[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
BACK TO SCHOOL, BACK TO STARTUPS:
SUPPORTING YOUTH APPRENTICESHIP, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND WORKFORCE
DEVELOPMENT
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INNOVATION,
ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
UNITED STATES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD
SEPTEMBER 15, 2022
__________
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Small Business Committee Document Number 117-066
Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
___________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
48-580 WASHINGTON : 2022
HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
NYDIA VELAZQUEZ, New York, Chairwoman
JARED GOLDEN, Maine
JASON CROW, Colorado
SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas
KWEISI MFUME, Maryland
DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota
MARIE NEWMAN, Illinois
CAROLYN BOURDEAUX, Georgia
TROY CARTER, Louisiana
JUDY CHU, California
DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
ANDY KIM, New Jersey
ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota
SCOTT PETERS, California
BLAINE LUETKEMEYER, Missouri, Ranking Member
ROGER WILLIAMS, Texas
PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
DAN MEUSER, Pennsylvania
CLAUDIA TENNEY, New York
ANDREW GARBARINO, New York
YOUNG KIM, California
BETH VAN DUYNE, Texas
BYRON DONALDS, Florida
MARIA SALAZAR, Florida
SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin
MIKE FLOOD, Nebraska
Melissa Jung, Majority Staff Director
Ellen Harrington, Majority Deputy Staff Director
David Planning, Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
OPENING STATEMENTS
Page
Hon. Jason Crow.................................................. 1
Hon. Young Kim................................................... 2
WITNESSES
Mr. Noel Ginsburg, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, CareerWise,
Denver, CO..................................................... 5
Ms. Deborah Kobes, Senior Director, Jobs for the Future (JFF),
Washington, DC................................................. 7
Ms. Shani Watkins, Director, West Sound Technical Skills Center,
Bremerton School District, Bremerton, WA....................... 9
Mr. Jared Ebbing, Economic Development Director for Mercer
County, OH, Mercer County, OH, testifying on behalf of the
Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council)...... 10
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Mr. Noel Ginsburg, Founder & Chief Executive Officer,
CareerWise, Denver, CO..................................... 28
Ms. Deborah Kobes, Senior Director, Jobs for the Future
(JFF), Washington, DC...................................... 33
Ms. Shani Watkins, Director, West Sound Technical Skills
Center, Bremerton School District, Bremerton, WA........... 46
Mr. Jared Ebbing, Economic Development Director for Mercer
County, OH, Mercer County, OH, testifying on behalf of the
Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council).. 52
Questions for the Record:
None.
Answers for the Record:
None.
Additional Material for the Record:
Supporting materials following testimony of Deborah Kobes,
Senior Director, Jobs for the Future....................... 55
BACK TO SCHOOL, BACK TO STARTUPS:
SUPPORTING YOUTH APPRENTICESHIP,
ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND WORKFORCE
DEVELOPMENT
----------
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2022
House of Representatives,
Committee on Small Business,
Subcommittee on Innovation, Entrepreneurship,
and Workforce Development,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:00 a.m., in
Room 2360, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Jason Crow
[chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Crow, Davids, Newman, Houlahan,
Williams, Tenney, and Young Kim.
Chairman CROW. Good morning. I call this hearing to order.
Without objection, the Chair is authorized to declare a
recess at any time.
I would like to begin by noting some important
requirements.
Standing House and Committee rules will continue to apply
during hybrid proceedings. All Members are reminded that they
are expected to adhere to these rules, including decorum.
House regulations require Members to be visible through a
video connection throughout the proceedings. So please keep
your cameras on.
Also, please remember to remain muted until you are
recognized to minimize background noise.
In the event a Member encounters technical issues that
prevent them from being recognized for their questioning, I
will move to the next available Member of the same party. And I
will recognize that Member at the next appropriate time slot,
provided they have returned to the proceeding.
The COVID-19 pandemic upended the labor market like no
other event in recent times. The pandemic slowed immigration,
legal immigration, to a crawl, sparked early retirements, and
forced many to exit the labor force due to factors like lack of
childcare. These effects combined to expand a longstanding and
unprecedented labor shortage that we are still working to
overcome today.
As of July 2022, the total number of unemployed individuals
is roughly 5.9 million, while the number of job openings stood
at 11.2 million. This gap in available workers has hit small
firms the hardest. According to recent surveys, over half of
American small businesses are concerned with hiring enough
employees to fill open positions and overall employee
retention.
Given the fundamental importance of small businesses to the
American economy, we must find ways to ease this labor shortage
and build a lasting pipeline of talent into these businesses.
One promising strategy is to bolster workforce development
programs to attract young people to small firms. As the new
school year starts up, America's youth are increasingly looking
for alternatives to 4-year degrees, given high tuition costs
and the prospect of student loan debt. More than half of
American adults agree that college costs limit their ability to
pursue secondary education.
The COVID crisis has also exacerbated this issue, as total
enrollment dropped by nearly 1.4 million between fall of 2019
and fall of 2021. These figures show that America's youth need
more options beyond a standard 4-year degree.
Increasingly, young people are turning to youth
apprenticeship programs to gain valuable, real-world
experience, in addition to the instruction they receive in the
classroom.
In 2022, roughly 214,000 people age 16 to 24 were in an
apprenticeship. This is double the number of that demographic
just a decade ago.
These apprenticeships have been proven to offer a wealth of
benefits to small firms beyond just attracting new talent.
In a study of 4,000 businesses that utilized youth
apprenticeships, nearly 3 in 4 mentioned that it improved
productivity, and 4 in 10 said it helped them secure new
business. However, implementing a costly apprenticeship program
can be daunting for small firms with tight margins.
Today I would like us to explore ways Congress can make
youth apprenticeship programs and other workforce development
tools more accessible for small businesses.
Programs like CareerWise, which was originally started in
Colorado, have successfully spread the youth apprenticeship
model to cities across America and expanded into a range of new
industries.
I want to take a closer look at the successes of CareerWise
and other programs like it and identify ways the federal
government can help more small firms utilize apprenticeships to
attract talent.
Expanding youth apprenticeships and other types of career
and technical education can provide young people with a
comparable alternative to a 4-year university education, while
bolstering the small business labor force.
I would now like to yield to the Ranking Member, Mrs. Kim,
for her opening statement.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Thank you, Chairman.
As Members of the Small Business Committee, we hear
directly from small business owners and their employees on a
regular basis on the challenges they face right now. They
include ongoing inflationary pressures, consistent supply chain
issues, burdensome regulations, and workforce shortages. The
inability to find workers have led owners to make business
adjustments to account for those ongoing staffing shortages.
As Chair noted, the federal government's Job Openings and
Labor Turnover Summary reported that they indicate there is
about 11.2 million job openings at the end of July and 4.2
million workers left their jobs in the same month. And a recent
survey reported 86 percent of small business owners said it was
more difficult to find and retain employees compared with 3
months ago.
So small businesses, as we know, they do not only need to
fill those open positions, but they also need to fill qualified
and skilled workers. And, in August, 63 percent of small
businesses reported hiring or trying to hire employees, and an
astounding 91 percent of those small employers report hiring or
trying to hire--reported that they have few or no qualified
applicants for those open positions.
So this skills gap has been a growing issue for businesses
and the economy, and it is time to rethink how to expand
opportunities for individuals often left out by traditional
recruiting approaches.
So that brings us to our conversation today where we will
examine how apprenticeships and career and technical
educational programs can help these workforce issues.
Many small firms have turned to on-the-job apprenticeships
to fill those openings, and one success story I want to share
with you today is located in Orange County, the company that I
visited often and worked closely, Veteran Air. Veteran Air is a
veteran-owned small business serving my district, and they
utilize an apprenticeship program with all new employees. And
their employees are paid full time while they train to become
certified HVAC technicians.
Veteran Air serves as an example of small businesses
utilizing apprenticeships and creating opportunities aligned
with local workforce needs. And I am very proud to have toured,
visited this Veteran Air's Anaheim facility, and I met with so
many of their workers and employees. And I tell you they don't
just work at Veteran Air, but they are actively participating,
encouraging their employees to get involved and give back to
their communities.
And that is the type of partnership that we want to see.
