U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE

28–915 WASHINGTON : 2018

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT: ADVANCING 

APPRENTICESHIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESS 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON CONTRACTING AND 

WORKFORCE 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS 

UNITED STATES 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS 

SECOND SESSION 

HEARING HELD 

MARCH 20, 2018 

Small Business Committee Document Number 115–063 

Available via the GPO Website: www.fdsys.gov 

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Congress.#13
(II) 

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio, Chairman 

STEVE KING, Iowa 

BLAINE LUETKEMEYER, Missouri 

DAVE BRAT, Virginia 

AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, American Samoa 

STEVE KNIGHT, California 

TRENT KELLY, Mississippi 

ROD BLUM, Iowa 

JAMES COMER, Kentucky 

JENNIFFER GONZA ́ LEZ-COLO ́ N, Puerto Rico 

BRIAN FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania 

ROGER MARSHALL, Kansas 

RALPH NORMAN, South Carolina 

JOHN CURTIS, Utah 

NYDIA VELA ́ ZQUEZ, New York, Ranking Member 

DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania 

STEPHANIE MURPHY, Florida 

AL LAWSON, JR., Florida 

YVETTE CLARK, New York 

JUDY CHU, California 

ALMA ADAMS, North Carolina 

ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York 

BRAD SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

VACANT 

KEVIN FITZPATRICK, Majority Staff Director 

JAN OLIVER, Majority Deputy Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

ADAM MINEHARDT, Staff Director 

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(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

OPENING STATEMENTS 

Page 

Hon. Steve Knight ................................................................................................... 1 

Hon. Stephanie Murphy .......................................................................................... 2 

WITNESSES 

Ms. Tammy Simmons, Vice President, Human Resources and Marketing, 

Machine Specialties, Inc., Whitsett, NC ............................................................. 4 

Mr. Jeffrey Forrest, Vice President, Economic and Workforce Development, 

College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita, CA ........................................................ 6 

Ms. Jeannine Kunz, Vice President, Tooling U-SME, Cleveland, OH ................ 8 

Mr. Jeff Mazur, Executive Director, LaunchCode, St. Louis, MO ....................... 10 

APPENDIX 

Prepared Statements: 

Ms. Tammy Simmons, Vice President, Human Resources and Marketing, 

Machine Specialties, Inc., Whitsett, NC ..................................................... 22 

Mr. Jeffrey Forrest, Vice President, Economic and Workforce Development, College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita, CA ...................................... 25 

Ms. Jeannine Kunz, Vice President, Tooling U-SME, Cleveland, OH ......... 32 

Mr. Jeff Mazur, Executive Director, LaunchCode, St. Louis, MO ................ 37 

Questions for the Record: 

None. 

Answers for the Record: 

None. 

Additional Material for the Record: 

ABC - Associated Builders and Contractors, Inc. .......................................... 42 

Iowa Brewers Guild .......................................................................................... 43 

Statement from Congressman Lloyd Smucker ............................................... 46 

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(1) 

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT: ADVANCING 

APPRENTICESHIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESS 

TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 2018 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON CONTRACTING AND WORKFORCE, 

Washington, DC. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:00 p.m., in Room 

2360, Rayburn House Office Building. Hon. Steve Knight [chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding. 

Present: Representatives Knight, Chabot, Evans, and Murphy. 

Chairman KNIGHT. Well, it does say this morning, but since we 

are not in California we will say good afternoon. 

Thank you for being here. Thank you for traveling. I know some 

traveled a long way. Jeffrey, you can feel sorry for me now for what 

I go through. 

The Small Business Committee has heard many accounts of the 

skills gap and its detrimental impact on the small businesses and 

the American economy. To help close the skills gap, America needs 

an arsenal of workforce development strategies that balance the 

immediate needs of employers, long-term goals of employees, and 

the rapid evolution of technology. 

Today, we will focus on apprenticeships, a centuries old workforce development practice that combines on-the-job learning with 

related technical instruction. Registered Apprenticeship (RA) is one 

of 40 federal workforce development programs spread across 14 

agencies. RA has been effective because it enables workers to earn 

while they learn. It is flexible to meet industry needs and generates evidence-based results. 

Last June, President Trump issued Executive Order 13801, 

which established the Taskforce on Apprenticeship Expansion to 

identify strategies and proposals to promote apprenticeships, especially in high-growth sectors where apprenticeship programs are 

underutilized. 

I am looking forward to hearing more about these programs from 

our panelists. Specifically, how can RA programs be customized to 

combat the skills gap at the community level while still meeting 

strict national standards. What roles do small businesses play in 

the apprentice system? What kind of incentives can we offer to encourage greater participation in the RA system? I think we can also 

add there how do we get more folks to know what there is out 

there? I think what we talk about here sometimes is getting the 

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2 

stand that there are maybe a program out there or there are things 

that can help you do what you want to do. 

