Authored by Zach Boren via RealClearEducation,

For the better part of a year, the Trump Administration said little about apprenticeships. Then, almost out of nowhere, it announced a $145 million funding forecast aimed at expanding Pay for Apprenticeship—one of the largest investments we’ve seen in years.

That move matters because it follows a long gap between rhetoric and reality. Early on, the President issued an Executive Order calling for one million apprentices and indicating apprenticeship as a central workforce strategy. But that ambition amounted to little more than lip service, as Biden-era apprenticeship contracts were either canceled or stagnated.

For decades, the federal government has underinvested in apprenticeships, relying instead on small, bespoke grant programs that helped grow apprenticeships by nearly 80 percent over a decade, but never at scale. That's real progress, but apprentices still make up just three-tenths of one percent of the labor force.

The Pay for Apprenticeship forecast is the first meaningful signal that the administration’s promises could be fulfilled—and perhaps finally move apprenticeships from the education margins to the mainstream.

Pay for Apprenticeship — also known as Pay for Success — ties public dollars to real results: apprentices hired, trained, and retained. In a frozen labor market, this policy focuses on what works, not what makes headlines. That makes it a welcome—and somewhat surprising—dose of pragmatism in a policy landscape often driven by ideology.

What’s actually different this time

Unlike traditional workforce grants that fund training without accountability for outcomes, Pay for Apprenticeship funds employment outcomes. Grantees are rewarded for hires and apprenticeship contracts signed—not paperwork, pilots, or press releases.

The forecast also acknowledges a basic truth long ignored in Washington: employers rarely build apprenticeship programs on their own. They rely on intermediaries—industry associations, unions, nonprofits, and technical experts—to design training, manage registration, recruit apprentices, and maintain standards. Without this infrastructure, apprenticeship policies remain aspirational rather than operational.

This funding approach mirrors what our international competitors already do. The UK, Germany, and Australia invest heavily in apprenticeship systems that share training costs and pay for results. Overseas, apprenticeships aren’t an alternative — they’re a competitive advantage and valued on par with the university track.

Why apprenticeships meet this moment

The U.S. faces acute labor shortages across critical sectors. We are short nearly one million electricians. AI and tech companies and their data centers and energy infrastructure projects are driving unprecedented demand for skilled workers.

Bachelor’s degrees, for the first time, are losing their earnings premium, even as the first rung of the career ladder disappears.

Registered Apprenticeships combine paid, on-the-job training with structured instruction, allowing workers to earn while they learn—and employers to train talent to real-time needs. Unlike college students taking on debt, apprentices are paid by their sweat, and the average graduate earns about $80,000 annually –exceeding entry-level bachelor’s degree wages. Employers see returns as well—apprenticeships deliver a positive ROI, with high retention and strong employer satisfaction.

For young men, these pathways matter even more. Today, there are three times as many men who are not in education, employment, or training (NEET) as there were in the 1980s. That is not a cyclical downturn. It is a slow-rolling structural failure. For boys underserved by the traditional classroom, apprenticeships offer a practical path forward. In fact, roughly 85 percent of American apprentices are men.

A step forward, not the finish line

This investment alone will not solve the nation’s workforce challenges—but it is a solid step in the right direction.

To meet the moment, Congress must go further, faster. A large-scale, national Pay for Apprenticeship initiative—designed to reach millions of young people over the next decade—is within reach. And, it does not require new debt. Apprentices pay taxes, and their availability reduces reliance on public assistance. They begin paying into the system almost immediately.

For too long, American society and federal policy have defaulted to a college-for-all approach, even as evidence mounted that the system was badly out of balance. When more than 90 percent of Congress has a bachelor’s degree, it should not surprise anyone that policy has repeatedly doubled down on college as the only answer. Washington’s groupthink has crowded out other proven educational paths to the middle class.

It’s time for a reset.

The $145 million Pay for Apprenticeship forecast is a good bet—but it’s not a silver bullet. If Congress builds on it, rather than treating it as a one-off, apprenticeships could finally become what they should have been all along: a central pillar of a working-class–building strategy.

And it doesn’t require more debt to get there—just pragmatic investments in our future, rather than borrowing against it. Few other workforce policies can claim this consistent result across workers, employers, and taxpayers. The evidence is clear: apprenticeships work.

Zach Boren is the Senior Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs at Apprenticeships for America.