These are the type of small businesses also that we must
empower and support in our local communities. Apprenticeships
and career development programs are not a new concept. But, in
this changing economy, they can help small firms reach untapped
talent and focus on the new potential and invest in solving job
shortages.
So I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today. And
I hope to work with my colleagues to address these skills gaps,
promote career and technical educational opportunities, and
encourage apprenticeships.
Thank you.
And I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mrs. Kim.
The gentlelady yields back.
I would like to take a moment to explain how this hearing
will proceed.
Each witness will have 5 minutes to provide a statement,
and each committee Member will have 5 minutes for questions.
Please ensure that your microphone is on when you begin
speaking, and then you return it to mute when finished.
With that, I would like to introduce our first witness. And
we will go through all of them, and then we will start with the
time for each.
But our first witness is going to be Mr. Noel Ginsburg,
founder and CEO of CareerWise USA. Throughout his career, Noel
has stood out as an entrepreneur and nonprofit leader committed
to serving his community. He founded his first business,
Intertech Plastics, while in his senior year at University of
Denver. Go Pioneers. Now it employees nearly 200 people at two
facilities in Denver, Colorado.
In 2016, Noel founded CareerWise Colorado, a nonprofit
designed to create opportunities for students and businesses
across the State by developing innovative and sustainable youth
apprenticeship programs. CareerWise has now expanded across the
country to New York City, Washington, D.C., Indiana, Buffalo,
and Michigan.
Last year he was appointed to the Secretary of Labor's
Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship.
Thank you for being here, Mr. Ginsburg. I look forward to
your testimony.
Our next witness is Ms. Deborah Kobes--am I pronouncing
that right? Thank you--senior director at Jobs for the Future,
JFF, and the interim director of the Center for Apprenticeship
and Work-Based Learning.
For over a decade, Ms. Kobes has been managing projects to
develop innovative new training and education models and to
build capacity for programs--for program delivery among a range
of organizations. She seeks to create career pathways primarily
for underrepresented populations, like women and people of
color, in high-demand areas of the economy.
Before joining JFF, Ms. Kobes held research positions at
MIT, the Brookings Institution, and the Urban Institute.
Thank you, Ms. Kobes, for being here today. We look forward
to your testimony.
Our third witness is Ms. Shani Watkins. Ms. Watkins serves
as the director of the West Sound Technical Skills Center in
Bremerton, Washington.
For 25 years, she has worked in both secondary and
postsecondary education and found her passion working in career
and technical education. Ms. Watkins is active in her local
community, serving as a Member of the local Lions Club. She is
also active in her local regional and national associations for
career and technical education, currently serving as the
regional vice president of that organization. Last December she
was awarded with the ACTE National Administrator of the Year
award.
Congratulations.
Ms. WATKINS. Thank you.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Ms. Watkins. We look forward to
hearing your testimony.
I will now yield to the Ranking Member to introduce our
final witness.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Thank you, Chairman.
Our fourth witness is Mr. Jared Ebbing. He is the director
of Mercer County Community and Economic Development. He is
testifying today on behalf of the Small Business and
Entrepreneurship Council, also known as the SBE Council.
As Community and Economic Development director, Mr. Ebbing
works with Mercer County and its citizens to plan for future
projects and to find the funding necessary to complete them.
Additionally, he works with local school districts to ensure
every student has the knowledge and awareness of the many
career opportunities that exist in the area.
To accomplish this, he created hometownopportunity.com as a
critical tool for the region's workforce development efforts.
Mr. Ebbing works closely with local companies throughout the
county to ensure local businesses possess the tools and the
workers necessary to grow within the region.
I know Mr. Ebbing's experience working with small
businesses and vast knowledge of workforce development programs
will be extremely beneficial to this hearing and our
conversation today.
So, Mr. Ebbing, thank you for taking the time to testify
before us today. Thank you for joining.
And thank you, all witnesses, for being with us.
Chairman CROW. Yes. Thank you all for joining us today.
Mr. Ginsburg, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENTS OF NOEL GINSBURG, FOUNDER & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER,
CAREERWISE, DENVER, CO; DEBORAH KOBES, SENIOR DIRECTOR, JOBS
FOR THE FUTURE (JFF), WASHINGTON, D.C.; SHANI WATKINS,
DIRECTOR, WEST SOUND TECHNICAL SKILLS CENTER, BREMERTON SCHOOL
DISTRICT, BREMERTON, WA; AND JARED EBBING, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
DIRECTOR FOR MERCER COUNTY, OH, MERCER COUNTY, OH, TESTIFYING
ON BEHALF OF THE SMALL BUSINESS AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP COUNCIL
(SBE COUNCIL).
STATEMENT OF NOEL GINSBURG
Mr. GINSBURG. Thank you, Chairman Crow and Ranking Member
Young Kim, for giving all of us the opportunity to speak about
something which I believe can be transformational for our
education and workforce system and, in so doing, drive
opportunity for small and large businesses, but particularly
small, to build a workforce that will catapult them into the
future.
What I would like to start with is why I--where I started.
When I founded my company, while in college, what I realized
quickly is that, to be successful, talent would be the core of
our success, who we could bring in, who I would surround myself
with.
And, when I couldn't find that talent, I went to the
schools, assuming naively that it was their fault that I didn't
have the talent. But, rather than pointing a finger, I showed
up at the front door of Montbello High School and said, how can
I help? And that began what has been a 35-, 38-year
partnership, because what I realized is the missing piece is
industry, not to stand on the outside as advisors or critics,
but to be partners in workforce development.
The second reason I did this is, over 30 years ago, my wife
and I sponsored 42 inner city youth through the ``I Have a
Dream'' Foundation. We made a 10-year commitment that would
culminate in providing a college scholarship for each one, but
in that neighborhood, 90 percent were dropping out of high
school. So our challenge was to change that outcome. Ten years
later, we graduated over 90 percent of our young people.
And that sent me on a journey to find a solution that would
not just serve 42 or a city or a State or maybe even a country.
And it led me, because I was Chairing the College and Career
Pathways Council at Denver public schools, to Switzerland to
learn about a system where, like the U.S., 27 percent of their
population will get a 4-year degree. Unlike the U.S., 70
percent will take on an apprenticeship and not just in advanced
manufacturing or the trades, but banking, finance, insurance.
And it is a ROI-based system. It is transformational for the
youth and transformational for the businesses.
So, with the inspiration from that, I came back to Colorado
and formed CareerWise with an intention of building a system,
not a program, that can be that transformational. How it works:
In the junior year, an apprentice will spend 3 days in the
classroom and 2 days in a business in a paid apprenticeship,
not looking over someone's shoulder but learning real skills in
a whole host of occupations.
In their senior year, they will spend 2 days in the
classroom and 3 days in business. And they will get all of
their high school credit. For some, they will earn college
credit as a part of their apprenticeship.
And then, in the third year, they will work either full or
part time, depending on postsecondary options.
Then, at the end, the hope is to get a job with the
training company.
And so what are we seeing? We have young people now that
are graduating from their apprenticeship earning between
$40,000 and as high as $75,000 right out of high school. Our
completing apprentices are transformational for the businesses
that they work for and for the future of their own careers.
Congressman Crow, you mentioned places where in the
country. On Monday, I was in New York where the CEO Jobs
Council, founded by the Chairman of J.P. Morgan Chase, Jamie
Dimon, made a commitment, along with David Banks, their
chancellor, and Julie Sweet from Accenture, to hire 3,000
apprentices over the next 3 years in a whole host of
occupations from banking to finance, both large and small
business. That represents 135 million in wages and training
that will go to these young people while they in high school.
It will change their lives because we have seen that with our
apprentices to this day.
The impact of youth apprenticeship is multiples. It defines
youth apprenticeship early on in a young person's career as an
options multiplier, not a dead end. And it can lead. You can
start with the apprenticeship and end with a Ph.D. it
reinforces that there is equal dignity in multiple career
paths. College is not the only proxy. We need better ways to
finance it, and many of our apprentices are getting their
education paid for through the tuition reimbursement that these
companies provide.
It serves young people from marginalized communities in a
way that is powerful. There is a cement ceiling over many of
our young people in this country. Youth apprenticeship,
starting in high school, is like a cement drill, really
building opportunity for them that is unmatched. For some
apprentices that choose to continue with a 2- or 4-year degree,
it has the potential to reduce the financial burden as a
result.