So I really appreciate everyone coming today, and I look forward 

to hearing what you have to say. 

And now I yield to the Ranking Member Murphy for her opening 

comments. 

Ms. MURPHY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

While our economy has improved in the past decade, small business owners continue to face challenges finding skilled, qualified 

workers. By 2020, it is estimated that our economy will have approximately 55 million job vacancies. About 40 percent of these jobs 

are expected to be new openings, while the remaining 60 percent 

will be jobs left vacant by workers from the baby boomer generation. 

This is a staggering projection. When viewed in combination with 

the current workforce skills gap, it underscores the importance of 

enacting policies to ensure that our country produces skilled workers capable of performing the jobs of both the present and the future. 

One way we can do this is to expand the use and improve the 

quality of apprenticeship programs across the country. The apprenticeship model allows individuals to work for employers, earn a salary, and get valuable on-the-job training while also receiving classroom instruction specific to that occupation. 

Apprenticeships provide individuals with an opportunity to work 

towards a credential or certification in their chosen profession. In 

return for their investment, employers benefit from having employees who can hit the ground running and have the specialized skills 

necessary to do the job well. 

Since 2011, the number of apprenticeship programs in the 

United States has increased by nearly 30 percent. Nevertheless, 

apprenticeships are still underutilized and their value is often insufficiently understood, especially by small businesses that may 

lack the resources or knowledge to take advantage of the opportunities that apprenticeships offer. 

The Federal Government is partly to blame, having rolled back 

investments in, and oversight of, private sector apprenticeship programs and other workforce development initiatives. 

Naturally, as technology continues to advance, our workforce 

needs will continue to evolve. In order to ensure that our economy 

can remain globally competitive, it is critical that we create incentives for apprenticeship programs that will lead to the creation of 

good jobs, better wages and salaries, and higher economic productivity. At the same time, we must remain standards of quality assurance so that apprenticeship opportunities are available to all 

workers, including veterans, women, and minorities. 

Today’s hearing offers us the opportunity to better understand 

these challenges and explore solutions to help our nation’s job creators prosper. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses on how 

apprenticeships can help revitalize our workforce and ensure America’s small businesses are empowered to move our economy forward. 

I thank the witnesses for being here, and I yield back the balance of my time. 

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Chairman KNIGHT. Okay. Thank you very much. 

I wrote down baby boomers because I think that is one of the 

terms that we are going to use quite a bit. And I think Congresswoman Murphy hit it on the head that we are always looking at 

the baby boomers as the ones who are retiring out, but I am the 

next generation. I am 2 years outside of the baby boomers, me, and 

I have friends that are now looking to retire. So now the next generation, I do not even know what you call us, are starting to think 

about retirement or thinking to maybe move out of what their career is and maybe do something else. So it is going to be a big, big 

problem, not just for baby boomers but, you know, it is starting to 

really affect. 

So we have a couple rules. You get 5 minutes to speak. And first, 

if Committee members have an opening statement prepared, which 

I do not see any, I ask that they be submitted for the record. 

The lights are going to go on. You are going to get green until 

you get to 4 minutes. And then you are going to go to yellow. And 

then you are going to go to red. So at the end of 5 minutes, if you 

see that red, just start to work your way out of the conversation. 

Okay. Let’s see. We have some long introductions. 

We should probably get less qualified people coming in here so 

we can get smaller bios. 

Okay. Now, I would like to formally introduce our witnesses. 

Our first witness is Ms. Tammy Simmons, Vice President of 

Human Resources and Marketing at Machine Specialties, Inc., in 

Whitsett, North Carolina. Her business runs a Registered Apprenticeship program for skilled manufacturing positions. 

Thank you for joining us today. 

Let’s see. Our second witness is Mr. Jeffrey Forrest, Vice President of Economic and Workforce Development at the College of the 

Canyons in Santa Clarita, California, right in the heart of my district. He is the cofounder of the Strong Workforce Apprenticeship 

Group (SWAG), which is also a great acronym. 

Thank you, Jeffrey, for being here today. 

Our third witness is Jeannine Kunz, the Vice President and Director of Training and Development of Tooling USME in Cleveland. 

U-SME, is that right? Or U-SME? Okay. Out of Dearborn, Michigan. Very close. Tooling U-SME delivers a customizable competitive-based learning and development solutions to the manufacturing community. Ms. Kunz is an expert in manufacturing and 

workforce development and serves on the executive committee for 

America Makes. 

Thank you for being here. 

And now I am going to yield to Ms. Murphy to introduce our last 

witness. 

Ms. MURPHY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

It is my pleasure to introduce Mr. Jeffrey Mazur. Mr. Mazur 

serves as the Executive Director of LaunchCode, a nonprofit organization that is focused on building a skilled workforce by creating 

pathways for individuals seeking careers in technology. Mr. Mazur 

previously served as the Executive Director of the Missouri-Kansas 

Council of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, and prior to that he was a Senior Advisor to Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. He holds an undergraduate degree from 

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4 

the University of Missouri, and a law degree from Georgetown University, which I might also add has a great graduate program in 

Foreign Service. 

