You Asked. NAWB Listened! The NAWB Learning Lab Is HERE.

Posted on by Grace Moster

Thousands of courses. Real credentials. One low price.

Jennifer Wilson, Ph.D. | October 12, 2026 | Blog

This summer, NAWB members shared their priorities through the Member Survey. One message came through clearly: you want practical, affordable professional development that fits your schedule. The NAWB Learning Lab, powered by the National Education Foundation (NEF), launched on September 28 at the Workforce Impact Summit.

What You Get

For $75 per person, a $525 savings off the $600 list price, every learner gets 12 months of 24/7 access to:

  • 7,000+ on-demand courses in business, interpersonal, and technology skills
  • 170+ industry-recognized certification pathways
  • NAWB Journeys in strategic planning, leadership, and board governance
  • Digital badges to share on LinkedIn

You and your team can learn at your own pace and build real credentials without stretching your budget.

Built for Every Board

No two workforce boards are alike. Rural or urban, large budget or small, the Learning Lab works the same way: one low price, one year of access, learning on your schedule.

  • Invest in yourself. Start a NAWB Journey.
  • Equip your board. Enroll every board member on one form.
  • Train your team. Purchase 10 or more licenses and your team can receive a how-to webinar.
  • Strengthen business services. Business services staff can use the Learning Lab to build knowledge on the employer topics they work with every day.
  • Prepare your customers. Job seekers can use the Learning Lab to build skills and earn credentials that prepare them for the workforce.

Open to Your Partners Too

NAWB is extending the member price to the entire workforce ecosystem: partner program staff, colleges, employers, community organizations, and the job seekers you serve. Partners can also receive a customized learning experience that shows their team how to use the platform and get the most from it. When the whole system learns together, it delivers better results for every community.

Get Started

To sign up for the NAWB Learning Lab:

  1. NAWB Learning Lab
  2. Click the Sign Up button.
  3. Fill out the form with all licensee information and click Submit.
  4. You will receive your coupon code.
  5. Select the number of licenses, add the coupon code, and check out.
  6. Complete the payment process.
  7. You will receive two emails: a Welcome email and an email from Percipio with your login credentials.
  8. Start learning!

Tip: To find NAWB Journeys, type NAWB in the search bar.

Questions? Email nawb@nawb.org.

Jennifer Wilson, Ph.D., NAWB’s Senior Advisor for Professional Development and Training, brings two decades of workforce development experience to her role. She has overseen WIOA Title I and Title II programs and One-Stop Operator contracts, led higher education workforce development divisions, and been a local and national workforce board member. Currently, she is the founder of Triple C Solutions, LLC, a consulting firm that advises workforce boards, colleges, states, associations, and industry partners on how to expand workforce development and training nationwide.

Your Priorities Are Our Priorities: What We Learned from the Member Survey So Far

Posted on by Connie Sharp

NAWB membership starts with listening. As our Member Survey closes today, we want you to know: we hear you.

Your perspective shapes your NAWB membership experience. It also helps strengthen the workforce system nationwide.

Strengthening Our Advocacy

You want timely information about what is happening in Washington. You also want to know what it means for your workforce board and the people you serve.

In response, we expanded our advocacy team. Chris Andresen joined Gail Ravnitzsky-Silberglied and Steve Voytek to strengthen the voice of workforce boards in Washington. Together, they advocate for the policies and resources our workforce system needs.

Creating More Ways to Learn and Connect

You asked for practical solutions, professional development, and innovative ideas. You want resources that help your organization move beyond compliance and prepare for what comes next.

We responded by:

  • Launching our monthly “How Do They Do That?” peer-learning series
  • Creating a Community within the NAWB Member Portal
  • Making webinar recordings available for members to watch at their convenience
  • Expanding our professional development and training opportunities

The peer-learning series gives workforce boards a place to share successful strategies and best practices.

Our Member Portal Community offers another way to connect. Members can exchange ideas, ask questions, and learn from one another. They can also access recordings of NAWB webinars when it is most convenient for them.

This week, we also welcomed Dr. Jennifer Wilson to our team. She will help expand NAWB’s professional development and training opportunities.

