National Apprenticeship Week - November 14 – 20, 2016

National Apprenticeship Week - November 14 – 20, 2016

                                   

This week is the second National Apprenticeship Week. We don’t know if there will be a third, since the first two were proclaimed by President Barack Obama and we don’t know what the educational and labor goals of the new Trump administration will be. On November 17, we celebrate National Women in Apprenticeship Day.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez has said, “Apprenticeships are experiencing a modern renaissance in America because the earn-while-learn model is a win-win proposition for workers looking to punch their ticket to the middle-class and for employers looking to grow and thrive in our modern global economy”

In proclaiming this week as NAW, President Obama said:

Registered apprenticeships connect job-seekers to better paying jobs that are in high demand, and by providing hands-on experiences and allowing Americans to earn while they learn, they help workers gain the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive in our modern economy. More than 90 percent of apprentices find employment after completing their programs, with graduates earning an average starting salary over $60,000. In addition to benefiting employees, apprenticeship programs also help employers by increasing productivity and innovation with a high return on investment.

A variety of industries -- from healthcare to construction to information technology and advanced manufacturing -- are using apprenticeship programs to meet their workforce needs. To bolster the competitiveness of those industries and others, it is imperative that our Nation continues investing in apprenticeship programs. Across our country, State and local leaders have done just that -- in some cases expanding apprenticeships by over 20 percent in their regions. And since 2014, 290 colleges have joined in the effort to offer college credit toward a degree for completing apprenticeship programs.

The modern apprenticeship is based on a very old system of teaching and educating young people in skilled crafts. The system of apprenticeship was first developed informally in the later Middle Ages and later came to be supervised by craft guilds and town governments. A master craftsman was entitled to employ young people (usually boys) as an inexpensive form of labor in exchange for providing food, lodging and formal training in the craft.

Today’s apprentices are trained by working with practitioners of a trade or profession through hands-on, on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and readings). Just as in the Middle Ages, the apprentice repays that learning and experience in exchange for continued labor for an agreed period after they have achieved measurable competency. A typical apprenticeship lasts for 3 to 6 years. People who successfully complete an apprenticeship reach the "journeyman" or professional certification level of competence.

Here in the United States, apprenticeships have fallen under three different federal laws. The first, the Smith-Hughes National Vocational Education Act of 1917 focused on vocational agriculture to train people "who have entered upon or who are preparing to enter upon the work of the farm," and provided federal funds for this purpose. Farming was, of course, the main occupation of much of the labor at that time.

In1933, during the Depression, the short-lived National Industrial Recovery Act authorized the President to regulate industry in an attempt to stimulate economic recovery. Much of the NIRC was declared unconstitutional in 1935, so the FDR Administration went back to the drawing board.

The US Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, the first women cabinet minister ever appointed in the United States, established the Federal Committee on Apprenticeship. Made up of representatives from federal government agencies, the commissioners were tasked to come up with recommendations for federal policies regarding apprenticeships.

In 1937, Congress passed the National Apprenticeship Act, also known as "the Fitzgerald Act," to regulate apprenticeship and on-the-job training programs. The Act established a national advisory committee whose task was to research and draft regulations to establish minimum standards for apprenticeship programs.

The Act was later amended to permit the Department of Labor to issue regulations protecting the health, safety and general welfare of apprentices, and to encourage the use of contracts in the hiring and employment of them. Later amendments to the act created regulations banning racial, ethnic, religious, age and gender discrimination in apprenticeship programs.

The apprenticeship model is an effective way to train people for the skilled jobs trades where hand-on learning is the best way to gain competency. And while schools are doing a better job of adapting this model to their programs – here in New York State, the BOCES Centers have really embraced this potential for educating students – working with a master craftsman is still the preferred method.

But just as it was in the Middle Ages, there are still gender barriers in access to apprenticeships, even though there are no legal barriers. 94% of all apprentices in federal programs are male and 51% of women leave their apprenticeship programs prior to completion as compared with 46% of men.

Women make up just 6.3% of active apprentices nationally. We can take pride that here in the Empire State, women make up 11% of these programs.

The construction industry is perhaps the heaviest user of apprenticeship programs in the country. The US Department of Labor reported 74,164 new apprentices were accepted in 2007 at the height of the construction boom. Yet women represent just 2.6% of construction workers and 2% of construction apprentices nationally.

When you consider that jobs in the skilled trades pay 20-30% more than traditionally female occupations, encouraging more women to go into apprenticeship programs makes good economic sense and cents. And union women earn more than nonunion women in every US state.