Welcome, Mr. Mazur. Thanks for being here today. 

Chairman KNIGHT. Okay. And we will start with Ms. Simmons. 

You have 5 minutes, and we look forward to your testimony. 

STATEMENTS OF TAMMY SIMMONS, VICE PRESIDENT, HUMAN 

RESOURCES AND MARKETING, MACHINE SPECIALTIES, INC.; 

JEFFREY FORREST, VICE PRESIDENT, ECONOMIC AND 

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT COLLEGE OF THE CANYONS; 

JEANNINE KUNZ; VICE PRESIDENT; TOOLING U-SME; JEFF 

MAZUR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, LAUNCHCODE 

STATEMENT OF TAMMY SIMMONS 

Ms. SIMMONS. Thank you, and good afternoon. Thanks for having us. 

So I am the small business that you talked about that have been 

struggling. Machine Specialties is going to celebrate 50 years next 

year, and we have high school positions in welding, C&C setup machinists. We produce parts that go on the F-35, F-15, the B-1B 

bomber, a lot of helicopter parts. We also serve the medical industry with hip and knee replacement parts, surgical instrumentations, as well as parts on the satellites. So our growth is limited 

to the amount of skilled employees that we can have to make those 

very precise parts that are going to be shot up into space or that 

are going to fly our aircraft. 

For years, we have tried to think outside the box and go and recruit more employees. The positions that are the most skilled, and 

our positions are, like you said, in the baby boomer generation. So 

what are we going to do now to not only replace the ones that we 

have that want to retire but also to grow our business and take on 

new customers? 

We first heard about apprenticeships through another business 

in Charlotte, North Carolina, that had been doing it for 22 years. 

And they offered a youth apprenticeship model. And when I attended the meeting I was a little bit skeptical. We had never recruited youth into our business. We have about 170 employees, and 

we looked for the most skilled and the most talented people that 

we could find that had years of experience to make these parts. But 

because they had been so successful and they had a really interesting model that by recruiting young talent before they decided to 

go off maybe and not sure what they did. You know, we all hear 

the statistics about how many students go to college but then do 

not finish and try to find their way. They went into the high 

schools and found students that were very interested in building 

and creating and making things with their hands that were very 

successful in the CTE types of programs, and were smart, were 

good in math. They had some criteria that kind of spoke to us. 

They looked for an unweighted GPA of 2.5 because the students in 

the apprenticeship programs also earn a 2-year degree. They look 

for five absences or less because as employers we have to have employees who attend work every day. So we correlated attendance in 

high school with attendance in the workforce. 

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We looked at, like I said, the math grades, because a lot of the 

positions that we hold require a lot of thinking, logic, and reasoning. So that kind of led to a good, successful candidate. And that 

they were already taking electives in their school. So that as a 

business appealed to me that you had some criteria that you set 

up. 

Also, they talked about being in a consortium of other small businesses and medium size businesses or large businesses, but you got 

some buying power when you did this. So when we went to the 

school system, it was not just one company like myself knocking on 

the door at the local high school near me saying can I talk to your 

drafting students who might be interested in working for me? 

When we went as a consortium, our consortium no has 26 companies. We had the superintendent of our school board sitting in on 

meetings with us because she is very interested in growing and 

promoting this program. So we had buying power with the school 

system. So we got a chance to talk to the educators and to the kids 

in the high school that we wanted to recruit. 

We also got a little bit of buying power with the community college system. One of the key attributes to the type of program that 

we have is that our students go to community college to earn their 

2-year degree 1 to 2 days a week, and then they are in our facilities 

the remaining part of the week. So as a business owner, it is very 

hard to think that you are going to have people coming in all day 

long. By blocking the classes for us so that maybe they only go to 

class on Mondays and having them in our facilities from Tuesday 

to Friday to earn those on-the-job training hours really spoke to me 

as an employer. I thought that this is something that we could implement and utilize. 

So when we first started, we had six advanced manufacturers 

who wanted to participate in the program in our first year. We recruited 14 years. It was such a success that our president, our vice 

president of operations came into me one Saturday morning and 

said this apprenticeship program is a home run. The kids are 

learning so fast, much faster, more productive than we ever 

thought they would be at this early stage, and they are willing to 

learn. You know, we always talk about this younger generation, the 

work ethic, and what that is going to be like, but studies show, and 

New America has done a study that shows that apprenticeships 

have much more loyalty with their employer when they start as a 

young apprentice. The turnover rate that they quoted is like 90 

percent after 3 years of finishing an apprenticeship and that is 

huge. That is much stronger than anything I can do when I hire 

outside the door. 

