More Apprenticeship Cuts

As federal cuts to apprenticeship add up, optimism fades among workforce pros who hoped for support from the Trump administration. Also, new research on how big cities could see both the most job disruption and the most economic benefit from AI, and case studies on four labor market–aligned community colleges.

Wavering Federal Support for Apprenticeships?

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has put a dent in optimism among workforce pros that the Trump administration will back nondegree training with money that matches its rhetoric.

In addition to apprenticeship-related federal cuts we reported on last week—including grants for apprenticeship-degree programs and research projects—budget slashing at the U.S. Department of Labor is coming into focus.

For example, the DOGE savings site lists $18M in cuts through three grants from the Labor Department’s Office of Apprenticeship. The department spent $285M on apprenticeship last year.

Two of the apparently terminated awards were managed by ICF, a large consulting firm. The cuts would eliminate $5.3M for “industry engagement and outreach support” and $6M for “technical assistance and coaching support.” Another $6.4M was eliminated from a grant for tech assistance and coaching managed by Growth Transitions, a subsidiary of the American Institutes for Research.

DOGE provided no explanation for those decisions except to note that the grants had been terminated for convenience, which means the government determined the cuts are in its interest. A spokesperson from ICF did not respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department this week terminated its Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship, which provided advice and recommendations to the labor secretary on ways to better use the apprenticeship training model to increase career pathways.

The committee included 29 members representing employers, unions, trade groups, nonprofits, a municipality, and a community college. Their mandated focus areas included encouraging the development of pre-apprenticeships that lead to good jobs and the expansion of apprenticeship into cybersecurity, clean energy, advanced manufacturing, IT, and healthcare.

The group’s purpose has been fulfilled, John Ladd, the longtime career administrator of the Office of Apprenticeship, said in an email to the committee’s members.

The department also has eliminated jobs across at least six departments, reports Rebecca Rainey for Bloomberg Law. Those terminations have affected DoL’s Employment and Training Administration, which oversees the Office of Apprenticeship, although no specifics have been provided on the eliminated jobs. DOGE also this week said the department wasted money on software licenses.

A Labor Department spokesperson declined to comment on cuts to grants or staff departures, saying personnel matters are not public information.

It’s possible that the Trump administration is nixing apprenticeship projects it sees as too focused on DEI or otherwise not aligned with its priorities, with a plan to eventually back earn-and-learn initiatives more broadly. But that scenario is far from clear.

The Geography of Artificial Intelligence

Technological disruption often has a distinct geography: industrial automation and the Midwest, for example. And the landscape of generative AI’s impact is starting to come into focus, with two interesting analyses out this month.

It will have a big skyline.

The first study, from the Brookings Institution, used OpenAI data to identify the cities and counties most likely to see their jobs impacted by AI—for good and for ill. Not surprisingly, places like San José and Seattle, which are incubators for the technology, have a high likelihood of being reshaped by generative AI. But so do places like Durham and Dallas.

“The greater the education and pay level, including the more office- and information-oriented the place is, the more exposed it is,” says Mark Muro, senior fellow and policy director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings.

The second analysis, put out by OpenAI itself, looks at the adoption of ChatGPT among college-aged adults in states across the country. California, Arizona, New York, New Jersey, and Virginia—all with big tech industries—are the top five for adoption, while America’s heartland, save Illinois, lags behind. 

The Big Idea: The studies start to paint a picture of the geography of generative AI—one in which workers in broad swaths of the middle of the country may be spared disruption, but also are at risk of being left behind.

“The full impact is still unfolding,” the OpenAI report says. “But state-by-state differences in student AI adoption could create gaps in workforce productivity and economic development, impacting US competitiveness.”

It’s a concern Muro shares. “This technology could be extremely helpful for rural and smaller-town communities, but it can’t be if there’s not much involvement with it,” he says.

Winners and Losers: Of course, being less exposed to AI also means those communities may be spared the most wrenching disruptions from the technology.

A growing body of research indicates that generative AI could widen inequality in the nation’s cities, though that is still very much an open debate. A recent study from Brookings, led by Molly Kinder, found that the people most likely to have their jobs automated away—not just augmented or altered—are the 19M professionals in office support and administrative jobs that make up the first rung of the middle class. They are predominantly women.

Meanwhile, the work of architects, engineers, and high-tech professionals—who are more highly paid—is likely to be remade, but those jobs aren’t expected to go away. Neither will many well-paid healthcare and management jobs, though all so-called knowledge work may face downward wage pressure.

The AI transformation for the nation’s cities could be bumpy, Muro says, and if not handled properly could leave some workers worse off.

“There’s no free productivity here,” he says. “There’s no way this won’t be disruptive.”

What to Do: The response will have to be nuanced, Muro says. Larger cities need to focus on this as soon as possible. A two-tracked response should make sure they are capitalizing on the upside—including making sure the benefits are widely shared—and also preparing for disruption.

And states need to be thinking about how to make their urban centers competitive nationally, while also ensuring that smaller cities and rural areas have exposure to AI.

Muro says new kinds of education programs, including reskilling and upskilling for incumbent workers, will have to be part of the equation. But it’s hard to know at this point what skills will be durable or newly in demand.

“We keep saying we need to work much harder on workforce training and support,” he says. “But providers are really struggling to understand what those so-called durable or human skills are.”

On the Ground: The Milwaukee metro area, with about 1.6M residents, is among the areas of Wisconsin that are most exposed to the impacts of generative AI. Nationally, though, it ranks about average in the Brookings research, and it’s in a state with a relatively low expected impact. Wisconsin and the region, though, are leaning into generative AI and other forms of artificial intelligence.