Expanding Professional Development

Beginning in September, our new virtual learning platform will make training more accessible. Members will receive discounted access to on-demand courses covering:

  • Business and interpersonal skills
  • Industry-specific knowledge
  • Emerging industries and technologies
  • Other skills that support professional growth

You and your team will be able to learn at your own pace, build valuable skills, and access practical expertise without stretching your budget.

Building Membership Around Your Needs

“We Heard You” is bigger than any single program, resource, or benefit. It represents our commitment to a membership experience that reflects the diversity of the workforce boards we serve.

No two workforce boards are alike. Members represent rural and urban communities, as well as organizations with a wide range of budgets and needs.

That is why NAWB membership is not one-size-fits-all. We are listening to your priorities and working to ensure every workforce board has a voice in the future of our national workforce system.

The Workforce Impact Summit will continue this work. It is the first in a series of conversations about creating a workforce system that works for boards and the communities, businesses, and job seekers they serve.

Turning Local Leadership Into National Influence

What you experience locally shapes NAWB’s national priorities. The solutions you develop help boards across the country address similar challenges.

Your expertise also strengthens our advocacy. It helps us pursue policies and resources that reflect the realities of workforce development in communities nationwide.

That is the power of NAWB: connecting local leaders, elevating what works, and bringing the collective voice of workforce boards to the national stage.

NAWB is your partner, your voice, and your association. Together, we can strengthen the workforce system and expand the impact that workforce boards have on businesses, job seekers, and communities.

Keep Talking to Us

Tell us what you need. Let us know what is working, what is not, and what you are learning.

Most importantly, tell us where we can do better.

We hear you. Together, we are turning local leadership into national influence.

Connie Sharp, NAWB’s Director of Membership, brings more than 24 years of workforce development experience to her role. She leads innovative membership strategies, partnerships, and data-informed solutions that strengthen workforce boards and their impact nationwide.

What Happened to the American Summer Job?

Posted on by Andrew Bercich

This summer, my sixteen-year-old son went looking for a job. He filled out applications, interviewed with several employers, followed up, and did most of the things we tell young people they are supposed to do. The answer, more often than not, was the same: employers wanted someone who could keep working daytime hours once school started.

He’ll be fine. Instead of spending the summer behind a counter or working a drive-through, he completed ground school as he works toward becoming a pilot, mowed a few lawns, spent time with friends and, if I’m being completely honest, played more video games than I would have preferred.

What stayed with me was that his experience wasn’t unusual. I kept hearing similar stories from other parents. Responsible teenagers who genuinely wanted to work were applying, interviewing and getting nowhere.

At first, I chalked it up to a difficult hiring season. Then I looked at the data.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 71.8 percent of American teenagers held jobs during the summer of 1978. Today, the share is roughly one in three. The decline happened gradually, over decades, which may be why it has been easy to miss.

But the more interesting question isn’t why teen employment fell. There are plenty of forces at work: changing retail and restaurant business models, e-commerce, self-checkout, digital ordering, tighter scheduling practices and a hiring process that increasingly runs through online systems. Research from Lightcast has also documented employers asking for previous experience in jobs that have traditionally been considered entry level.

That creates an obvious problem: How do you get experience when the jobs that used to provide it increasingly expect you to already have it?

That’s when I realized I had been asking the wrong question. The question wasn’t why my son couldn’t find a summer job. The question was: What happened to the first job itself?

The first job was workforce development

For most of the twentieth century, the American summer job was more than a way for teenagers to earn spending money. In many respects, it was one of the largest workforce development programs in the country.

No legislation created it. No grant funded it. No performance measures tracked it. Every summer, millions of young people learned how to show up on time, deal with customers, work alongside people they didn’t choose, take feedback, solve small problems and earn the trust of an employer. We didn’t call it work-based learning. It was simply work.

That distinction matters because we spend a great deal of time today talking about talent shortages, career pathways and work-based learning. At the same time, one of the most common entry points into the talent pipeline has quietly become less accessible.

This isn’t an argument for recreating the labor market of 1978. We can’t, and we shouldn’t. Technology has changed how businesses operate. Consumer behavior has changed. Employers are under pressure to schedule efficiently and hire people who can contribute quickly.