Our company has continued to stay in this. We now have 15 and 

we are looking to recruit 25 more apprentices this year. Also, our 

consortium has grown. We went from six companies the first year 

to 11 the next year to 26, and over half of those are small businesses. We have also reached across the state, the county lines, 

and we have helped other programs just like us launch, get in 

touch with their school systems, with their community college as 

the formal education provider, and work it. So it is employer led. 

The employers are the customer. They are the ones that are going 

to be hiring these students and training them on the job. So once 

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you have a partnership like that it kind of spreads the workload 

around. So that is how that one employer can go out and be part 

of a consortium, get really good talent into their workforce, have 

them educated, and kind of share that work burden. 

And my time is almost running out. 

I have so many stories that I could tell you about not only what 

it has done for our business. That was the first stage. When we got 

in the first year, like this is great for us. So then I wanted my 

other business employers—I am on a manufacturing committee— 

to know about this. So that was exciting. But then I also became 

so engaged with the students. I had students the first day of college say I never thought I would have the opportunity to go to 

school. I never thought that I would have a career. Once they received their letter they said I finally feel like I have a direction in 

my life. 

So then that got me more impassioned trying to help more students get opportunities and in different areas. So our consortium 

is now not only advanced manufacturers, but it is field service technicians, and those are like electricians and HVAC. 

I am finished. 

Chairman KNIGHT. Okay. We will go on to Mr. Forrest from the 

great community college of College of the Canyons. 

STATEMENT OF JEFFREY FORREST 

Mr. FORREST. Thank you, and good afternoon, Chairman 

Knight, Ranking Member Murphy, and to the distinguished guests 

who are here with us today. Thank you for this opportunity to provide testimony today on how the Strong Workforce Apprentice 

Group supports small business along with recommendations on 

how to fund and expand apprenticeship to sustain our growing 

economy. 

College of the Canyons is under the leadership of Chancellor Dr. 

Dianne G. Van Hook, and we are committed to working with employers, students, community stakeholders to develop innovative 

solutions that promote equity, skills attainment, and economic 

growth in the region. 

Recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in the 

month of February, nonforeign payroll increased by 313,000, while 

the unemployment rate remained at 4.1 percent. And while these 

numbers are encouraging, behind these numbers there looms a crisis, and it is the shortage of skilled labor, and it poses one of the 

greatest threats to our Nation’s ability to sustain its economic 

growth. 

And no entity is more impacted by this crisis than our nation’s 

small businesses. They comprise more than 99.7 percent of all businesses in 2016, and they are the backbone of the United States 

economy. Because of their limited resources, our small businesses 

are not able to compete with the large companies for talent, and 

they lack the operational capacity to attract, train, and develop 

their own workforce. 

So what small business needs today is a model of apprenticeship 

that allows them to: (1) upskill their workforce, and (2) be able to 

implement easily and efficiently. 

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In response to that need, the Strong Workforce Apprenticeship 

Group was formed, referred to as SWAG. The Strong Workforce 

Apprenticeship Group was founded by myself and Tracy DiFilippis, 

Apprenticeship Coordinator with Goodwill Southern California. The 

name SWAG is taken from strong workforce and doing what matters for jobs in the economy, a California community college initiative that was developed by Van Ton- Quinlivan, Executive Vice 

Chancellor, Workforce Digital Futures for the California Community College Chancellor’s Office. 

SWAG helps our small businesses by doing the following: 

First, we partner with them to recruit, attract, and place individuals into apprenticeships. We also provide instruction to incumbent 

workers to create a pipeline of talent to fill critical positions. 

Second, we handle the administrative heavy lifting associated 

with managing an apprenticeship, making it a more attractive option for small companies. Bill Boden, General Manager of 

Repairtech International says this about SWAG: ‘‘We could not 

imagine doing this alone. The high level coordination frees our organization to move in new levels of productivity and efficiency.’’ 

Third, SWAG provides curriculum that is relative and up to date 

through our partnership with Tooling U, a leader in online education in the field of advanced manufacturing. In addition, we are 

working with the National Institute for Metalworking Skills, 

known as NIMS, to integrate their certifications into our training 

model. SWAG is currently funded through the California Apprenticeship Initiative. The goal of this program is to incentivize partnerships between community college employers to develop apprenticeships. 

I am proud to say that in the 7 months that SWAG has been 

launched, we have acquired more than 50 apprentices and over 75 

percent of them come from underserved communities, veterans, minorities, women, and other underserved population segments. 

And while we are the fastest growing model of apprenticeship in 

California currently, what we know is this: without access to a consistent funding stream, SWAG, like the many other initiatives that 

came before it, will end up in the workforce development graveyard. 

Which leads us to offer the following suggestions on how we can 

fund and grow apprenticeships to continue to support our small 

businesses. 

First, we must fix the funding. Tax credits and similar incentives 

can go a long way in helping small businesses embrace apprenticeship as part of their employment development strategy. 

Second, simplify the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. 