So my point here is this can be a transformational
opportunity--it is for many young people today--but only if it
is much more than a program. With your help and your guidance
and the questions that you will ask, hopefully we can move our
country forward.
Thank you.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Ginsburg.
Ms. Kobes, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF DEBORAH KOBES
Ms. KOBES. Thank you.
Good morning, Chairman Crow, Ranking Member Young Kim, and
other Members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to
testify today about the value and potential of apprenticeship
for America's youth and in development of the nation's talent
pipeline.
My name is Deborah Kobes. I am a senior director at Jobs
for the Future, and I lead our Center for Apprenticeship and
Work-Based Learning.
JFF works to transform America's workforce and education
systems to achieve equitable economic advancement for all.
Apprenticeship and work-based learning have the power to
connect young people to high-demand, high-quality jobs, and
they offer small businesses a grow-your-own talent solution.
The good news is that youth apprenticeship is growing. JFF
just released an analysis that shows that the number of youth
below the age of 25 registering as apprentices has more than
doubled between 2010 and 2020, which significantly outpaces the
growth of Registered Apprenticeship overall. These youth
apprentices earned an average wage of $31 an hour, which far
exceeds the average wage for young workers.
Youth apprenticeship has become more accessible to more
populations, with female and Latinx representation increasing
throughout the decade.
While progress has been made, disparities continue. Nearly
90 percent of youth apprentices are male, and almost two-thirds
are white. Male youth apprentices earn nearly twice as much as
women, and White apprentices earned about $7 more per hour than
Black apprentices. These data show the need to continue to
explicitly address diversity, equity, inclusion, and
accessibility in Registered Apprenticeship and youth
apprenticeship.
Employers are central to youth apprenticeship. They hire
the apprentices. They supervise the on-the-job learning. In
exchange for their participation, employers benefit from
recruiting talent, aligning education and training with company
needs, and building a loyal workforce.
Yet small businesses face a range of challenges in
participating in youth apprenticeship. Many express concerns
about liability issues and insurance costs of youth employment,
which vary by state and by industry.
Establishing a work schedule that accommodates state
requirements for school seat time and attendance, as well as
navigating other K-12 and postsecondary requirements, can be
difficult. And identifying and managing the multiple sources of
public funding for apprenticeship can be confusing and time-
consuming, particularly for small businesses who are unfamiliar
with the funding sources.
Yet, while it is especially important for small businesses
to engage in youth apprenticeship, this can be an expensive
proposition upfront.
To drive the expansion of high-quality youth apprenticeship
programs, JFF recommends that Congress build on the National
Apprenticeship Act to define youth apprenticeship as a
Registered Apprenticeship program specifically designed for
serving youth ages 16 to 24, whether in or out of school.
Congress should incentivize States to align their education
and workforce systems and update K-12 policies, such as seat
time requirements, in ways that encourage engagement in and
expansion of youth apprenticeship.
We also urge policies that encourage the development of
high-quality work-based learning opportunities as part of core
academic as well as career and technical education programs. To
drive diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in youth
apprenticeship, we recommend that Congress refocus investments
on completion and wage equity.
We recommend providing flexible funding that supports pre-
apprenticeship, inclusive outreach and recruitment, accessible
classroom instruction, robust mentorship, and apprenticeship
navigators to guide young people through their program.
Youth apprentices also need supportive services to address
barriers that are just the cost of training materials and
testing fees; access to technology and the internet, especially
in the age of COVID; and transportation to school and work,
which often have to happen in the same day.
We recommend that Congress support employers in providing
inclusive workplaces, facilitating the creation of training,
funding, and support to small businesses to increase their
capacity to adopt these best practices.
To increase small business participation in youth
apprenticeship, JFF recommends investing in intermediaries,
particularly local and industry organizations, to convene
employers and stakeholders, as well as to reduce the
programmatic and administrative burdens of delivering youth
apprenticeships.
Similarly, Congress can support sector strategies that
convene employers to build career pathways and regional talent
pipelines while incentivizing youth apprenticeship as a
featured strategy within those sector partnerships.
Congress can assist small businesses in accessing
information and training to navigate the differing state youth
employment laws, as well as the multiple streams of public
funding available.
In parallel, Congress can encourage greater investment in
youth apprenticeship by stakeholders administering eligible
funding, such as WIOA, Pell Grants, and the emerging
infrastructure and CHIPS grant.
Thank you again for the opportunity share this testimony. I
appreciate the Committee's longstanding interest in
apprenticeship, and I look forward to supporting your efforts
to facilitate the use of youth apprenticeship among small
businesses.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Ms. Kobes.
Ms. Watkins, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF SHANI WATKINS
Ms. WATKINS. Good morning, Chairman Crow and Ranking Member
Young Kim, Members of the committee. Thank you for the
opportunity to appear before you today to discuss this
important issue.
My name is Shani Watkins, and I am the director of West
Sound Technical Skills Center in Bremerton, Washington. I also
serve as the Region V vice president for the Association for
Career and Technical Education, known as ACTE, and am the 2022
ACTE Administrator of the Year.
West Sound Technical Skills Center provides advanced career
and technical education, or CTE programs, to 10 school
districts across the Kitsap Peninsula. It provides increased
equity and access for students in small, rural areas, as well
as larger suburban areas. It serves more than 500 students in
their junior and senior years of high school.
Students spend half their day at West Sound Tech and the
other half of their day at their sending school. We offer 13
programs across areas such as IT, automotive, construction,
HVAC, healthcare, law and public safety, and more.
CTE programs like the ones offered at my school engage
students through hands-on active learning and prepare them with
the skills they need for both further education and fulfilling
careers in vital in-demand industries and occupations.
At West Sound Tech, we have a variety of partnerships with
local businesses, including small business, to provide
important relevant learning and learning, paid work
opportunities for our students to better prepare for life after
high school. This morning I would like to share with you a few
examples of these partnerships.
Each year, West Sound Tech holds a try-a-trade day where
our industry partners bring their tools and equipment to our
local fairgrounds so that students from grades 9-12 can
experience firsthand what different careers offer. We also hold
an on-site event for students called the West Sound Tech Works.
This is a 2-day event where our local business and industry
partners come to share their experiences and knowledge with
students. Students attend sessions and participate in different
workshops provided by our industry partners.
In addition, West Sound Tech holds an evening event called
Explore Your Future with community partners including business
and industry, local support services, 2-year and 4-year
colleges, apprenticeship programs, and the military. In total,
more than 65 different partners hold booths with information
for families about opportunities and pathways after high
school. Typically we have more than 500 students and families
in attendance at that event.
Each spring, we also hold a practice interviewing event for
students with business and industry partners from the student's
specific content area.
In another partnership example, the Puget Sound Naval
Shipyard supports an annual work-study program, hiring up to 30
students during the summer between their junior and senior
years. These students are provided an hourly wage and benefits,
while participating in work and training situations at
different shops located throughout the shipyard. Students learn
key safety requirements, use various hand and power tools, and
acquire the fundamental knowledge and skills necessary to work
in an industrial environment.
At the end of the summer, students return to school for
their first semester of their senior year. Then, during the
second semester of their senior year, the students again work
full time in the shipyard. Often the work-study experience
leads to a future career for those students. Once hired after
high school, candidates qualify to enter various apprenticeship
programs offered at the shipyard.
This model could be replicated with other small businesses
to better support workforce needs and experiences for students
to prepare for living-wage careers.
As in the shipyard partnership, West Sound Tech has a long
history of preparing students to enter into apprenticeship
program after high school. Both our construction careers and
welding courses have pre-apprenticeship articulations with the
Laborers and Iron Workers Union respectively.
Students meet all requirements for entry into the
apprenticeship programs while they are at West Sound Tech. For
example, students in the construction program learn all of the
physical requirements for entry, complete the minimum math
requirements, and obtain relevant certifications.
Despite our strong partnerships and work-based learning
opportunities, barriers exist for our students. The cost of
programs, transportation, the needs of low-income students for
paid work experience, and the lack of capacity in small
businesses are all challenges we grapple with regularly.
Increased federal funding for programs like the Carl D.