But if the labor market no longer produces first-job experiences at the scale it once did, we should be asking a much more important question: What replaces them?

A first job is infrastructure, not enrichment

A few weeks ago, at NAWB’s Board of Directors meeting, I learned more about Grow Detroit’s Young Talent, a summer employment initiative that places more than 8,000 young people into paid work experiences each year. What struck me wasn’t just the scale. It was the philosophy behind it. Detroit isn’t waiting for the labor market to recreate opportunities that used to happen naturally. The community has decided to build them intentionally.

I think there is a lesson in that for workforce development.

Summer employment programs, youth apprenticeships, paid internships, career-connected learning and other work-based learning experiences shouldn’t be treated as nice-to-have youth programming. They are modern entry points into the labor market. They give young people a place to develop the habits and confidence employers later say they want.

That also means employers have to be part of the solution. It is difficult to reconcile persistent complaints about a lack of experienced workers with hiring practices that make it harder for inexperienced workers to get their first chance. If employers want a stronger future talent pool, somebody has to give tomorrow’s experienced workers their first experience.

This is where workforce boards can play a different role. We have traditionally been very good at helping people connect to jobs, navigate career transitions and respond to layoffs. Those responsibilities remain essential. But there is another role available to us: helping communities build the first rungs of the ladder when the market is no longer creating enough of them on its own.

The opportunity gap matters

My son’s summer also reminded me of something else. He didn’t get a job, but he had alternatives. He could pursue aviation training. He had yard work to do, college visits to prepare for, spent a ton of time learning Japanese on one of those language apps and other ways to spend his summer productively.

Not every teenager has those options.

For a young person without the same resources or networks, losing access to a first job may mean losing one of the few places where an adult outside the family gives them responsibility, expects something of them and shows them what work actually feels like. That makes this more than a nostalgic story about teenagers and summer vacations. It is also a story about access and opportunity.

So what should we do?

I think three shifts are worth considering.

First, treat early work experience as workforce infrastructure. The question shouldn’t simply be whether a community has youth programs. It should be whether young people have meaningful opportunities to experience work before we expect them to build a career.

Second, change the employer value proposition. Hiring a young person should not be framed only as community service. It is a long-term talent strategy. Employers that want reliable, experienced workers tomorrow have a role in developing them today. Yes, AI and automation maybe less costly in the short run, but in the long run, may end up costing much more when the talent doesn’t exist to run your business.

Third, build what the market no longer produces naturally. Workforce boards, schools, employers, chambers, community colleges and community organizations can create paid work experiences, apprenticeships and other first-job opportunities at a scale that individual institutions cannot achieve alone.

The first job has never been just about the first paycheck. It is where many of us first learned that showing up matters, that customers are sometimes difficult, that coworkers become friends and that responsibility has a way of building confidence.

We have spent years talking about strengthening America’s talent pipeline. Maybe one of the most important things we can do is pay more attention to where that pipeline actually begins.

The labor market may no longer open that first door as often as it once did. That doesn’t mean we should accept a generation growing up with fewer chances to walk through it.

FY27 Continuing Resolution and OMB Update: What Workforce Boards Need to Know

Posted on by Gail Ravnitzky Silberglied

Congress is working to finalize a short-term funding plan as the start of the fiscal year approaches on October 1. Here’s the latest:

House Action on the FY27 Continuing Resolution

The House has passed a narrow FY27 continuing resolution (CR), H.R. 9770, which would extend current FY26 funding levels through December 11. The bill passed along party lines in the House on July 21, 2026. Lawmakers are now in recess.

Senate Agreement on a Parallel CR Framework

The Senate is advancing its own CR, also running through December 11. While the Senate’s CR text is not yet public, leaders have indicated that they have agreement on a short-term extension similar to the House approach. However, the Senate’s CR includes a number of additional policy provisions to garner the bipartisan support needed to clear the measure in the Senate.