As students gain knowledge of skilled jobs through programs like career and technical classes at local Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) programs that provide work-based learning experience on job sites via internships, they can expect to find better paying jobs with 21st century work skills. With the right encouragement, many of those new skilled job workers will be young women.

Honoring and Advocating for Women Veterans on November 11

On Veterans Day we honor the service of our veterans. But we should also focus on the sacrifice and the service of our women veterans and service members. The number of female veterans has soared since 1990, from 4 percent of all veterans to 8 percent today, or about 1.8 million. More than 280,000 female soldiers have been returned from deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last decade. 

Recently Governor Cuomo signed a bill that will help New York’s women veterans economically. The Veterans’ Pension Bill expanded pension benefits to public workers who served in the military, providing a pension credit to veterans who are now New York state residents after five years of public service. Previously only veterans who have served in specific conflicts receive up to additional three years of service credit in the pension system.

Now veterans who served in Somalia, Bosnia, Haiti, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Korean DMZ who were not eligible for the military service credit, or women who served in non-combat roles, are eligible for the credit. 

Women veterans have raised concerns that the Veteran’s Administration has been slow to change. The VA’s health care system that has for generations catered almost exclusively to men has been slow to recognize needs of that the 2.3 million female veterans represent the fastest-growing population turning to the agency.

About 200,000 women are currently serving in the active duty U.S. military, about 14 percent of the military population. That number is expected to double within the next decade. There have been some real gains for women service members, especially as the military has recognized that the work-life-family balance needs to be addressed.

Through a program called the Career Intermission Program, service members can take one to three years off – while retaining benefits and receiving a small percentage of their usual monthly pay. For those who take time off, their career is effectively frozen while they are away, but they are not penalized when they come back and seek future promotions.

The Navy has doubled the maternity leave for all female service members while extending hours at Navy and Marine Corps childcare centers across those services. About 91,000 of active duty female service members were married as of January, with about 27,000 of those in the Navy and Marine Corps, so child care and maternity leave are key services.

The Army issued a service-wide breastfeeding policy, making it the last military branch to implement guidelines for supporting nursing service members with infants.

Marines have been challenged on their unconscious prejudices and presuppositions as women get the opportunity to become marine grunts for the first time. The Marine Corps rolled out mandatory training for all Marines prior to the first female rifleman hit boot camp, aiming to set conditions for a smooth transition and head off cultural resistance.

One of the visible cultural changes has been a growing understanding of the issues of women veterans as they have been elected to Congress. There are now four female combat veterans in Congress. And they have contributed to the discussions about the changing face of the Armed Forces, which is now officially open to women joining combat units across the board.

Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a former Black Hawk helicopter pilot, is newly elected to the US Senate from her House of Representatives seat. She joins Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) in the Senate. In the House, Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ), and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) have also served in the military, giving them a unique perspective on women veteran issues.

Speaking of the election, there is concern from LBGTQ Americans that the election of Donald Trump will set back the progress the country has made on social issues revolving around gender and sexuality and identity. The Pentagon had announced June 30 that it was ending the ban on transgender people’s ability to serve openly in the U.S. military.

The Pentagon also said transgender service members will receive the same medical coverage as any other military member. Service members’ health coverage will include hormone therapy and gender reassignment surgery, if doctors deem those procedures necessary. Will that policy continue under a Trump Administration?

Also in June, the U.S. Marine Corps changed more than a dozen occupational titles to make them gender-neutral as the military aims to integrate more women into combat roles. The decision removed the word "man" from 19 job titles. Roles such as "basic infantryman" and "antitank missileman" will become "basic infantry Marine" and "antitank missile gunner." Will the military continue down this path or revert to a more sexist work place?

One issue of concern to veterans and all Americans is the on-going prevalence of food insecurity among military households. Households with veterans who served since 1975 are at higher risk of food insecurity than non-veteran households and households with veterans that served prior to 1975, according to a study in Public Health Nutrition. Five percent of military households with children five years old or younger have experienced food insecurity.

Certainly the issue of sexual assault in the military (co-called friendly fire) has been getting a lot of attention under President Obama. New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has been a frequent critic of the military’s response to the issue. She released a report last May that said the military justice system remains dysfunctional in handling sexual-assault cases and only prosecuted 22 percent of the 329 cases her office reviewed as part of an investigation focusing on just four military bases.

Will the military continue to try to make progress on this and other critical issues for women and all service members under a Trump Administration? That is one of the things we’ll all be watching.