Perkins Career and Technical Education Act and apprenticeships,
the expansion of youth and pre-apprenticeship activities,
incentives for small businesses to partner with educational
institutions, and targeted investments in paid work-based
learning experiences, and student certifications can all help
to address these challenges.
In conclusion, stronger partnerships between small business
and secondary schools will help to increase a segment of the
economy that is currently experiencing significant challenges
in finding a ready workforce. Students engaged in CTE programs
are better prepared in the workforce, less likely to need
significant students loans, and are more likely to have the
skills and credentials to meet workplace needs.
Thank you, Chairman Crow, Ranking Member Young Kim, and
Committee for this opportunity today.
I look forward to answering any questions you may have.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Ms. Watkins.
Mr. Ebbing, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
STATEMENT OF JARED EBBING
Mr. EBBING. Thank you, Chairman Crow, Ranking Member Young
Kim, and the distinguished Members of the Subcommittee.
Again, my name is Jared Ebbing. I am the Community and
Economic Development Director here in Mercer County, Ohio.
Mercer County is a rural county in west-central Ohio which
is along the Ohio and Indiana border. We are part of a region
of Ohio that is known for its small, homegrown companies
involved in everything from advanced manufacturing to ag to
food processing.
My office works with our many local companies to ensure
that they have the personnel necessary to continue to grow
their businesses and invest in our area.
The vast majority of the jobs created here in Mercer County
can be attributed to small businesses. While we do have a
couple of nationally known, larger corporations, most of our
companies started right here years ago in somebody's basement,
garage, or outbuilding with just a handful of workers. The
entrepreneurial spirit here has always been alive and well in
this region because people just know how to make things and
have never really been afraid of the hard work needed to make
it happen.
While these businesses haven't really asked for anything
more than our local support in their efforts to grow and
expand, they now are most certainly worried about the
sustainability of their workforce in the future.
COVID-19 and its impact created an unprecedented new set of
challenges for businesses. While larger corporations adjusted,
utilizing remote work as an option, many of our smaller
manufacturers had a hard time managing, training, and thus,
developing their future workforce as a result of the pandemic.
Additionally, the Great Resignation, supply chain issues,
increased raw material costs, and now hyper wage inflation have
all compounded their issues, making it very difficult for our
small businesses to manage their operations.
As such, we hear from our companies every day that say
that, even though there is work there, they are struggling to
complete it due to the various open positions that they have.
So many of these unfilled positions are middle-skill jobs,
meaning they require a high school diploma and some form of
postsecondary education but not necessarily always a
traditional 4-year college degree.
As a result, companies are indeed looking at
apprenticeships and any other on-the-job training programs that
could help. In order to make this happen, ongoing collaboration
among our stakeholders at every level is vital to identify best
practices and implement impactful programs. I would like share
one such example of a program that we have implemented to great
success.
Hometownopportunity.com is an online-based resource simply
aimed at increasing the awareness of our many local, great
careers that exist in our area to our students and to our
families. Our companies are most certainly in need of our local
talent, who all too often do not realize that these great
opportunities exist right here in their own backyard.
Furthermore, we are utilizing this resource to make
meaningful connections between our emerging workforce and the
companies hoping to hire and thus train them.
We focus our efforts on first making sure students are
aware of what our local companies do, what skills are needed,
and what opportunities truly exist.
Properly educating our students on the myriad of options
and opportunities to them may sound simple, but it is actually
surprisingly difficult when teenagers' attentions and interests
aren't necessarily on their future. We have all been there.
Through these career navigation tools, new career-based
curriculum within our schools, and the hiring of countywide
career coaches, an appreciable increase in the awareness among
our young people is finally occurring.
With such awareness and newfound interest, students are
enrolling in job shadow opportunities, along with pre-
apprenticeship programs, which eventually lead to full
apprenticeships programs at our local companies. It is a long
process, but once students are aware of what is here, it is so
much easier to introduce them to the necessary training that
combines on-the-job paid experiences with their classroom
learning.
Although we feel very good about our local initiatives that
we have implemented to date, more resources, ideas, and support
would help. A national push for career development courses
within our schools is needed. Similar support was given to the
successful implementation of STEM-based classes across the
country over the past decade, resulting in more young people
becoming interested in science and math.
Encouraging our classrooms nationwide to increase and offer
more meaningful awareness and guidance curriculum, such as
CareerWise and Edge Factor, would most certainly have a
positive impact on our nation's youth. Additionally, an
expansion of federal programs, such as Apprenticeship USA and
Pell grants for technical education, would also help our
emerging workforce become better trained for the careers of the
future.
Now more than ever we need to find ways to enhance the
workforce development initiatives and programs that work. We
must continue to support the business organizations and
nonprofits who train, advocate, and bring entrepreneurs
together, work with our educators to ensure we are not just
graduating students from school but to an actual meaningful
career, engage with organizations, such as the Small Business
and Entrepreneurship Council, U.S. Chamber, and Small Business
Administration to come up with new ideas, resources, and
innovative policy solutions.
Doing so will empower small businesses and thus, our
communities to succeed long term by investing in our greatest
asset: our people.
In closing, thank you to the Subcommittee for the
opportunity to testify today and for advocating and making
policies that support small businesses across this great
country of ours.
Thank you.
Chairman CROW. Thank you, Mr. Ebbing.
I will begin by recognizing myself for 5 minutes. I would
like to start with you, Mr. Ginsburg. You had mentioned, you
know, years ago, when you first looked towards Switzerland and
Europe that already had these well established and very
successful programs. I would be interested in what you learned
as you tried to replicate or use elements of that model here in
the United States, starting in Denver and in Colorado, both
with respect to resistance that you may have faced, cultural
resistance or other structural resistance to implementing and
expanding these models but also just the barriers, both with
businesses and in the education system, that you faced.
Mr. GINSBURG. Thank you, Chairman Crow. Big questions. What
I will tell you, what impressed me about their system is that
it was market based, meaning that they didn't create
apprenticeships if the jobs didn't exist. So, as industries
grew and shrank, at least a young person would have the
opportunity to know what their opportunities would be post
apprenticeship.
Second is that their model scales so that 70 percent of
young people take advantage of it and 40 percent of businesses
participate because there is a true return on investment to the
business. They do not subsidize the wages. Their education
system is virtually free, much more so than it is here, so the
related training is not as expensive, and there needs to be
investments. But that is a powerful driver to scale.
Now, when you bring that to the U.S., what we have learned
is, when the U.S. built its road system in the country, our
highway system, you needed the roads, you needed the off-ramps,
the on-ramps, everything that made traffic flow and commerce
flow. Youth apprenticeship in particular is not something that
is intuitive for a business to think there is an ROI for. Plus,
they don't have the tools they need to be successful.
So building those tools for them, creating the connections
with the high schools so that it could be successful, and to
drive the ROI, which is what I observed overseas, is that, if a
young person is still living at home and is making $15 an hour,
up to $45,000 over the 3 years of their apprenticeship, the
company is investing in them. As I mentioned, our employers in
Colorado have invested over $45 million in wages and training
dollars, but there is a--it is not an expense in the sense of a
donation. It is an investment in their workforce.
So the challenges ahead, particularly in a registered
system, which I think is critical to ensure that, if you are
doing business in 50 States or 2 States or 3, you are not doing
business in different ways. The registered system, it is part
of my role at the ACA is to make it simpler and more
streamlined for businesses and more business responsive. In
schools, in 50 States, we have, in essence, 50 different ways
to do it. When seat time is a requirement, as it is in New
York, for example, it is very difficult for an apprentice to
spend time in a workplace.
Now, we are hacking the system on a small scale right now.
In Colorado, we have a competency-based system. So our students
are earning credit for the learning that takes place in the
workplace. We need more of that across the country. Those are
some of the challenges.
With employers, it is about setting up the system.
Intermediaries are critical. In Switzerland, for example,
industry associations drive their system. They are not ways to
lobby Congress or the local Senate. It is, in essence, to build
their future workforce, and as a result, a very small country
competes with companies like the U.S. because of the quality of
their workforce.
Chairman CROW. Thank you for that.
Ms. Kobes, you had mentioned the need to invest in
intermediaries. Can you just briefly describe for us, you know,
what do you see as the most effective intermediary models that
you have worked with?