That’s due in part to the state’s demographic reality, with an aging and shrinking population, says Kathy Henrich, CEO of MKE Tech Hub Coalition, who sat on the state’s legislative study commission on AI. “Without some of this AI automation, we’re actually going to have a gap in our ability to grow the economy,” she says.

Milwaukee is investing in AI learning labs for K-12 students. Several local colleges—including the Milwaukee School of Engineering and Waukesha County Technical College—were early to develop degrees, certificates, and concentrations focused on AI. And the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute is a major hub of research and workforce development.

The MKE Tech Hub is creating AI road maps for startups and manufacturers—with a particular focus on being the “entry point and navigator” to help midsize manufacturers incorporate various forms of AI tech and train up their workers. The approach to education and training is proactive—rooted in a belief that preparing workers on AI can help drive adoption and economic growth. 

“People are going back and getting these skills to go back into the businesses before they’ve been let go,” says Henrich.

The Kicker: Without smart policy and investment, most midsize manufacturers wouldn’t know where to begin. “We tend to think that the market will solve itself,” Henrich says. “The market will not solve itself here. It’s going to need some assistance.” —By Elyse Ashburn

Job-Aligned Community Colleges

Two-year colleges will need to keep pace with an evolving labor market as AI and other emerging technologies reshape industries.

New case studies from Harvard University’s Project on Workforce and the Education Design Lab describe how four community colleges are using labor market information, data on student outcomes, industry partnerships, and cutting-edge technology to help their students break into growing career fields.

For example, Colorado’s Aurora Community College used data-informed processes to carefully sunset more than 30 underperforming programs without cutting faculty jobs. The college then created new programs in high-demand fields, including behavioral health, cybersecurity, education, healthcare, and software development.

With a long history of leaning on information about the labor market, South Texas College has adapted to meet requirements under the state’s new funding formula. It also anticipated shifts in the regional manufacturing industry and partnered with Intel to integrate AI into its advanced manufacturing technology program.

Employer Ties: While real-time labor market information is a powerful tool, the report says it can be expensive and has limitations. As a result, there’s no substitute for strong industry partnerships.

New York’s Hudson Community College, for example, works with an extensive network of employers to exploit abundant experiential learning and job opportunities for its students in New York City. For example, the college offers an advanced manufacturing apprenticeship program through its partnership with Eastern Millwork.

Likewise, Minnesota’s Riverland Community College closely monitors regional employer demands. Through partnerships with Hormel Foods, Design Ready Controls, the Mayo Clinic, and other employers, the college places students in internships and apprenticeships that align with their course of study.

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Open Tabs

Skills Matching
Arkansas rolled out a free skills-based platform that’s designed to connect jobseekers with opportunities and to help employers find skilled workers. Dubbed LAUNCH, the site offers career exploration based on users’ skills, connecting them with training to boost their qualifications. The platform also features an open-source tool, CiviForm, that makes it easier to apply for multiple government benefits at once, via any device.

Apple Jobs
Apple announced that it will spend more than $500B in the U.S. over the next four years to expand its capacity in manufacturing, AI, and silicon engineering. The planned investments include $10B for Apple’s U.S. advanced manufacturing fund, which supports worker training projects. The company also plans to open a manufacturing academy in Detroit, which will offer free courses to teach skills like project management and manufacturing process optimization.

Data Center Jobs
While they can employ more than 1K workers as they are built, data centers rarely need more than 100–200 employees once they open, Tom Dotan reports for The Wall Street Journal. Tech companies currently operate 445 U.S. data centers, with 249 in the pipeline. Workers also often move between data centers during their construction. Meanwhile, Meta reportedly may build an AI data center campus with a potential cost topping $200B.

ROI Ranking
Colleges that mostly offer associate degrees and certificates often have a higher ROI for students 10 years after they enroll than do institutions that focus on bachelor’s degrees, found an updated ROI tool from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. However, that dynamic reverses after 40 years, as the value of bachelor’s degrees becomes more obvious. The updated tool ranks 4,600 U.S. colleges.

Career Dreamer
Grow With Google has launched an early-stage Google AI experiment that uses labor market data to provide personalized career recommendations and resources. Career Dreamer taps Gemini to help users navigate job searches and explore career possibilities. The tool uses AI to connect the dots between the experiences, educational background, skills, and interests of jobseekers, connecting them with career information from Lightcast and federal sources.

Career Navigation
SkillUp Coalition has launched an AI agent that offers personalized career navigation to jobseekers without college degrees. The nonprofit developed SkillUp AI in collaboration with AdeptID, Brighthive, and WhereWeGo. Users also will receive quality career pathways, training options, and job opportunities that are aligned with their skills, experience, and location. The nonprofit research group MDRC will measure the tool’s impact on the employment of users.

Nondegree Credentials
While most states lack an overarching quality framework for short-term credentials, a handful have begun to focus on comprehensive approaches to defining quality, according to a report from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education on how state policymakers engage with nondegree credential programs. The report cites Alabama’s compendium project, which will conduct annual evaluations of credentials across a range of metrics.

Job Moves
Joe Garcia announced that he will retire this summer as chancellor of the Colorado Community College System. A former lieutenant governor of the state, Garcia previously led Pikes Peak Community College, Colorado State University at Pueblo, and the Colorado Department of Higher Education.

Ebony Thomas has been promoted to managing partner of Grads of Life, an employer-focused initiative of Year Up United. Thomas served in leadership roles at Booz Allen Hamilton, Goldman Sachs, and Fannie Mae before arriving at Grads of Life in 2023.

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