Important OMB-Related Language in the Senate Version

The Senate’s version of the FY27 budget resolution includes specific language that would delay OMB’s ability to implement a final Uniform Grant Guidance regulation during the CR period. This matters because it would significantly impact OMB’s ability to revise federal grant guidance under its current proposed timeline. NAWB has previously reported on this and released a Toolkit. The Senate language signals growing Congressional scrutiny of OMB’s proposal.

For Workforce Boards, this means:

  • Increased Congressional scrutiny of OMB’s proposed changes
  • Possible limits on how OMB can finalize the Uniform Guidance rewrite
  • Clear Congressional interest in future federal grantmaking

What This Means for FY27 Workforce Funding

With both chambers aligned on passing a CR to keep the government operating:

  • FY27 will start at FY26 funding levels
  • Appropriations negotiations will resume after the election, pushing major decisions into late fall
  • Workforce Boards should expect level funding until Congress completes full-year appropriations
  • Advocacy remains essential and NAWB encourages its members to download our template letter to contact Congress today.

Why This Matters for Workforce Boards

The CR, if enacted, would keep the system stable for now, but the final decisions about FY27 funding and the future of federal grant rules are still ahead. Workforce Boards should be prepared to:

  • Communicate local impact to congressional offices
  • Highlight how stable and sufficient funding supports employers and jobseekers
  • Monitor OMB’s actions closely as the Uniform Guidance rewrite moves forward

NAWB will continue to track developments and provide updates as Congress advances the CR and begins full-year appropriations negotiations.

18.5 Million Reasons to Fund the Public Workforce System

Posted on by Gail Ravnitzky Silberglied

On January 1, 2027, a seismic shift will hit the nation’s public workforce system.

That’s the day the new federal Medicaid work requirements take effect. Created under last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, 18.5 million adults will be required to complete 80 hours per month of work, community service, education, or participation in a qualifying work program to retain their health care coverage under Medicaid.

Millions of SNAP participants are already subject to expanded work requirements under the same law — including roughly 6.5 million adults without dependents who weren’t meeting the 80-hour threshold when last measured. The two groups overlap — about one in five adults subject to the Medicaid requirement also receives SNAP — and federal law treats SNAP compliance as satisfying the Medicaid requirement. That makes workforce boards the single front door for both: every person we help document 80 hours secures their food assistance and their health coverage at once.

The rules announced by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are clear: WIOA Title I programs count as qualifying work activities. This means the public workforce system will be central to helping millions of people document, verify, and maintain compliance.

This is not a hypothetical policy change. It is a real, imminent operational burden that will fall squarely on local workforce boards, frontline staff, and the infrastructure they manage every day.

NAWB is submitting comments this week on the proposed federal rule and we are requesting a briefing from CMS for the workforce community because, as of this writing, many States have more questions than answers about how to fully implement this work.

 

What This Means for Workforce Leaders

The rule requires verification at application and every renewal that enrollees are meeting the 80‑hour requirement, which states are authorized to verify on a monthly basis. CMS encourages states to coordinate with workforce agencies on data sharing and alignment of job‑search activities to help meet these newly expanded federal administrative requirements.

In practice, this means:

  • Millions of new individuals seeking help documenting qualifying activities
  • Increased demand for job search, training, and placement support
  • New administrative responsibilities for verification and reporting
  • More coordination of activities and sharing of data across various State, county and municipal entities
  • Greater pressure on already‑strained staff capacity and technology systems

The public workforce system is the only national infrastructure capable of supporting 18.5 million individuals who must now navigate work‑requirement compliance. But it cannot absorb this surge without meaningful federal investment.

 

The Stakes for FY27

The House Appropriations Committee approved a bill in June that would cut WIOA Title I formula grants by 62 percent, effectively eliminating WIOA Adult and Youth funding.

At the exact moment when the workforce system is being asked to support millions more people, federal funding is at risk of shrinking.

Workforce boards cannot meet the demands of the modern economy—or the demands of new federal mandates—without strengthened investment.

 

What Workforce Leaders Can Do Right Now

Congress needs to hear directly from workforce leaders about what the Medicaid work requirements will mean on the ground: the administrative burden, the surge in demand, the strain on staff, and the risk of leaving millions of people without the support they need to comply.