Ms. KOBES. Absolutely. And I will pick up on some of what
Noel was saying about intermediaries as well. You know, JFF is
a national intermediary, so I don't want to undermine our value
here. But, to your question, I think there is a real need to
invest in local intermediaries and industry associations
because that is who small businesses are already working with.
So, to get the word out to small businesses, to give them a
partner that they trust in really launching a program, having,
you know, local chambers, local business associations within a
specific industry, that is a place that you already have an in
with small businesses.
And then those intermediaries can bring together the
employers to find what their common skills and competency needs
are, design a program, broker the relationships with the
education and training providers, and then even step in to help
with the administration of the program in an ongoing basis.
So, a lot of small businesses, you know, might be put off
by the paperwork or not sure, you know, what they are fully
signing up for in administering a program, and they can find it
easier to really enter the space if their role is to be the
employer, not to hold together the whole apprenticeship program
and all of the different relationships required.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. My time has expired.
The Ranking Member, Ms. Kim, is now recognized for 5
minutes.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Thank you, Chairman.
I really appreciate all of our witnesses focusing on youth
apprenticeship. It is critically important. And, in my
district, we have several high schools that are in the IB
program and then they are also providing technical programs,
like one high school in my district is, you know, Troy High
School, and they provide not only the IB but Troy tech programs
through which they encourage their students to take 150 hours
of internship, and they do get credit for their graduation
requirements.
And both--I mean, all of you spoke about the need to make
this, as Mr., you know, Ginsburg, you mentioned, you don't want
this to be just a program, but you want this to be a
transformational system.
And, you know, Ms. Watkins, Ms. Kobes, you all talked about
utilizing the intermediaries, and the Chairman also asked
through your question how we can replicate this through
nationwide efforts so that it could become a system, not just a
program at one school or at one district.
So what are some of the challenges that you face, Mr.
Ginsburg, as you make this CareerWise a, you know, successful
program? When you work with the local school districts,
presenting this idea to provide the students with the credits,
what kind of challenges, if any, did you face in making this
idea into a credit offered system?
Mr. GINSBURG. I assumed when I first learned about this
approach at ETH University in Switzerland, that our biggest
obstacle would be the schools. How do you take a young person
out of class for both 2 days a week and then 3 days a week and
then earn their credit? In the room with me in the delegation
was the head of curriculum at Denver public schools, and she
said simply: I can do that.
And we now have 17 school districts that do that.
So the challenge, frankly, is not the schools directly; it
is in how they schedule. If you have blocked schedules, as some
districts do that we--in other States that we work with, it is
difficult to let a student out. So, you know, changing those
policies and scheduling to enable it is one way to address that
problem.
The real challenge, honestly, is scale with business. They
need the support, which intermediaries provide, to give them
the tools, the training, and the technology to successfully
launch a youth apprenticeship program, and youth is important.
The statistics that you were sharing earlier go up to 24.
Doing this while students are skill in school, I believe,
is key, is the bridge to opportunity and the systemic change
that we need. And the numbers that we are seeing at CareerWise
are much more balanced, both in male and female, with over
indexing on marginalized communities in terms of the outcomes
in those students that are being hired.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Thank you.
I want to address the next questions to Mr. Ebbing, who is
joining us virtually. You know, in your testimony, you talk
about raising awareness of the opportunities that exist for
youth apprenticeships and career development courses in high
schools. I mean, that is what everybody is talking about, but
specifically through your hometown opportunity. So can you
please elaborate on that and talk about that resource as well
as other ways that you are raising awareness for those
programs, and can you cite some of the examples?
Mr. EBBING. Yeah, most certainly. Appreciate it. Appreciate
the question. Yeah, you know, so, when I first got into this
role, it was just startling at how many young people and their
families just didn't know, you know. They went through high
school; they would go through the traditional route and would
graduate and just didn't know either what was here or what
training programs even existed. So they just kind of followed
the beaten down path of what had always been, and what has
always been isn't what is today and what is the future for our
companies and what they need, and what the training options
that are truly out there.
So we realized early on, you know, all these programs that
could and would exist aren't going to make an impact if people
aren't--if students aren't aware of what they need to be, you
know, aware of. So we kind of just started with that simple
process of creating, you know, relationships with our schools
and our companies to make sure the schools, the guidance
counselors, the teachers all knew what these opportunities were
and, again, created this platform that really helps connect the
dots, you know, create that curriculum, create that content
that students, you know, can say: Oh, I didn't know this was an
option for me.
And, just in the last 10 years since we have been doing it,
I mean, the number of young people that are--you know, 10 years
ago were just simply just straight going off to college, which
there is nothing wrong with that, but just simply doing it in
college, I would say 90 percent of our students were going down
that path. Now I would say it is closer to probably 50/50.
Many more young people are going into the career-based
fields. Our career high schools are filling up. Like I said, at
least 50 percent of the students are now going that direction.
And many, many more are enrolling in pre-apprenticeship
programs and then apprenticeship programs.
So, to us, it really starts with awareness and making sure
that students at a very--at early age as possible, understand
what is here and start to direct them into what programs could
be--if we do that right, I think more and more students will
take advantage of these programs and will most certainly
benefit the companies because they have somebody that, you
know, truly wants to be there and understands why--you know,
why they are going in that direction, so----
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Thank you.
I will yield back. We are over time.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentlelady's time has
expired.
I will now recognize the gentlelady, Ms. Davids from
Kansas, the Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Economic Growth,
Tax, and Capital Access, for 5 minutes.
Ms. DAVIDS. Thank you, Chairman Crow, and to Ranking Member
Young Kim for holding this hearing today.
You know, in the Kansas Third and across the country, we
are definitely seeing serious workforce shortages in every
sector, and it has, I think, been especially challenging for
small businesses. And, you know, as we continue to invest in
our youth and workforce development programs, I know we are
hearing from you all about some of the better ways for us to be
able to do that.
This is going to be the way that we build a stronger and
more resilient economy, and that includes young people, us
encouraging the work you are doing and encouraging young people
to go into and explore entrepreneurship and apprenticeships.
And that is why I was really, really proud to help
introduce the 21st Century Entrepreneurship Act with my fellow
Committee Member Rep. Dean Phillips. And, for folks who aren't
familiar with this bill, our bill would require the SBA to
develop an entrepreneurship curriculum for the 21st Century
Learning Centers, which provide additional educational
opportunities and resources to typically underserved students,
which we have heard you all make reference to in your work.
This curriculum will be developed and implemented using the
partnership with local volunteers from SCORE, which is the
Service Corps of Retired Executives.
So I wanted to--Ms. Kobes, in your written testimony, you
did recommend expanding youth entrepreneurship opportunities in
conjunction with youth apprenticeship. I am curious, if you
could share with us, though, how the legislation like the 21st
century entrepreneurship bill could help do that, and then
maybe talk a little bit about the ways that entrepreneurship
and apprenticeships can go hand in hand.
Ms. KOBES. Yeah, I will start with the last part of your
question, which I think youth apprenticeship and
entrepreneurship actually go together quite well. So I
appreciate that question, and I think small businesses are a
place where you see that juncture.
So, if you think about a student who hasn't really explored
entrepreneurship before, being in a small business is a setting
where they are more likely to see all of the different aspects
that you need to really operate a business. So, through what
you think of as, you know, the more traditional parts of a
youth apprenticeship, a student would learn the technical
skills that they need in the industry that they are focused on.
And so they could learn--I think you mentioned HVAC. You
know, they could learn their HVAC skills or, you know, their
insurance skills or whatever. But then, being in a small
business, they will actually see much more upfront and closely
than they would in a large business what it actually takes to
make all of the back-end decisions to run that business, to
market the business, you know, the different partners that you
would need to be engaged with, and the people that they are
learning from would bring that broader range of skills and
exposure. And so that value of a small business for students
who are really considering entrepreneurship is a great pairing.
In terms of, you know, how specific legislation can support
entrepreneurship, I can follow up with you in writing. JFF has
thoughts on that that go beyond my thoughts for this morning,
so I can put that in the record for you as a follow-up.
Ms. DAVIDS. Oh, that would be great. And one of the most
disappointing parts about these is we only get 5 minutes on--
especially when they are very interesting hearings likes the
one today.