Ladies and gentlemen of the Subcommittee on Contracting and 

Workforce, meet your 399 pages of single-spaced 10-point font legislation. Hidden somewhere in these pages is funding for Registered 

Apprenticeship for on-the-job training. Navigating this legislation 

is tedious at best. We have got to find a way to streamline it. We 

need to also look at incorporating some provisions of the Prosper 

Act, such as the 25 percent cap on private sector employment from 

Federal Work Study Program. Eliminating that along with the provision to access apprenticeship. We need to strengthen the Department of Labor by personnel funding, upgrades to technology, and 

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helping it in updating its existing work processes so they can continue to provide the critical services needed by the workforce development community. 

We must also look at competency-based education and celebrate 

and support those educational institutions, like College of the Canyons, that are working to integrate it into their educational framework. And then in working with small businesses, dozens of them, 

what we have learned is this: effective apprenticeship demands 

strong partnership. Our workforce development system must come 

together if we are to remain a competitive force in the global economy. 

In conclusion, we wish to thank the members of the Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce for allowing us to share 

how SWAG supports small business and your leadership and your 

commitment in creating prosperity for all Americans, and we look 

forward to addressing any questions you may have. 

Thank you. 

Chairman KNIGHT. Thank you. 

And all the way from Dearborn, Michigan, Ms. Kunz. 

STATEMENT OF JEANNINE KUNZ 

Ms. KUNZ. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman 

Knight, and Ranking Member Murphy, and the guests, for the opportunity to provide some insight around this important topic of 

apprenticeships and how small businesses are using apprenticeships to solve the skills gap. 

For 85 years, SME has been dedicated to the health and competitiveness of the manufacturing industry. We do that through developing the workforce and promoting advanced technology. And as 

you have heard from the other witnesses here, it is a very significant threat that the skills gap has on the manufacturing industry 

right now and we have been doing a study for the last 5 years and 

it has not changed. It is getting worse. And when we ask manufacturers the question of how difficult it is to find skilled labor, we 

find that 88 percent are saying I am having a difficulty finding 

skilled labor to do the work I have in my organization now let 

alone into the future. When we ask a little more into that research, 

what is that doing to your business, they are telling us it is affecting their productivity, their innovation, quality, safety, profitability. Right? These are all very key things to running businesses 

here in manufacturing. 

And so when we look at that and we look at the fact that Jeffrey 

brought up about that 90-some percent of all manufacturing businesses are small, we know that small businesses need to thrive in 

order for manufacturing to be successful as well. 

And small businesses, unlike large businesses, have a little bit 

added challenge. Right? We all know the CEO is wearing the HR 

hat, is wearing the custodial hat and the plant manager hat. Small 

businesses cannot always provide the same kind of benefits and 

packages that large companies can. So these added challenges really put pressure on the small businesses I think as well articulated 

by Tammy. 

So when we look at how do we help those small businesses, we 

certainly look at something like apprenticeship. And it is not a ‘‘one 

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size fits all.’’ We certainly know that. There are lots of things, and 

I think Chairman Knight, you talked about the arsenal of tools 

that are needed to address the skills gap. But there is no doubt 

that apprenticeships is a key part, and Jeffrey and Tammy did an 

excellent job I think articulating that. And what we are seeing is 

the number of retirees and the baby boomers that you referred to 

that are exiting the manufacturing industry. Those skilled laborers, 

those journeymen, those apprentices that have all that knowledge, 

unfortunately manufacturing historically has not done a good job 

building up that pipeline. It has not done a good job building structured, sustainable programs. It is a little bit of follow me and 

watch what I am doing on the job. Well, that does not work. We 

really need a very strong, structured, sustainable program for 

onboarding and on-the-job training of which apprenticeship programs very much have. 

SME supports the nationwide Department of Labor apprenticeship programs with a competency-based approach. Right? That is 

the change from the past where it was much more time based, it 

was more about how much time you put into a program. Now we 

are able to look at programs much differently, look at the knowledge and skills that are required to perform in the jobs today, and 

look towards how people can be assessed towards those knowledge 

and skills so we are more oriented towards a competency-based 

program versus time, which also reduces the amount of time it 

takes to get people in the jobs, doing effective things that move the 

organizations forward. 

As Jeffrey articulated, we are a good strong partner here with 

SWAG, and I think you did an excellent job talking about your program so it is not one I will mention here. But I think, and it was 

interesting to hear Tammy talk about the consortium. A couple 

things that we are noticing because we get the opportunity to work 

across the country, so we get to work with the small, the mid, and 

the large companies, but we are seeing that these organizations 

and these consortiums are coming together to really help represent 

multiple small organizations. 