  1. NAWB has a template letter  to help you make the case. Use it to:
  • Contact your Members of Congress
  • Explain the operational realities of changes to SNAP and Medicaid
  • Urge increased funding for FY27
  1. Join us for the Workforce Impact Summit in Washington, DC September 28-30. Registration is now open and space is limited.

There are 18.5 million reasons to advocate today. Congress must hear from us before FY27 decisions are made.

 

Strengthening Apprenticeships: Reflections from a Congressional Hearing

Posted on by Jennifer Wilson

By Dr. Jennifer Wilson

I recently attended a House Education and Workforce Subcommittee hearing focused on apprenticeships. This was of particular interest to me as a former Vice President of Workforce Development at a community college and a Board member of the National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB).

The hearing centered in part on President Trump’s agenda to have 1 million apprentices by 2030, including ways to meet that critical goal. It was encouraging to see bipartisan support for a proven training and employment model that can help build a stronger, more qualified and resilient workforce.

Throughout the hearing, witnesses emphasized the growing importance of nondegree pathways. Apprenticeships stand out because they combine paid, on-the-job experience with structured learning in a way that benefits both employers and workers. At the same time, the conversation did not devote a lot of focus to the ongoing challenges facing the broader workforce system, including how it can help to support these pathways to family sustaining employment.

A Fragmented System

One of the most persistent challenges is how disconnected the workforce system can feel. There is often limited clarity around how employers, education providers, and workforce organizations should work together, what role each plays, what resources are needed to support effective implementation, and too little agreement on a needed common language to describe this work and related outcomes.

These challenges were also evident in discussions about apprenticeships. While multiple approaches are designed to support talent development, many employers choose to create their own programs rather than pursue formal registration. Using this Earn-While-You-Learn model for many cases reflects a reduction of time and administrative demands associated with the registration and tracking process.

In Iowa, I have worked extensively on designing short-term, credential-based career pathways using an apprenticeship model without red tape.  I have observed the practical challenges of these registration requirements firsthand. Many small and mid-sized businesses do not have the internal systems or staff needed to manage reporting expectations. Employers are often interested in investing in their workforce, but participation must be balanced with day-to-day operational demands.  Additionally, there is not a scalable business model where there is dedicated funding for intermediary organizations who help align pathways, systems, or oversee required reporting.

Simplifying the registration process would be a good first step. The National Association of Workforce Boards, where I am proud to serve on the Board, Download NAWB’s Registered Apprenticeship Toolkit to help address the complexities of registered apprenticeships.

Gaps in the Conversation

Several important areas could benefit from further attention from lawmakers:

  • The role of workforce boards: Workforce boards operate at the intersection of employers, education providers, and community organizations. This positioning allows them to play a more central role in advancing apprenticeship efforts. They can help employers (small, mid-sized, and large) navigate available options, connect training providers with industry needs, support data coordination, and strengthen collaboration across partners. Expanding support for this much needed intermediary role may require clearer guidance, improved alignment across systems, flexibility to support different apprenticeship models, and, most importantly, predictable funding streams to help scale these efforts.
  • Data and return on investment: There was limited discussion about how apprenticeship programs are evaluated relative to other workforce initiatives or how return on investment is consistently defined and measured. While apprenticeships differ from other programs in significant ways, alignment of consistent metrics for apprenticeships would be helpful, particularly within existing frameworks such as WIOA. Without common definitions and measurable benchmarks, programs can operate independently, with funding, reporting, and program goals that may not be in alignment.
  • Rethinking higher education: It was also suggested that higher education needs to be redesigned to better meet workforce needs, and I couldn’t agree more. This is an important conversation to have. Workforce Pell, which allows short-term workforce training, is one way to address the issue, and Apprenticeships for America has produced an implementation guide to support these efforts. Another approach would see more alignment from the outset between education providers, accrediting bodies, employers, workforce boards, and policymakers. Apprenticeships can be a valuable component when supported by a coordinated system, particularly when apprenticeships and postsecondary education are more tightly connected with one another.

