Desperate for skilled workers, a manufacturer looks to apprenticeships : NPR

CONWAY, Ark. – Caleb Moss’s workday starts early on Tuesdays and Thursdays, before the sun comes up. At 4:30 a.m., he reports to his post in tool and die at Virco Manufacturing. Under the guidance of a mentor, he turns steel into high-precision tools and molds used throughout the plant.

At 9:00 a.m., Moss leaves the plant and heads to Pulaski Technical College in North Little Rock, Ark., for a full day of instruction, beginning with math class and moving on to hands-on training on machines similar to those Moss uses on the job.

He finishes his day at 4:30 p.m. and will be paid for the hours spent in both locations.

Moss is one of two employees that Virco, a school-furniture maker known for its colorful plastic classroom chairs, plucked from other departments for three-year apprenticeships in tool and die. It’s a strategy the manufacturer has embraced as it seeks to fill critical gaps in its workforce, and one the Trump administration has made the centerpiece of its promise to bring American workers into a golden age.

Having spent a decade in lower-skilled positions at Virco, including in shipping and receiving, Moss is excited to have this chance.

“I didn’t get the opportunity to go to school because I had kids really early,” he says. “This allows me to be able to go back to school to further my education, to do better things for this company. So it’s been a really awesome thing.”

A goal of 1 million apprenticeships

More than two decades after his show The Apprentice topped the ratings chart, President Trump is betting on apprenticeships for big economic wins. Through an executive order issued last April, Trump set a goal to increase the number of active apprenticeships to 1 million, up from the current level of about 700,000.

It’s one of the few policies embraced by former President Joe Biden that Trump appears to wholeheartedly support. In his executive order, Trump writes of building on the success of apprenticeships “to seize new opportunities and unlock the limitless potential of the American worker.”

In a video on Instagram, the Labor Department went as far as to proclaim: “The new era of American dominance will be forged not by woke universities, but by the grit of our skilled workers.”

The basic idea behind apprenticeships is simple: By combining on-the-job training with classroom instruction, employers can nurture talent to fill skills gaps and give workers not just jobs but long-lasting careers. What the Trump administration and past administrations have promoted are registered apprenticeships, which meet strict government standards for training hours, formal mentorship structures, and progressive wage increases for the apprentices.

Other developed economies including Germany and Switzerland have used this “earn while you learn” model to fill workforce needs in a variety of industries. But in the U.S., the model hadn’t really taken off outside the construction trades.

That’s now changing. Federal funding has helped to grow the number of registered apprenticeships in the U.S. by close to 80% over the past decade, according to the Labor Department, with rapid expansion happening in sectors such as health care and IT.

The messaging out of the Trump administration last year gave longtime apprenticeship advocates and policy wonks hope for even brisker growth.

“If we want to build data centers, if we want to build semiconductor plants, if we’re going to invest in these huge infrastructure projects, we need the skilled workforce to do it,” says Zach Boren, who worked on apprenticeships at the Labor Department under the Obama and first Trump administrations.

But almost a year after Trump signed the executive order, there are questions, even doubts, about his level of commitment.

“We’re seeing a lot of rhetoric and not a lot of action,” says Boren, now a senior vice president with the nonprofit advocacy group Apprenticeships for America.

In fact, Boren says, some things have gone in the wrong direction. Last year, amid DOGE cuts, the Trump administration canceled millions of dollars’ worth of contracts with organizations working to grow apprenticeships in clean energy and other sectors, and also canceled grants aimed at measuring the effectiveness of apprenticeship programs.

Moreover, Trump has not asked for more money from Congress to support his goal of 1 million active apprenticeships. Appropriations have remained at $285 million every year since 2023.

Boren says to be on par with Germany and Switzerland, the U.S. should be investing billions and aiming for a far loftier goal of 4 million apprenticeships, quadruple Trump’s goal.

It would be worth it, Boren argues. A 2022 study commissioned by the Labor Department found apprenticeships yield a 144% return on investment, as employers enjoy increased productivity and lower turnover. And, he adds, the government wins too. Investments in apprenticeships have been shown to reduce workers’ reliance on social assistance programs.

“That’s really the goal of this administration and many administrations — to get people into good work and sustainable work,” Boren says. “You just can’t spend enough on giving someone purpose.”

The Trump administration’s push begins in Arkansas

In December, the Trump administration announced its first major investment in apprenticeships — $35.8 million for the American Manufacturing Apprenticeship Incentive Fund, with the bulk of that money going to employers. In a move that surprised many, the Labor Department, through a noncompetitive process, put the state of Arkansas in charge of administering the nationwide fund.

Asked about the choice, Labor Department spokesperson Courtney Parella told NPR: “Arkansas has demonstrated its experience, capacity, and strong track record needed to help administer the Department’s manufacturing apprenticeship initiative.”

In fact, Arkansas has seen a boom in registered apprenticeships since 2019, when the state created a blue-ribbon commission to address a talent gap in IT, cyber security and data analytics, combining federal and state dollars to speed the effort. More recently, Arkansas’ Republican governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, has supported expanding apprenticeships into other industries.