Mr. Ginsburg, I actually do have a specific question for
you, but I saw a lot of head nodding while your fellow witness
was speaking. Do you want to add anything to that first
question? And then I will follow up. I actually have questions
for everybody on the panel.
Mr. GINSBURG. Well, I would certainly say ditto. That is
why I was shaking my head. Everything you said is so right on.
And we are now in the second year of a pilot working just with
Black-owned businesses in inner city Denver, which tend to be
very small. There might only be two or three employees, but now
they have an apprentice. And for all the reasons you said,
these young people are getting to see the entire business. It
is what I did when I started Intertech with 12 employees. I
learned everything.
So apprenticeship works particularly well for small
businesses because the economics works well, and people like
working with young people and seeing them grow and expand. So
more to come in terms of the evidence, but what I know from the
evidence we have so far with Black and Brown students in our
programs is they take advantage of this more so than White
students, frankly, because the narrative of ``I am going to
college'' still exists. So, for marginalized communities, this
is a real game changer and ultimately can make college more
affordable if they choose.
Ms. DAVIDS. Thank you. And we will definitely follow up. I
would love to hear more about the pilot program. Chairman, I
yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. And we will have a chance to go
for a second round if we want to as well. The gentlelady yields
back.
I now recognize the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Williams, the
Vice Ranking Member of the Committee for 5 minutes.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you,
Ranking Member Young Kim, for bringing everybody here.
And thank you for the panelists. It is a great panel.
Just to begin with, I am from Texas. I employ 700 people
down there as we speak. I think we got six apprentices working
for us this morning. But I would like to start off by
addressing the recent announcement we have had of another month
of staggering high inflation.
And, for over a year, American families and businesses have
been put under increased financial stress due to increasing
prices. And Tuesday's consumer price index reading of 8.2
percent showed that inflation is still painfully high, causing
more uncertainty for small business owners on main street.
A recent survey by the NFIB found that 86 percent of the
business owners reported having to raise their average selling
prices due to Biden's skyrocketing inflation. And I am in the
car business, and it is not easy to raise prices on customers.
These constant rising prices are not sustainable. We must keep
reckless government spending and begin to get more disciplined
with our finances, just as every business and family across the
country is forced to do.
So, Mr. Ebbing, briefly, can you elaborate on how increased
prices have altered operations for the businesses you work
with, and how does this affect their ability to plan for future
growth opportunities? If you can do that fairly quickly.
Mr. EBBING. Yeah. Everything you said we do here on a daily
basis. They have to make ends meet, and they are reluctant to
increase their pricing because they don't want to lose, you
know, potential business, but at the same time they have to.
And, on top of that, you know, the hyper wage inflation that
they are experiencing, they are being forced to do more with
less.
So it is very challenging. You know, obviously the
workforce piece of it is a huge piece of the puzzle that we
need to try to help solve because there is a lot of other
things going on right now, again, including increased prices
that they are having to deal with every single day. We hear it
every day.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Yeah. As I said, I have been in the car
business now for 51 years, an 89-year-old family business. We
have hundreds of people. And I know firsthand that we are
always in need of more mechanics, technicians, other critical
skilled workers.
I was secretary of state of Texas before I was in Congress,
and one of the stories I like to tell is that we lost a
billion-dollar improvement in Texas on the coast, Governor
Perry and myself. We had locked it in, were going to sign it
next week, and I get a call in, and they decide to go to
Minnesota. And, if you are from Texas, Minnesota is not a
factor. But they are going to Minnesota simply for one thing:
Minnesota had welders. And I always tell that story because
this is a good example of what we are talking about.
So I know about the need of these skilled workers, and our
country is facing a growing skills gap, as we have talked
about, as younger generations are not joining the vocational
workforce at a high enough rate. We have 100,000 kids every
year dropping out of school in the ninth grade in Texas. That
is 100,000 every year, and we need to let them know it is okay
to be a welder, plumber, carpenter, mechanic, and so forth, and
you all are doing that.
And so it is not necessary for a high school student to
always attend a 4-year college. I think we have seen that. But
a 4-year degree is not for everyone. So we need to ensure
students know that there are other higher demand opportunities
that provide them with a good-paying job, successful career.
And we know the jobs what they can get when they get out,
right. Everybody thinks lawyer, business guy, architect, or
whatever, but lots of times--many times there is more out there
for these paying jobs than is in other areas.
And that is why I introduced the Student Debt Alternative
and CTE Awareness Act--check it out--which informs high school
students about career and technical education opportunities
before they commit to a traditional 4-year university and take
out student loans. Of course, they may not have to pay the
student loans back, but at least they have that in front of
them. Instead of forcing students into years of debt, this
ensures that high school seniors know what their viable options
are.
So, Ms. Watkins, how can we encourage more students to
pursue CTE, and how is your center ensuring that high school
students are made aware of the CTE programs and continue to
stay involved?
Ms. WATKINS. That is an excellent question. I think we are
often what we consider the best-kept secret in our area. In
terms of recruiting and marketing and supporting students, a
huge part of that goes back to what parents understand and what
our typical rhetoric has been, which is college for all, which
is great if that is the direction you want to go. If you have
interest and opportunity in other areas, such as welding--for
example, I have a 16-year-old son who has decided he wants to
be a welder, and he is going to work in Louisiana. So it is
giving them an opportunity to see their aspirations and to try
things out when they are younger. And so I think a big part of
this goes back to exposing students at younger ages to a
variety of careers that go beyond what is typically addressed
in an academic environment.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Go ahead. I am sorry.
Ms. WATKINS. Oh, that is okay.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Well, I was going to say, in closing, there
is no reason a kid in the ninth grade should lose hope----
Ms. WATKINS. No.
Mr. WILLIAMS.--in this country. And that is why it is
important what you are doing and what my bill does and others.
We have to keep--the greatest workforce in the world is right
here in America.
Ms. WATKINS. Absolutely.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield my time
back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you.
The gentleman yields back.
I will now recognize the gentlelady from New York, Ms.
Tenney, for 5 minutes.
Ms. TENNEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member.
And thank you to the witnesses for this great Committee
discussion because I am a small business owner that is always
looking to try to find people to work in our business and to
work with our community partners. And, you know, we hear a lot
about this labor shortage. It is the number one thing I hear on
the campaign trail from employers is how do we get people to
come to work, how do we get them trained and skilled.
And we are advertising for the first time extensively
instead of having a waiting list for employees, which is really
unusual for our business. We are in a rural area where we could
provide a lot of benefits that most businesses don't, except
the government, but we compete against the government for great
employees.
But, you know, this is great that we are trying to find
students younger and get them into things. And, you know, the
tight labor market obviously is great for students--or great
for young people and great for people to get--you know, to
drive up the wages, get better benefits. We know what that is
like because we are in a rural area, so we have always
experienced the tight labor market. And it gives the employees
an advantage to be able to take care of their families.
One of the issues that arise for us that I am looking at is
we cannot find candidates really who have the experience, so
this is really why it is so important. And this is not good for
workers who are not able to take advantage of these job
opportunities and what employers are looking for and needing
the staff. We have always tried to bridge gaps with--a lot of
our salespeople are very clever. They know how to--you can work
with the local BOCES and get, you know, an apprentice to come
in and help. And that is one of the things that I think that we
need to rebalance, how the government responds to this tension
and without getting in the way of the employers but providing a
resource.
And, you know, we obviously have a lot of immigrants that
are coming in, which are wonderful in our farm communities and
especially helping us, but we also have foreign labor that are
being incentivized to come in and take jobs from others. And
this sometimes can be a disincentive through some of our small
businesses who really just want to hire, as my colleague from
Texas pointed out.
We have great educational institutions in my region. I just
want to mention our BOCES again. They are phenomenal with the
work that they do. Herkimer College, Mohawk Valley Community
College in my area, the community colleges, and generally the
system in New York are doing a wonderful job, and they provide
this hands-on training and extra training and high-tech
training. Yesterday we talked about right to repair and getting
people to be able to learn how to fix things again, and that is
a big issue.
But right now the answer to this--what I am concerned about
with this tight labor market is also--one thing I wanted to
just bring up, and I know it is--I am using up a lot of my time
that I want to ask a couple of you questions--is that one of my
greatest experiences as a Member of the New York State Assembly
was an inner city group came in, young students who said they
were for keeping the minimum wage the same because if the
minimum wage went up, there would be less of them who would be
able to engage in summer programs. So I just want to mention
there was a lot of interesting aspects of teaching students
about the economy and economic issues.