Call to Action

  • Workforce boards are inextricably involved in facilitating and supporting apprenticeships across the country, but lawmakers do not seem aware of this work. My fellow workforce board leaders can use NAWB’s customizable template letter to share both how they are contributing to accomplishing the goal of increasing the number of apprenticeships and how the processes can be improved going forward.
  • Policymakers can help by working toward greater alignment between education and workforce systems so that policies reinforce, rather than complicate, apprenticeship models.
  • Education providers can design programs that integrate more seamlessly with work-based learning.
  • Employers remain central to this effort, and their experience is critical in shaping how systems evolve. Their local workforce boards can support them in exploring new apprenticeships.

There is broad agreement that apprenticeships offer an effective pathway to connect individuals to meaningful careers while helping employers meet workforce needs. Fully realizing that potential will depend on clearer coordination, defined roles, and practical support for employers.

Dr. Jennifer Wilson sits as a Board of Director for the National Association of Workforce Boards, has been a nationally recognized advocate of education and workforce development, and currently is CEO of her own consulting firm, Tripple C Solutions, LLC, where she assists associations, workforce boards, higher education institutions, and employers in REAL systemic change by connecting credentials to careers.   

 

We Need Your Voice—And We Need It Now 

Posted on by Andrew Bercich

At a time when workforce boards are being asked to produce better outcomes with fewer resources, the federal government has proposed sweeping changes to the rules governing federal grants. 

The National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB) strongly opposes these proposed changes. 

Not because we oppose accountability. Quite the opposite. Workforce boards understand better than anyone that public dollars carry public trust. Every day, boards across the country are accountable to taxpayers, local elected officials, governors, state workforce agencies, federal partners, employers, and the workers who depend on us. We welcome oversight. We welcome transparency. We welcome responsible stewardship of federal funds. 

What we cannot support are regulations that increase administrative burden, associated compliance costs, and disruption of critical services all without providing any tangible benefits or improvements to the current regulatory framework for federal grant funding. 

If adopted as written, these proposed changes would make it harder for workforce boards—and virtually every organization or entity that receives federal grant funding directly or indirectly—to focus on the work Congress intended those dollars to accomplish. Instead of investing more time connecting workers to careers, helping employers address workforce shortages, supporting veterans, serving opportunity youth, strengthening apprenticeship programs, or responding to local economic challenges, organizations will be forced to devote even more time to navigating new compliance requirements, documenting routine activities, and managing additional administrative risk.  Here are just a few examples of how this may play out in practice: 

Employer Services 

Instead of spending time meeting with employers to understand hiring needs, business services staff would spend additional hours documenting expenditures, justifying payments, and responding to expanded oversight requirements. That means fewer employer visits, fewer customized hiring events, and slower responses to businesses trying to fill critical positions. 

Training Contracts 

Boards may become more cautious about entering into innovative training partnerships or multi-year contracts because of increased uncertainty surrounding grant administration and changing award conditions. Programs that help employers quickly upskill workers could take longer to launch—or never move forward at all.  

Professional Development 

If conference attendance, professional memberships, publications, and training require additional approvals or become unallowable under certain circumstances, workforce professionals may lose access to the very professional development, technical assistance, and best practices that improve program performance and strengthen accountability. Indeed, current law authorizes these activities and encourages them throughout the public workforce system. 

That’s incredibly important because Congress generally understands why teachers, lawyers, and healthcare workers need continuing education. Workforce professionals are no different. 

Rural Communities 

Smaller and rural workforce boards often operate with very limited administrative staff. New compliance responsibilities may fall on the same employees responsible for business engagement, program oversight, fiscal management, and grant administration, stretching already limited capacity even further.  

Customer Wait Times 

Every hour staff spend responding to new administrative requirements is an hour not spent helping jobseekers build resumes, connect with employers, enroll in training, or receive career coaching. Collectively these proposals could reduce the amount of staff time available for direct customer service. 

Board Governance 

Local board members are volunteers drawn from business, education, labor, and community leadership. Increased uncertainty surrounding federal requirements and compliance obligations are likely to shift board meetings away from strategic discussions about workforce needs and toward risk management, compliance, and administrative oversight. 

Small Nonprofits 

Many nonprofits that provide services to our system operate on extremely thin administrative margins. New documentation, payment justification, and monitoring requirements could make participation in federally funded partnerships financially unsustainable, reducing local capacity to deliver services. 

