Argentum met with senior staff in the Secretary’s office at the U.S. Department of Labor, promoting the need for investment in long-term care workforce development programs, including the expansion of apprenticeship programs. Following our meeting, we sent a letter to Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer outlining our policy solutions that can be implemented by the department. Specifically, we requested the Labor Department’s support to:
- Create a long-term care specific apprenticeship program. The Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Program (IRAP) serves as a complement to traditional registered apprenticeship programs, as an industry-led, market-driven approach that gives employers, educators, and other stakeholders flexibility to expand the apprenticeship model into new industries and to address the diverse workforce needs of different industries and occupations.
- Utilize existing DOL programs and integrate a “senior care” track. Report language passed in recent omnibus legislation urges the Employment and Training Administration to support the expansion of the skilled care workforce, including through education and training grant programs, as well as traditional and nontraditional apprenticeship programs. Additionally, the Caring for Seniors Act (H.R. 3000) provides greater detail of how implementation should occur.
Our meeting came a week after President Trump signed an executive order, “Preparing Americans for High-Paying, Skilled Trade Jobs of the Future,” focused on expanding job training programs and registered apprenticeships to more than one million annually. Argentum recently concluded a Closing the Skills Gap grant from the Department of Labor, the Healthcare Apprenticeship Expansion Program (HAEP), which supported more than 7,600 workers through workplace-relevant training and allowed participants to earn an industry-recognized credential.
While the administration is primarily focusing on skilled trades and manufacturing, we noted in our letter, “Due to our rapidly aging nation, there is no industry that is projected to face greater workforce shortages than in long-term care, where more than 20 million workers will be needed by 2040.”