One I would like to mention through our partnership is with a 

group called MACNY. And it stands for the Manufacturers Association of Central New York. And they basically represent 300 manufacturers. A lot of small to mid-size manufacturers across central 

and upstate New York. And when they were talking to those members, like we would expect, those members were struggling with, 

you know, hiring and finding people, finding the right skills. So 

MACNY went about how do they go and create these partnerships, 

these collaborations with the schools, organizations, organizations 

like SME, where we could look at the knowledge and skills and 

then start to drive towards what is needed 80 percent of the way 

and then help the companies be able to have the flexibility to drive 

it to their own particular needs. 

One interesting thing that MACNY also did was look at a preapprenticeship. So it was working with the high schools, dislocated 

workers, veterans. So again, now that we are looking at apprenticeships inside these small companies, how do you start to look at 

again the pipeline of even getting those kinds of people into the 

system? So a pre-apprenticeship program in the high school. We 

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have some good examples where some companies are looking at 

how to take those pre-apprenticeships into an apprenticeship program and then into a career pathway into a college degree program. Many great things are happening in those kinds of examples. 

In summary, the health of small businesses is vital to manufacturing success. The largest OEMs in the world are relying on these 

small businesses, and all too often or not, I cannot even tell you 

the number of times we hear businesses say that they are having 

to turn down orders, delay their expansion of their business because they cannot find the right people, just things that we do not 

want to see continue. 

So apprenticeships is a proven and needed piece of a company’s 

workforce development strategies. It helps the businesses build a 

pipeline, grow internal talent, reduce recruiting costs, and improve 

productivity. 

We thank the Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce for 

taking the time to address this very important and clear issue that 

we have in front of us as a Nation. Thank you. 

Chairman KNIGHT. Thank you. 

Mr. Mazur, you are up. 

STATEMENT OF JEFF MAZUR 

Mr. MAZUR. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Murphy, for the opportunity to appear today. 

Again, my name is Jeff Mazur, and I am the executive director 

of LaunchCode. LaunchCode is a national nonprofit founded a little 

over 4 years ago, designed to help fill the tech talent gap. There 

are about 600,000 unfilled tech jobs in the U.S. today according to 

BLS. The number is going to be about a million by 2020. So there 

is a lot of gap to fill in the tech industry. 

We try and do this in a few different ways. One way that I will 

not spend a lot of time talking about is by providing free, accessible 

job-focused training in coding. We teach people to code to a level 

where they are ready for an entry level role as a developer. 

The other pieces that we do that I will spend a little more time 

talking about today is job placement, in particular, the apprenticeship in the software development space. Over the course of our 4 

years of existence, we have helped more than 1,000 people start 

their careers as junior software developers, computer programmers, 

and we think that apprenticeship, as with my colleagues at the 

table, is a really powerful tool in doing that and helping those people start those careers. 

And so part of what I wanted to share today was a little bit 

about what our learnings have been as we have tried to build a 

program that really utilizes apprenticeship in a space and in industry and in job types that typically it has not been used a lot in. 

And so four sort of principles or items that I wanted to point to 

that we have kind of distilled through our learnings in working 

with last year more than 124 employers to place entry level junior 

developers. One of those things is flexibility. It is easy to imagine 

a job posting and a training program for a welder. We sort of know 

and understand what a welder’s job is and that is kind of probably 

standard across many different employers in terms of what the 

core skillset is. And when we think about a job posting for a softSBREP-219A with DISTILLER

11 

ware developer, it could be that there are dozens or hundreds even 

of different languages or frameworks that may be at play there. 

And so having an apprenticeship, in our case an apprenticeship 

with standards of apprenticeship—we serve as an intermediary— 

we have those standards that are flexible and it can accommodate 

the many different needs of different sorts of employers is really 

critical to success and adoption by those employers. 

The other piece that we found is essential is integration of apprenticeship into existing processes of hiring and doing business 

that our employers have. One of the things that is a sure fire way 

we found for an employer not to want to work with us to use apprenticeship to bring developers into their system is if they have 

to build substantial new infrastructure in order to accommodate 

those people. And so having, again, an intermediary-based program 

where that infrastructure can live outside the walls of their company, outside the walls of their institution and still build people 

with the sorts of skills they need is really critical for them to adopt 

and use apprenticeship in bringing new software developers onto 

their teams. 

The third piece, I want to echo what many others have said, is 

really around the notion of competency-based programs. And I 

want to particularly identify two key threads here in the way we 

braid competency-based notions into our program. The first being 

that people should get ‘‘credit’’ for competencies that they are 

bringing to the table at the front end. If people have already developed and we have a common way of measuring and understanding 

what someone’s skill is as they come to the table, then they ought 

to get credit and not have to compete as much in terms of the related technical instruction. And so, again, that is a mechanism both 

for having these things be based really on the skills that are necessary and also abbreviating the time that one may spend in an apprenticeship before they are ready for work. 

The second piece of the competency-based component that we 

focus on, again, is that rather than having a time-based approach 

to a time and program as a function of when someone has completed the program and is ready for journeyman status, is instead 

focusing on competencies. And in our case, we try and build a program that is very focused on making sure that employers themselves, hosting employers are saying that these are the competencies that we need this person to have achieved in order for 

them to have successfully completed this program, and then with 

assistance, allowing them to judge when someone has completed 

the program rather than have it being a rote function of time and 

program. 

