Manufacturing Apprenticeships

The Trump administration promises to train millions of Americans for jobs in high-tech manufacturing. Apprenticeship will be part of the solution if the industry expands, including creative takes like a new apprenticeship degree in Tennessee. Also, essays on how to fix credential chaos, and on the CredLens experiment.

On-Ramps to Advanced Manufacturing

It remains unclear if President Trump’s on-and-off tariffs are intended to “reshore” U.S. manufacturing capacity. But the escalating trade war has elevated questions over whether more Americans would want to work in factories, and who might train workers for those potential jobs.

Tariffs will drive a “renaissance of manufacturing in America,” Howard Lutnick, the U.S. secretary of commerce, said during a recent blitz of interviews. He predicted that the beneficiaries will include millions of Americans without college degrees, who will be trained to run and maintain robots in high-tech manufacturing plants.

“We’re going to do the greatest set of training ever. Our high school–educated people, they’re going to train to do robotics mechanics,” Lutnick said on Fox News, adding that the roles will pay well. “We’re going to have 5M of those jobs coming.”

He said a surge of private investment would help fuel employment gains for an industry that currently employs 13M people—about 10% of the U.S. workforce. However, some indicators suggest the tariffs may be hurting business conditions for certain manufacturing firms.

The White House also has sought to cut federal workforce programs and other incentives for the industry. For example, the Commerce Department said this month that it would eliminate Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers in 10 states, then later reversed that decision. President Trump also has called for the repeal of the CHIPS and Science Act, which seeks to bring semiconductor production to the U.S.

If manufacturing employment does surge in this country, developing the job-training pipeline won’t be easy. The industry already has 462K unfilled job openings.

Community colleges and workforce-development organizations have long struggled with a lack of interest in factory roles. Many young people view those jobs as dirty and dangerous. Some are wary of an industry that in recent decades saw waves of layoffs.

“Manufacturing is a lot like the boogeyman,” Tony Davis, national director of the Manufacturing Institute’s Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education, tells reporter Lauren Coffey. “It’s scary because you don’t know what’s in that nondescript building at the edge of town. We’ve got to get better.”

Apprenticeship Degrees for Manufacturing: A consensus holds that it’s important to start early by exposing students to the upsides of advanced manufacturing, ideally in middle school, so they can see what those careers really look like.

Another strategy is getting creative with on-ramps to good jobs in the industry. The University of Tennessee system is trying to do that with a newly approved apprenticeship program in advanced manufacturing, Coffey reports for Work Shift—one that leads to a bachelor’s degree. (Joe Ross, president of Reach University, recently wrote about the apprenticeship degree model.)

The Tennessee system offers one the nation’s largest apprenticeship programs for teachers. But demand for workers across the state in manufacturing and healthcare led the system to expand its reach.

The initial partner for the new apprenticeship degree is a local branch of Dal-Tile, a tile manufacturer. A modest state grant will back an initial cohort of five employees at the facility located in Dickson, which is about 40 miles west of Nashville. The apprentices will be able to earn an interdisciplinary degree while working at the plant, with an education program that they can fit around time on the job.

“A degree is a nice benefit of employment and will likely keep them in the role longer,” says Erin Crisp, assistant vice president for learner success and workforce pathways at the UT system.

While it’s starting very small, the system’s ambitious goal is to eventually enroll 15K Tennessee students in the manufacturing apprenticeships and apprenticeship-like programs. 

The Tennessee system is among several states and higher education institutions that are pushing deeper into advanced manufacturing apprenticeships. For example, Coffey cites California’s $480M industrial manufacturing apprenticeship program, which seeks to create 500K apprenticeships across a wide range of roles by 2029.

Yet the field has a long way to go—fewer than 100K apprentices participated in federally registered programs in advanced manufacturing last year. An all-hands-on-deck approach will be needed to meet the industry’s demand, even if the Trump administration’s promised training for 5M robot-running workers fizzles.

To help hit its goals, Crisp says, the system’s apprenticeship degrees in manufacturing will target a mix of recent high school graduates and older career changers, just as it has with teaching apprenticeships.

The Kicker: “In our approach, regardless of the starting point, we have an entry point for you,” says Crisp.

