Trumpian disruption looms large over America's apprenticeship mission

Back from the Apprenticeships for America summit in Washington D.C., Tom Bewick explains the soul searching US workforce leaders are faced with as they adapt to the politics of Donald Trump.

The 47th President of the United States is not taking any prisoners. Two-and-a-half weeks into his second administration, Trump has moved at lightning speed—a pace Capitol Hill insiders call “flooding the zone.” Federal workers have been fired or placed on furlough, and giant departments such as education and USAID are slated for closure. Plutocrats like Elon Musk and his band of young Turks are at the vanguard of this bureaucratic revolution.

Delegates attending the Apprenticeships for America annual summit this week hope that the bipartisan commitments made to apprenticeship during Trump’s first administration will continue. The United States has three branches of government, including the Congress. In the past, Republicans and Democrats have joined forces to forge work-based learning-friendly legislation. In 2017, for example, Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) and Corey Booker (D-New Jersey) got the Senate to pass the Leveraging and Energizing America’s Apprenticeship Programs (LEAP) Act…