This change is the wrong direction. 

For years, workforce boards have been challenged to become more agile, more innovative, more responsive to employers, and more focused on outcomes. We have embraced that challenge. Across the country, boards have built partnerships, leveraged funding, modernized service delivery, and demonstrated that local leadership produces results. 

These proposed regulations move us in the opposite direction. 

Rather than trusting local communities to solve local workforce challenges, they centralize authority, expand administrative oversight, and layer new compliance obligations onto a system that is already operating with limited administrative resources and capacity. At a time when employers are struggling to find talent and communities are asking the workforce system to do more than ever before, we should be removing unnecessary barriers—not creating new ones. 

One of the most frustrating aspects of this proposal is that it comes at precisely the wrong moment. Workforce boards are already navigating historic labor market change, rapid advances in artificial intelligence, demographic shifts, persistent workforce shortages, and growing expectations from employers and policymakers alike. Every conversation we have with Congress, the Administration, and business leaders centers on one theme: produce better outcomes, move faster, innovate more, and do it with the same, or in most cases fewer, resources. It is difficult to reconcile that expectation with a proposal that asks local organizations to absorb another significant layer of administrative responsibility without providing additional capacity to implement it. 

On Wednesday, July 1st, NAWB along with NAWDP, released an Advocacy Toolkit for workforce boards and professionals breaking down the issue and providing guidance on how to fight back.  

In this blog I’ll be more direct:  

  • Every workforce board should request meetings with its county commissioners, mayors, chief elected officials, congressional delegation, and governor’s office over the coming weeks.  
  • Walk them through the proposal. Help them understand what these changes would mean for your organization and, more importantly, for the workers, businesses, and communities you serve.  

Policymakers cannot appreciate the consequences of this proposal if they only hear from Washington.  

You may think that local leaders are well aware of this proposal, but over the last two weeks I have traveled to multiple events with county commissioners and mayors from a number of States, and even our Senior Director of Government Relations and Advocacy, Gail Silberglied has met with congressional offices where awareness of the OMB proposal is minimal. So far.  

At the local level, our partners at the National Association of Counties, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and the National League of Cities mounted a robust response, including producing a webinar for local leaders, and urging their members to submit public comments. But these local leaders who navigate hundreds of local issues also need to hear from constituents and organizations responsible for implementing workforce policy about how it will impact their communities. 

The July 13 comment deadline for the Federal Register is important, but it is not the finish line. OMB is required to review and address substantive comments and consider changes based on public feedback prior to the October 1 implementation. Congressional oversight will continue, and the opportunity to shape the outcome of this proposal will continue. Submit your comments before the deadline, but don’t stop there. Continue raising this issue in every meeting with your Members of Congress, your Governor, your local elected officials, and your community partners. 

The workforce system has spent decades demonstrating that local leadership, local accountability, and local innovation produce better outcomes than one-size-fits-all solutions. We should not allow that progress to be undermined by regulations that add cost, complexity, and uncertainty. 

NAWB is committed to opposing these proposed changes, and we need you to stand with us. Because this isn’t simply about grant regulations. It’s about preserving the ability of local communities to build the workforce they need to compete and ensuring that every federal dollar is spent where it creates the greatest value: serving people, strengthening businesses, and growing local economies. 

Apprenticeship Works—And We See It Every Day

Posted on by Andrew Bercich
National Apprenticeship Week always feels a little different when you work in this field.
For many people, it’s a chance to learn what apprenticeship is. But for those of us in workforce development, it’s something else entirely. It’s a moment to reflect on what we’ve seen work again and again in communities across the country.
And in many ways, we’re part of a story that goes back to the very beginning of the American workforce.
Apprenticeship has been part of this country since the colonial era, when young people learned trades like printing, shipbuilding, blacksmithing, and even brewing by working alongside skilled craftspeople. It was one of the earliest ways this country built talent, grounded in the simple idea that skills are best learned through doing.
That idea has endured, even as the economy has changed.
Today, the tools look different. The industries are more complex. But the core principle is the same. People learn best by doing the work, and employers play a central role in shaping that learning.
We’ve seen that principle in action.
We’ve seen apprenticeship open doors for people who weren’t sure where their next step would come from.
We’ve seen employers stop searching for talent and start building it.
And we’ve seen local partnerships turn into real, lasting systems of opportunity.
That’s why this week matters. Not just as a celebration, but as a reminder:

Apprenticeship is one of the most practical, proven strategies we have to strengthen our workforce and our economy.