Now tasked with jumpstarting manufacturing apprenticeships nationwide, state officials have been busy fielding calls from all over the country.

“West Coast to East Coast, South, North, Midwest — all across the board,” says Cody Waits, executive director of Arkansas’ Division of Workforce Connections.

On offer to manufacturers anywhere in the U.S. is a $3,500 incentive for every new registered apprentice they bring on, paid to the company once the apprentice passes the 90-day mark.

“The question is, is this money enough?” says Nick Beadle, who tracked workforce dollars at the Labor Department for a decade and now works as a consultant. “The response I heard immediately from people as soon as the dollars hit the street in early February was, ‘Yeah, this isn’t going to cut it.'”

In a statement, the Labor Department stood by its approach, telling NPR: “We are confident that leveraging the recently announced pay-for-performance funding models will maximize the impact of appropriated funding and drive unprecedented growth in the number of active apprentices.”

While $3,500 covers little of the actual cost of an apprenticeship, Waits believes even a modest sum of money may be just the thing a company needs to get on board.

“Every little bit of interest helps,” says Waits. “And what we’ve recognized is when companies do adopt apprenticeship, they tend to keep it as part of their overall workforce strategy.”

Helping companies cut through the bureaucracy

There’s a big reason many companies have been reluctant to engage in apprenticeships, despite a decade of prodding from the federal government: For many employers, the phrase “registered apprenticeships” conjures up red tape. It involves a lot of paperwork, recordkeeping and possible audits by the Labor Department.

That’s where people like Lonnie Emard come in. He works for the nonprofit Apprenticely, which has helped to create some 2,500 registered apprenticeships in Arkansas since 2019, handling all the bureaucratic pieces and drawing on state, federal and private grants to bear most of the costs.

Over the past six years, Emard has worked to convince employers from Walmart to Arkansas Children’s Hospital to the wood pellet manufacturer Highland Pellets to take a chance on job candidates who don’t check all the boxes, who might not have the right degree — or any degree.

“If they’ve got the kinds of essential skills, but they don’t have some technical pieces, that’s what an apprenticeship is so good at,” he says.

Emard’s goal is getting employers to see that they’re not settling for less. In fact, they stand to gain more productive, more loyal employees.

“They’re going to have a future, and they’re going to stay,” he says.

With new technology comes new workforce needs

Among those Emard has won over in recent months is Steve Presley, Virco’s vice president and general manager. Following on the initial success of Moss’ apprenticeship in tool and die, Presley now plans to create 20 more apprenticeships in other parts of the plant.

Inside the manufacturer’s 1.2 million-square-foot production facility, Presley is excited about all the fancy new machines: A $1.5 million saw. Thirty robots that weld steel. An electrostatic powder coat booth.

Joshua Danquah Asante for NPR

The new technology is already making the plant more efficient. But with it comes a big concern.

“We’ve got to really make up a big learning curve on how to operate this equipment, maintain this equipment,” says Presley. “That’s where we’re really behind the eight ball.”

The problem is exacerbated by a wave of retirements at Virco – Presley says he’s lost 250 years’ worth of experience since the start of the year – and intense competition for skilled workers in Arkansas, including from the steel industry in the north of the state and defense contractors in the south.

“It’s a really strong economy here. And with a strong economy, there’s a lot of competition for labor,” says Presley.

Working with Apprenticely, Presley has come up with a plan to train more employees to operate the high-tech machines, so that if one employee is out and a robot crashes, downtime can be minimized. Moss, the tool and die apprentice, will have a role there, too. Once he finishes his training, Presley says, he’ll be able to disassemble the robot, diagnose the problem, remake the broken part, and get the robot running again.

“He was already a valuable employee,” says Presley. “But … this is honestly more critical than what he was doing before.”

Joshua Danquah Asante for NPR

The road to 1 million

The total number of active apprenticeships in the U.S. fluctuates as apprentices start and finish their training. According to Labor Department data, the pace of growth in fiscal year 2025 dipped slightly from the year before. Still, the White House projects growth under the Trump administration to accelerate as more investments are made.

Currently, the Labor Department is running a competitive process to award $145 million aimed at growing apprenticeships in key sectors such as IT, artificial intelligence, health care, shipbuilding and defense.

At best, Boren believes those funds might create somewhere between 35,000 and 50,000 apprenticeships.

“That’s not going to get us to a million,” he says.

And much could depend on the economy. A disappointing February jobs report showed employers shed 92,000 jobs over the month, including in both manufacturing and construction.

“Historically, when layoffs begin, training and workforce development are often the first items cut from company budgets,” Boren notes.

From his perch overseeing the manufacturing incentive fund, Waits is more optimistic. He points to Virco’s plan to grow from two apprenticeships to 20.

“Think about how many Vircos there may be across the country, right?” he says. “You do that enough times, you get a million apprentices.”