And so we found that to be a key thing not just for adoption, not 

just for building our program but for employers to really feel like 

this is a process that works for them. 

And the final piece that is sort of tied with the competency-based 

piece is that these things should be accelerated, particularly when 

technology changes so quickly, the skills that you are learning 

today may be obsolete 6 to 9 months down the road. And so if it 

is a 2-year program, you may have people spending lots of time 

learning something that they are never going to actually get to deploy in the field. And so designing a program that in our case may 

SBREP-219A with DISTILLER

12 

have 20 weeks of classroom instruction and 90 to 120 days in an 

on-the-job focused programming situation is a way that allows us 

to get those people quickly the skills they need and get them quickly into the workforce because employers in tech need those jobs 

now if they are going to fill that gap. 

I am again grateful for the opportunity to appear today and I am 

delighted to answer any questions. 

Chairman KNIGHT. Well, thank you all. 

I know Stephanie and I write a lot of notes up here. Hers are 

probably way better than mine. But I typically write notes on what 

you are saying and what I think you are saying. So when I hear 

‘‘integration,’’ I hear you have got to give me a puzzle piece that 

fits. So you have got to give me somebody that can come in and 

can work and I do not have to do something special there. They are 

just going to come in and work. When I hear competency based, 

what can you do? Are you ready to do the job? If you are, then I 

want you. You do not have to have 4 years of schooling if you 

learned it in 1 year and I can have you in my business and you 

can be working. And fast is always what small business talks about 

is how fast can we do something? How fast can we turn the wrench 

or whatever we need to do because that is how I get paid? 

So I am going to go into just a couple questions. You know, the 

first one I think I alluded, how do we get the info out? How do we 

get it to small businesses across the country? I am a huge proponent of our community colleges and of trade schools and tech 

schools as kind of a conduit to do something that maybe you can 

do fast. I know College of the Canyons or many of the other community colleges across the country, they can move and they can be 

agile. And so if you need something to work on an F-35 as a supplier, you might go to them and say these are the people, these are 

the skills that we need. They need to have basic schematic skills. 

They need to have basic math skills. Then we can move them in 

to where we need them but they need to have those before I can 

even look at them. 

We have a program in Palmdale that is called the AFAB right 

now, and Northrup Grumman came to us and so we went to the 

community college out there and they built an 8-week program. 

And at the end of 8 weeks, those kids have a 96 percent chance 

of getting hired. I do not know what the other 4 percent are, but 

that is what they told me, 96 percent. And they are hired at a good 

rate. They are hired into a great company and they are on their 

way to a career. 

That was just working with a community college and saying can 

you do this? They said, yeah, we can do this, and they did it. 

So apprenticeships, that is what I see, and that is what I think 

we are going to have to have over the next 30-40 years. There are 

going to be these holes that if we do not fill them quickly then we 

are going to lose those jobs or they are going to be outsourced or 

something that is not going to be what we want. 

So my first question is, about 74 percent of kids that graduate 

high schools today are not eligible to go into the military. So the 

military always comes to us and says only about one in four kids 

can go into the military. For various reasons. There might be a 

medical reason, there might be something else, but several of the 

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13 

reasons I push back on and say, you know, you should probably 

relook at these. But a lot of those kids you are looking at, too. If 

those 24 percent are now looking at colleges or looking at something else, you are trying to grab them. So I think that is kind of 

my first question, is how do we reach out to the high school kids? 

And then my second question is how do we reach out to the junior high kids and say what do we need to get them into kind of a 

skilled learning so that they can do the jobs maybe in the community. Maybe it is for automotive manufacturing. Maybe it is for 

something else. And how do we get them involved at maybe a seventh or eighth grade? And I know we have got VEX and we have 

got robotics and we have got all kinds of programs to kind of push 

STEM, but we really have to make sure that kids know that, you 

know, here are the jobs in the community. How do we get you looking at that? It does not say we do not want you to go to college 

or it does not say we do not want you to do other things. It just 

says these are skills based. These is a skill that you can learn and 

you can look to be hired at some of our jobs here. 

And we had the Chairman of the Full Committee on Small Business, Mr. Chabot. Mr. Chabot, are you just going to sit there or do 

you want to chat? 

Mr. CHABOT. I will wait until you are done with your questions 

and the other side. 

Chairman KNIGHT. Okay. 

Mr. CHABOT. Yeah. Thank you. 

Chairman KNIGHT. Okay. So, anyone, we can go right down the 

line. 