Wraparound Supports, Workforce Needs

The North Carolina Community College system is using a $35.6M grant from Arnold Ventures to bring a student success program with a proven track record to the state. But the system is adding a twist by targeting those resources to degree completion for students who are enrolled in high-wage, high-demand careers.

The new Boost program is based on CUNY ASAP, the highly successful wraparound support strategy developed by the New York City–based public university system, which includes community colleges as well as four-year institutions.

As Colleen Connolly reports for Work Shift, Boost is the first-ever attempt to adapt that model of financial support and high-touch advising across an entire state. It’s also the first replication of ASAP to focus heavily on workforce needs—and will complement a new funding formula the North Carolina system rolled out early last year.

“We are not going to address the challenges we have with completion in our country on a school-by-school basis,” Kelly McManus, vice president of higher education at Arnold Ventures, tells Connolly. “We have to think at the system level.”

Arnold Ventures isn’t stopping with North Carolina. The philanthropy last month announced a grant program focused on workforce and economic opportunity in Colorado, through which it will match up to $10M in investments made by the state of Colorado over the next four years.

The first phase of the partnership will back the launch of student success programs modeled on CUNY ASAP at two Colorado community colleges: Colorado Mountain College and Lamar Community College.

Click over to Work Shift to read Connolly’s article on North Carolina’s Boost program.

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Open Tabs

Career Navigation
Low-wage workers tend to turn to family and friends for career information—a clear sign that social capital plays a critical—but potentially limiting—role in career mobility. That finding comes from a nationally representative survey released today by Harvard University’s Project on Workforce, which seeks to understand how the nation’s 42M low-wage workers navigate their careers. Among other findings, fewer than one in five workers received career information from their employer in the last six months, and only 4% have used a generative AI tool for career information.

Tracking AI
The organizational use of artificial intelligence climbed to unprecedented levels last year, and the technology is beginning to deliver financial benefits across business functions, note the broad findings described in the 2025 AI index report from Stanford University. Computer and mathematical occupational categories dominate AI usage, the index notes, citing a recent Anthropic study, followed by arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media roles.

New-Collar Apprenticeships
A new Maryland law seeks to expand registered apprenticeships to new industries, employers, and communities. It establishes a pay-per-apprentice program, which is designed to offset costs for employers and to make apprenticeship more accessible for small businesses. The law also invests in intermediary organizations and codifies a 1:1 journeyperson-to-apprentice ratio, which seeks to support the expansion into IT, healthcare, and education.

Supporting Apprentices
With support from Google.org, Jobs for the Future has created a $2M fund to support participants in registered apprenticeship programs. The fund will provide 750 apprentices with awards of $2,800 per person, which they can use to cover transportation, childcare, or housing, or to buy equipment. Receiving priority will be apprentices in growing industry sectors that pay competitive wages, including advanced manufacturing and healthcare.

AI-First Education
Matter and Space, an AI-first education venture incubated at Southern New Hampshire University, has started sharing early insights from developing its new learning environment. Led by online learning pioneers Paul LeBlanc and George Siemens, the company’s goal is to help learners develop knowledge, skills, and well-being free from the constraints of the traditional education system—and to do so in a highly personalized way. The prototype application is expected to launch this fall.

Gen AI and Productivity
Generative AI holds significant promise for improving productivity across key industries, according to research from the Brookings Institution’s Center on Regulation and Markets. In healthcare, for example, AI could take on administrative tasks such as data entry and billing, allowing personnel to concentrate on clinical treatment. But the speed and scale of the technology’s impact remain uncertain, and adoption hurdles may slow its transformative effects.

Dual Enrollment
Students who attend K-12 schools in urban areas typically have less access to college and career readiness activities like CTE and dual-enrollment programs than do their peers in the suburbs, finds a report from the College in High School Alliance. In some parts of the country, access to these programs is more limited in cities than in rural areas. Yet cities tend to have more potential partners and employers and could take advantage of those opportunities.

Job Moves
Taylor Stockton has been sworn in as chief innovation officer of the U.S. Department of Labor. Stockton previously was chief operating officer at FutureFit AI and is the co-founder of Pathway Ventures.

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