Just under 8,000 workers in Maryland are learning their trade or profession as apprenticeships – and 85 percent of those apprentices are learning a construction trade – like electricians or masons. Those statistics match the national picture across the U.S. The relatively few apprenticeships that exist are heavily concentrated in unionized construction trades.
That picture may be changing in Maryland and across the country. There’s renewed interest in a system, common in Europe, that helps workers earn while they learn new skills and enter their career without a load of student dent. And, businesses that haven’t used apprenticeships before are testing whether it can help them create a workforce with the skills businesses need.
Those are topics that will be discussed at the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, when it kicks off its national convention in Baltimore today.
With Sheilah in the studio is Susan Crane, executive director of "SkillUp Washington" in Seattle, a collaborative connects employers, post-secondary training, and low-income adults. She’s chairing a panel about apprenticeships at the national conference. Also with us is Maryland’s new labor secretary, Kelly Shultz, who head Maryland’s Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation.