Why it works, especially now

Even for those of us who have been doing this work for years, it’s worth stepping back and naming what makes apprenticeship so effective.
It starts with alignment. Apprenticeship meets employers where they are. Instead of asking businesses to adapt to available talent, it gives them a way to shape it. Training becomes relevant, immediate, and tied directly to real work.
It also changes how people learn. When learning is embedded in the job, progress happens faster and sticks longer. Research from Jobs for the Future shows that strong work-based learning models can increase productivity by 10–15%, in part because workers reach proficiency more quickly. That’s something we hear from employers all the time. They don’t just get workers, they get ready workers.
And then there’s retention. Apprenticeship builds connection to the job, to the employer, and to a career pathway. The data reinforces what we see in practice:
  • 94% of apprentices are still employed after completing their program
  • Employers see an average return on investment of about 44%
  • 81% report reduced turnover
  • 96% say apprenticeship improves company culture
These are the kinds of outcomes that change how organizations think about talent.

What this looks like on the ground

Across the NAWB network, apprenticeship isn’t standing still. It’s expanding into sectors that are critical to both our economy and our communities.
In supply chain and logistics, the Supply Chain Automation Hub is helping employers rethink how they build talent in an increasingly complex environment. These are roles that require new skills, new technologies, and new approaches. Apprenticeship is meeting that moment.
In the care economy, we’re seeing something equally important. Through partnerships with FHI 360’s National Institute for Work and Learning, apprenticeship is creating structured pathways into roles like youth development, behavioral health, and community health work. These are roles that communities depend on every day, and apprenticeship is helping make them more accessible, more supported, and more sustainable.
And in the electric vehicle sector, the pace of change is hard to ignore. Through collaboration with the American Association of Community Colleges, apprenticeship programs are being developed alongside employers in real time. One example, an EV battery manufacturing program developed with Panasonic Energy and Kansas City Kansas Community College, shows how quickly apprenticeship can respond to emerging industries when the right partners are at the table.
Taken together, these efforts tell a bigger story. Apprenticeship is adaptable, responsive, and capable of growing alongside the economy itself.

A shared resource for moving the work forward

Of course, knowing apprenticeship works and scaling it are two different things.
That’s where NAWB’s Registered Apprenticeship Hub comes in. It was built with the field in mind for workforce boards, partners, and practitioners who are navigating how to expand and strengthen apprenticeships in their regions.
The Hub brings together what we need most:
  • Practical tools for launching and growing programs
  • Clear connections to WIOA strategies and outcomes
  • Real examples from across the country
  • Resources to support employer engagement and messaging
It is not just a collection of information. It is a way to make the work more accessible and more actionable, especially for boards that are building or scaling apprenticeships in real time.
And with more than 570 workforce boards in the NAWB network, that kind of shared infrastructure matters.

Looking ahead

If there’s one thing this work makes clear, it’s that apprenticeship is not just effective. It is essential.
It helps businesses stay competitive.
It helps workers build real, lasting careers.
And it gives workforce systems a way to deliver on both at the same time.
National Apprenticeship Week is a chance to celebrate that progress. It is also a chance to keep pushing forward.
Because we are not starting from scratch.
We are building on something that already works.
And when apprenticeship works, communities do too.

Call to action

This National Apprenticeship Week, take a moment to move the work forward.
Explore NAWB’s Registered Apprenticeship Hub. Share it with a partner who is just getting started. Revisit it with fresh eyes if you are already building programs. There is always another opportunity to strengthen what is working or to bring a new employer into the fold.
Most importantly, keep doing what this field does best. Bring people together, connect training to real opportunity, and build systems that last.
Because the impact of apprenticeship does not happen in theory.
It happens through the work you do every day.