Peters Announces Over $14 Million in Federal Grants to Expand Apprenticeships in Michigan

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) announced that the U.S. Department of Labor is providing the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity with $14,329,228 in federal grants to expand and improve apprenticeship programs. Michigan will receive $9,447,859 for Registered Apprenticeship Programs and $4,881,369 for Youth Apprenticeship Readiness Programs. Last month, Peters supported Michigan’s application for a grant to build state capacity for increasing skills training opportunities using the Registered Apprenticeship Program model, sending a letter of support to help secure this funding that will ensure these apprenticeship programs are able to continue to serve, improve and grow in participation.

“I constantly hear from workers, business owners, and students across our state about how we need to expand access to affordable education and skills training programs that connect Michiganders with good-paying jobs,” said Senator Peters. “These funds will help expand access to apprenticeship programs that provide the skills training and workforce development that give Michigan workers and businesses greater opportunity to compete and succeed.”

Michigan is one of 12 states to receive additional funding for Registered Apprenticeship Programs based on strong evidence of past performance in expanding these programs. With these additional funds, Michigan will:

• Expand registered apprenticeships in health care, mental health care, addiction treatment, or alternative pain management occupations providing support to individuals living in rural areas;
• Incorporate specific strategies to support or expand Registered Apprenticeship opportunities among all workers, including women, minorities, veterans, individuals with disabilities;
• Support system alignment and partnership through the establishment or expansion of the role of the business service representatives/apprenticeship navigators with the promotion of apprenticeship to partner systems; 
• Develop innovative technical assistance strategies/approaches for Registered Apprenticeship sponsors;
• Establish an employer incentive plan to expand or scale Registered Apprenticeships;
• Identify specific strategies to support engagement with small businesses in nontraditional industries in Registered Apprenticeships; and
• Launch sector strategies to expand Registered Apprenticeships to new industries and/or new or non- traditional occupations in existing sectors.

Youth Apprenticeship Readiness grants will allow educational entities—including traditional, alternative, and non-traditional schools; and programs that serve out-of-school youth, school boards, workforce boards, employers, workforce partners, and other apprenticeship intermediaries—to partner to develop and establish new apprenticeship models for youth or expand existing apprenticeship programs for youth. With this grant, Michigan will seek to expand opportunities to prepare 16-to-24 year old registered apprentices for careers in industries including manufacturing, information technology, cybersecurity, and health care.

Peters has successfully championed numerous efforts to help more Michiganders gain the skills needed to fill good-paying jobs. Peters’ bipartisan legislation, the Support for Veterans in Effective Apprenticeships Act, increases veterans’ access to financial assistance they can use in connection with an apprenticeship program and was signed into law by the President earlier this year. In Michigan alone, only a few hundred of the 1,000 registered apprenticeships listed as active by the Department of Labor were approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Peters also authored provisions to expand school counselor training and awareness of career and technical education opportunities that were signed into law by President Trump in 2018.

###