But I first want to just draw my attention to Mr. Ginsburg.
And you wrote about how many enterprise employees have
effective training programs but have difficulty in recruiting
young people. What is the problem with recruiting young people?
And I have this question burning in my mind: Why aren't they
coming out to work, and how do we get them out to work and
understand the value and dignity of good work?
Mr. GINSBURG. I don't think that it is--well, thank you for
the question. It is not because they don't want to work; it is
they don't know what the opportunities are. What is unique
about youth apprenticeship that starts in high school and does
career exploration in middle school is they then have an idea
of what they might be interested in.
The second part of that though is--and as an employer, I
tried for many years to make those connections, but until
CareerWise working as that intermediary, we didn't have the
connection to the schools to help the students explore what it
is their interests are, to be exposed to the different career
options, and what the compensation looks like----
Ms. TENNEY. So you are saying the schools aren't even
talking about this?
Mr. GINSBURG. They are not connected to the businesses
until now. It is not that they didn't want businesses to share
that information. Businesses were not showing up. We have
created an opportunity----
Ms. TENNEY. So career day and job fairs and all the things
that we host as Members of Congress?
Mr. GINSBURG. Very episodic.
Ms. TENNEY. Yeah.
Mr. GINSBURG. Not systemic.
Ms. TENNEY. Okay.
Mr. GINSBURG. And the systemic component--we have--in our
tech platform, it enables employers to see the apprentices, see
what their resume is essentially, have a video of that young
person explaining their interests and why, and it makes those
connections.
Ms. TENNEY. Quickly, because I want to ask you this though,
what are the--in manufacturing, what are the toughest jobs to
fill? I only have a few seconds left.
Mr. GINSBURG. All of the technical skills.
Ms. TENNEY. All of them.
Mr. GINSBURG. I will tell you that we have an apprentice
who designed, engineered, and built and programmed automation
cells that enabled us to bring product back from China, over $5
million worth of product back from China. And he was a high
school student when he did that. He is now earning $70,000. The
difference was we connected with the schools, in this case
Cherry Creek School District, and made the opportunity
available for him. It has changed his life.
Ms. TENNEY. That is tremendous. Thank you so much. I yield
my time back. Thank you.
Chairman CROW. Thank you. The gentlelady yields back.
I am going to take an opportunity to do one more quick
round here because I know there is some more questions, and if
you all had some more, I will loop back with you.
But I wanted to flesh out--so I will recognize myself for
another 5 minutes--with Ms. Watkins, because one thing that you
touched on at the beginning, and you have touched on a couple
of points, because we have talked a lot about systematic issues
in the school districts and the education issue, systematic
issues within the business system, but I really want to drive
on the students, the apprentices themselves, right. And you
touched on in your opening testimony the idea of some barriers
that they face, whether it is transportation, whether it is
childcare.
So, in CTE and the shipyards and the areas in Bremerton
where you do business, like what are some of those barriers
that the individuals are facing, and what are you seeing as
effective to breaking down those barriers?
Ms. WATKINS. Thank you for the question. So I would say,
first of all, transportation is a huge challenge for
particularly our location. We are very rural. We have students
that travel an hour and a half one way each day to participate
in CTE programs with us because they are not offered in their
areas. And those students have less access to viable careers in
their industries locally, so transportation for them to do an
apprenticeship program or to have a work-based learning
experience is more challenging. So transportation is a huge
issue.
The other thing that happens with a lot of our students is
that they come from poverty. We have a lot of students that
have to support their own families, and so that creates a
barrier when internship opportunities, work-based learning
opportunities are nonpaid; they have to make a decision between
finding a job versus finding an opportunity for that career. So
that is two of the big ones for us.
Chairman CROW. Thank you for that, and I appreciate it.
I will now yield to the Ranking Member, Mrs. Kim, for 5
minutes.
Ms. YOUNG KIM. Thank you very much. I am really glad that
we held up the hearing as long as we could so we can have
Member Houlahan join us because I know you always engage our
witnesses with great questions. So I am glad you are here.
And I know on our side we have some Members who want to ask
questions. But, rather than asking a question, I just, again,
wanted to reiterate my special thanks for all of you being here
to share your expertise on how the youth engagement, youth
apprenticeship, the programs that you are, you know,
implementing is really working.
And I am really glad to hear, Ms. Watkins, to hear that
your 16-year-old son is engaged in welding and becoming a
certified welder. That will surely prepare him for the job
market that is out there.
But the challenges that we talked about is also, even when
we have hearings like this, we have great, you know, Members of
the small business community that we wanted to bring and share
their experience as well, just like you are doing. But the
challenge is they can't be here because they can't take the
time off because they are small businesses. How do they
backfill if they leave their operation?
So those are the challenges of meeting the labor force, you
know, the shortages. So I just wanted to echo the difficulties,
the challenges, the workforce development that we need to focus
on, training, retaining, the quality labor force; these are the
challenges. So it is really important.
And, Chairman, I really want to thank you for your
leadership for us holding these type of hearings. More and
more, it is needed. But obviously we want to be able to do more
roundtable type of discussions so that we can listen to more
real life expertise, meeting with those challenges by telling
us what we can do better so we can help build that workforce
and fill the gap and all that stuff.
So I just wanted to thank you again and share that we
understand what you are facing. We appreciate the information
you are sharing, and we will go to work in making sure that
youth apprenticeship, for example, as Mr. Ginsburg and all of
you mentioned, that it is not just a program, but we can help
to make it a transformational system that works.
Thank you. I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you.
The gentlelady yields back.
I will now recognize the gentlelady from Pennsylvania, Ms.
Houlahan, for 5 minutes.
Ms. HOULAHAN. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you so much
for the chance to speak. And sorry for being tardy. I am trying
to straddle three different committees today at the very same
time slot. But my heart is very much with small businesses. I
am an entrepreneur myself, and I am grateful for the
opportunity to sit with you today.
Thank you again for your testimonies.
There is definitely going to be a generation of youth that
will be on the forefront of addressing the emerging challenges
that we are all facing collectively today. Because these
challenges will inevitably require innovative, technical, and
advanced solutions, the benefits of youth apprenticeship and--
of CTE can't be underestimated especially amid our workforce
issues that are impacting businesses on account of the
pandemic.
So I am hopeful that today's youth will be able to benefit
from the recent action that has been taken in Congress to
address some of our nation's most pressing issues, including
the passage of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and
Jobs Act, the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act, and the
Inflation Reduction Act.
It is really critical that our nation's youth and small
business owners will be able to access the vital workforce
development resources that we have provided in light of these
once-of-a-generation investments and the millions of jobs that
we hope that they will be able to create.
My first question is to Ms.--is it Kobes?
Ms. KOBES. Kobes.
Ms. HOULAHAN. Kobes, apologize. You mentioned in your
testimony that recipients of these new federal resources will
require assistance to be able to learn about apprenticeships
and connect to appropriate stakeholders. Could you please
elaborate on what this Committee and what Congress in general
can be doing to make sure that small businesses can tap into
the public funding that is available for youth apprenticeship?
Ms. KOBES. Yes. Thank you for the question. And I think
that ties into the earlier questions around inflation and how
our economy is affecting individuals as well. It is certainly
true that the economy has affected small businesses in a very
serious way. It is also exacerbating the challenges faced by
the rising inequality in our country, and individuals who are
left out of economic opportunity are facing those consequences
even more severely during inflation. And, you know, the
investments made through the bills that you mentioned really
create an opportunity to invest in our workforce.
And I have seen--my husband even works for a manufacturing
company in batteries, and they were applying for, you know, a
new grant, and it includes now, you know, an equity plan around
job quality, around workforce development. And he came to me
and he said: Who should we be talking to?
You know, they are in Colorado as well and expanding into
other locations. But they don't have the background to know
these are the workforce development agencies that we can work
with; these are the schools that could provide us talented
solutions; you know, these are the intermediaries even that we
should be tapping into.
