After years of consensus building and fine tuning with all parties to the process involved and providing input on reforms to the Apprenticeship Certification and Recognition process (reported on by CIRT over the years), President Biden has revoked with the stroke of his pen through an Executive Order.  The demise was sudden, complete, and not entirely understandable, other than it was an initiative pursued in the Trump Administration (spearheaded by Ivanka Trump) that focused attention, energy, and dollars on alternative private sector participation in training and apprenticeships that warranted certification and recognition. Given the repudiation of the reforms, one can assume the older arcane system is back in place for the foreseeable future unless and until new reforms are proposed and adopted.

The Trump era Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Program, or IRAP, was rescinded by Biden’s E.O.  Whereas Trump’s order directed the Labor Department to lead industry-recognized apprenticeship programs, Biden’s will “instead focus on the Labor Department’s traditional registered apprenticeships favored by organized labor—which require tougher standards for program operators—as the pathway to expand the nation’s earn-as-you-learn job-training system,” according to published Bloomberg Law reports.  Notwithstanding, the revocation will turn-back gains under the previous Administration that were touted by Ivanka Trump: “POTUS has invested more than $800 million for apprenticeships with more than 860,000 NEW apprentices since 2017 + created the Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Program (IRAP) to grow apprenticeships in new and emerging fields” (01/17/2021).