the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education (Perkins) Act to include programs that increase participation of women in STEM fields” by adding support for these programs to the list of required uses of state leadership funds.
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Kathryn Zekus, Senior Associate for Federal Policy