And so what you have now is funding that is going out to
more businesses, to, you know, state agencies, transportation
agencies, all of these different opportunities that build in
workforce as a core strategy to actually succeed through these
grants. But they are not workforce people, and so you really do
need a way to get the word out to all of those potential
grantees so they can navigate the new workforce incentives that
are built within the grant opportunities.
Ms. HOULAHAN. Does anybody have anything else to add? I
have another question I would love to ask as well, but, Mr.
Ginsburg, you look eager.
Mr. GINSBURG. What I would say is, in order to scale this,
how we connect with business, at CareerWise we say we are
student centered but business driven, that that connection in
educating businesses on how this impacts their bottom line in a
positive way, how it fills that early pipeline of talent that
is essential is part of it, and those intermediaries are
essential to make it easier for them until it becomes systemic.
And we need our colleges, our community colleges. Our CTE
programs are powerfully effective, but it--right now it is a
fragmented system. It needs to be a holistic system. So driving
investments to bring those people together and to ensure that
business voice is at the center because, if it won't, they
won't do it. And that is a tragedy for them and our young
people and ultimately our country.
Ms. HOULAHAN. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, could I ask a second
question? I just want to make sure I don't run out of time.
Chairman CROW. Yeah.
Ms. HOULAHAN. Perfect. Thank you.
I also would like very much to focus on the importance of
youth workforce development with regard to STEM and STEAM.
Very, very excited that my community is actively investing in
initiatives that would be able to prepare our youth for
valuable and needed STEM careers with the development of new
STEM high school academies in places like Reading,
Pennsylvania, that have been funded by federal COVID aid, as
well as West Chester University's new sciences and engineering
center.
To, Mr. Ebbing, who I believe is on the screen, similar to
my community in Pennsylvania's Sixth District, you mentioned
that local schools in your area are establishing new career-
based curricula. Can you please describe how these developments
benefit local communities across our country as well as student
success and career readiness?
Mr. EBBING. Yes. Thank you very much for the question.
Yeah, it has been a game changer for us. We have been layering
career connection curriculum in at the freshman and sophomore
year already in with the STEAM curriculum so that they not only
become interested in STEM and STEAM and all that goes with it
but how the careers, you know, relate to those courses.
So, to us, it has been a game changer in the sense of just
truly layering in that information at an early age. So every
freshman will take the class. A lot of sophomores will take it
to, again, learn not just about the class work but how it
relates to the real world. And we bring companies in to educate
them on what this class work means to them as a company.
And it just sows the seeds, you know, of awareness and
connecting the dots that, when the students become juniors and
seniors, whether or not they want to go into career technical
education or straight into a pre-apprenticeship program, now
they are armed with that information of truly understanding
what this class means to the real world and the careers. So
layering it in, we believe, is very important as part of that
education model in their early high school years.
Ms. HOULAHAN. Thank you. I appreciate all of your time, and
I yield back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you.
The gentlelady yields back.
I will now recognize the gentleman from Texas, Mr.
Williams, for 5 minutes.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Thank you, Chairman.
And I just made a few notes here. You know, one thing we--
and I am sure you are involved with them too. I represent Fort
Hood, large military base in America. We have got a lot of
soldiers that are transitioning out, that need some assistance.
And I hope somehow they are included in your program too
because a lot of them are 20, 21, 22 years old. They are
disciplined. They know how to work. And they need a job, and
they are pretty good. So that is a big, I think, opportunity
for us to do that.
And I think also a lot of these kids today don't have the
background we had from the fact that you go to work and, hey,
if you make money, that is good. Profits are really good and so
forth. They don't hear that so much anymore. They almost hear
the opposite. They hear that $15 minimum wage is a career. It
is not a career. Okay. They need to think bigger than that.
Drawing unemployment is not a career. Okay. They need to--
bringing a payroll check home is pretty good. And I think they
have to fight with that all the time.
And then they hear about, well, that you can borrow money,
and it will be written off; you don't have to pay it back. Then
they hear back that this--like the student loans, they don't
have to pay their car notes for various reasons. They have got
forbearance on their apartments. I mean, it sets a bad tone for
a mind that wants to work and get after it. We need to be much
more positive towards these kids and show them how to make a
living. They don't need all this.
And, at the end of the day, from a small business owner
standpoint, we need to cut taxes. We need to quit raising taxes
and talking about it, cut taxes so I have extra money that I
can go out--instead of having six apprentices, I can go have 16
apprentices. So that is kind of the things we need to do.
And so I would just say real quick, Ms. Watkins, and we
have talked about this, but I want to hear what you have to say
about the opportunity, what steps can a business owner like
mine--I employ over--almost 300 people--what can I do to
establish connections with CTE programs and recent graduates?
You know, I told you, we have got a bill; we would tell them:
Hey, there is opportunity out there.
But how can I do that?
Ms. WATKINS. That is a great question. So I think, first of
all, going back to the Swiss model or the German model, one of
the key things is that it is like a stool with three prongs. It
has government support. It has business support. And it has the
school support. And I think small businesses, in particular,
helping us reach out to you and you reaching back to us. I
think there is opportunity as simple as reaching out and
saying: Hey, I need employees that can do these things.
We have an automotive program right now, and right across
the street from our center is the Haselwood Group, and the
Haselwood Group is an automotive group that is next to us. So
they actually work with bringing our students in just to see
what their shops look like now because the parents' shop days
of what it looked like in an automotive shop is not what it
looks like today. So getting them involved and into and
interested in that way also I think is really critical.
Mr. WILLIAMS. Well, you are right. I mean, I get back to my
business, and these kids are electricians. They are not
mechanics, you know, or you used to call them wrenches. And
these are smart kids.
Ms. WATKINS. Absolutely.
Mr. WILLIAMS. And they really, really do well, and it is--
shops are cleaner. Just a great opportunity for them. And we
need them bad. We need body people. We them in body shops; we
need them badly, that can fix these cars and so forth.
So, anyway, look, we get political here a lot. Most of the
time we are. I have already been political in my statements
today. But, at the end of the day, what you all are doing is
great, and it is going to--my business is a third-generation
business. Now my kids run it. And they have got to be able to
have a workforce to continue the business and so forth. And we
have got to make tax cuts permanent so we make more money
because what we don't have--what people are saying about
businesses like mine and yours, that if we make money, we don't
save it; we spend it, and we invest, and we give opportunities.
So thank you for being here. I yield--yes, sir, Mr.
Ginsburg.
Mr. GINSBURG. Well, something you said resonates with me in
that the jobs that you create in your shop pay really well.
But, in this country, if we say there is only one path to
opportunity and that is a 4-year degree, then there is
something less than in a job in your shop or in my company. And
it shouldn't be. There should be equal dignity in any path that
you choose that leads to a career that puts a roof over your
head, a car in the garage, and opportunity for your children.
And business holds the key to that.
And I just want to emphasize that, when we talk about the
future, it is not just one pathway to opportunity in this
country anymore. That ends up with trillions of debt,
noncompleters in our 4-year system, and business without the
talent they need.
Mr. WILLIAMS. I mean, you talk about dignity, I can tell
you, we had a cold snap in Texas, and those plumbers and those
welders were called, and nobody asked them, what are you going
to charge me when you get out here? So they--but you are right.
A job is a job. A job in America is the greatest job. I yield
back.
Chairman CROW. Thank you.
The gentleman yields back.
Thank you to our witnesses, again, for joining us today.
The pandemic inflicted a deep shock on the American labor
force, and as we continue to work back toward normalcy,
workforce development programs can help boost our pool of
qualified workers, provide young people with the education and
skills they need to launch their careers.
Although I will say, some people say ``return back to
normal,'' and we are not ever going to return back to the
normal as it used to be because things are changing. The
workforce is evolving. The future is looking different, and it
should because I think, as you all mentioned, there are greater
opportunities for our young people that we have to pursue for
them.
We have seen the power of youth apprenticeship programs in
providing that and the ability to upskill workers and to help
small businesses meet their staffing needs. So I think there is
consensus that embracing this model and others like it, we can
make these programs more accessible to young people and small
businesses alike. So I look forward to working with the
Committee Members to pursue policies that will help achieve
this goal.
Without objection, Members have 5 legislative days to
submit statements and supporting materials for the record.
And, if there is no further business to come before the
Committee, without objection, we are adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:21 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
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