The Biden administration on Nov. 27 withdrew its proposed rule that would have redefined government-registered apprenticeship programs. The rule, announced earlier this year, was opposed by both construction workers and business groups.
The US Department of Labor’s proposed rule would have based the criteria for registered programs on a new learning model centered on registered career and technical education (CTE) centers. Both business and labor groups, including the umbrella group, the Building Trades Unions of North America, opposed the change.
“This is one of those issues where we shared many of the same concerns about this proposal with our colleagues in organized labor. The proposed measure would have reduced some of the flexibilities that have made registered apprenticeship programs so effective for prepare new workers,” he says. Brian Turmail, Vice President of Public Affairs and Strategic Initiatives, Associated General Contractors of America. “We had assumed the measure would not advance in the same way under the Trump administration and were pleasantly surprised to see it wisely withdrawn by the Biden administration.”
Ben Brubeck, vice president of regulatory, labor and state affairs for the Associated Builders and Contractors, described the DOL proposal as “out of touch” with the needs of employers and workers in the construction industry. “ABC fully supports government-registered apprenticeship schemes as a key component of the construction industry’s comprehensive solution to upskilling the more than half a million new workers needed by 2024 alone, but the review of apprenticeship proposed by the DOL was … a missed opportunity to modernize and expand the apprenticeship system,” he says.
Individual specialty construction contractor groups also opposed the idea of having to establish their discipline-specific training programs as CTE.
In a letter to the Department of Labor earlier this year, the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) cited “significant concerns,” noting that the proposal’s reliance on CTEs could have detrimental effects on program groups. ‘learning like NECA and the IBEW and others who have trusted. for over 70 years, as well as the safety of apprentices and contractors.
It is unlikely that the incoming Trump administration would have continued to work on the GRAP proposal even if the Biden administration had not withdrawn it.