Ms. SIMMONS. So we also think that messaging is a huge problem with I guess the awareness of apprenticeships. We thought 

that just going into the schools and letting the students hear some 

of the opportunities would be our biggest avenue, but I feel like we 

have to reeducate the educators of what a great opportunity these 

apprenticeships are. And the careers that we are all talking about 

here, they make well over $55,000, $65,000, $70,000. Some of them 

will punch a clock and make over six figures. The jobs are in high 

demand and they are going to be increasing in demand. So the educators have to be aware that these are really good opportunities for 

all students, not just the ones that they think cannot go to college. 

Also, we have to send a message to the parents that these opportunities are out there. I hear parents and they are like, I never 

knew this was there. Do you have apprenticeships for adults? How 

can we get in this? So part of the thing I think is a huge marketing 

campaign on just awareness of what apprenticeships can do and 

the career values that they have. 

And also, apprenticeships are a great stepping stone for a 4-year 

degree. Our company is looking at in the future only hiring engineers that first go through our apprenticeship program. We think 

they are going to be much stronger and we are going to help educate them and get the 4-year degree after we pay for their 4-year 

degree. 

And I forgot to mention that our apprenticeship programs are 

valued at $125,000. The students receive benefits and 401(k), and 

they are actually paid for the class time that they are sitting in college earning that degree. 

SBREP-219A with DISTILLER

14 

When you talked about going into the middle schools, yes, I realized into our second year that by the time we see juniors and seniors, it is almost a little bit too late. Most of the time they do not 

even know about the career opportunities that are available or 

what these jobs look like, what area they work in. So we, in our 

school system, are trying to get middle schoolers out into the different industries that have careers and have jobs available to them 

when they graduate. But now that I am a third year into it, I am 

also thinking like the German-style model, we also maybe even 

need to be planting those seeds in first and second grade. You 

know, like what does an electrician look like? What kind of tools 

do they have? Where do they work? Just so that when they get into 

the middle school they might have been thinking about that. 

You know, when you talk to a young schooler, most of the time 

they say I want to be a teacher. I want to be a doctor. I want to 

be a vet. I mean, those are the things that they see on TV. But 

educating them maybe even in the grade schools about other opportunities, especially the ones that we know are going to be in such 

high demand coming up. 

Chairman KNIGHT. And I am going to go on to Ms. Murphy. 

I agree. I think that you are seeing a transition right now, especially when we talk about STEM. If you thought that there was 

going to be a female aeronautical engineer 40 years ago, you would 

have had to search this country for one. Today, we understand 

there is a huge push in the last 10 years in college, but we have 

a lot of that kind of push to get people to understand you can do 

this. These are the opportunities. The same thing with males in 

nursing. Forty years ago you probably would have had to search 

the country. Today males know nursing is an opportunity. 

So it is kind of a change, and I think the earlier we can get to 

kids and we can say, look, you absolutely can do anything. I am 

glad you did not say politician in what they were looking to be 

when they grew up. But they absolutely can be anything. Sometimes it is not that they do not believe that they can; it is that they 

do not know that that opportunity is there. So, okay. 

Ms. Murphy, I have taken plenty. 

Ms. MURPHY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Ms. Simmons, I found the conversation really interesting because 

I think what you are pointing out is that there is a social bias 

against technical careers and apprenticeships and I am interested 

in hearing some of the other witnesses’ suggestions on how we 

break down some of those social biases that are maybe preventing 

the number of students going into some of these skills. 

One of the interesting things is I have spent a bit of time in my 

community going to see apprenticeship programs, and certainly, 

the skillset required for a car mechanic, for example, is no longer 

the grease monkey kind of thing. It is can you work a computer? 

Do you know how to program? Some of the things that Mr. Mazur 

talked about. 

And so I would be curious if the witnesses, other witnesses had 

any thoughts on how to address that, the pipeline, the demand for 

some of these programs. 

Mr. FORREST. Well, one of the things that we are doing in California is we have launched a campaign in which we have taken 

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CTE, career technical education, and we have rebranded it and 

called it career education. And we have launched it into the movie 

theaters in which we show young people in apprenticeships, working in careers such as automotive technology, and then it is a part 

of the preview of the movie, kind of a commercial, trying to really 

help change the culture and dynamic and narrative of career education. 

Another thing that we do is we host a manufacturing day. We 

actually go out to all of the junior high schools in our region and 

we bring the kids to our campus for a full day of understanding 

what the manufacturing and STEM fields hold for them, and we 

bring in companies that come in and speak to them. There are company tours. We also bring in a gentleman who is probably one of 

the most greatest icons in advanced manufacturing, Titan Gilroy. 

He comes in and speaks to the young people as well, and we generally bring between 300-400 individuals along with their parents. 

And so that is happening. 

But I will say again, I agree with you, Ranking Member Murphy, 

that one of the greatest challenges is changing the perception of career education in the minds of both the parents and in the minds 

of the high school and junior high educational institutions because 

the message has to come from them in order for it to really have 

that long lasting impact because they are the ones that are going 

to be with those students in those very formative years. And so 

that would be the critical component, is getting our educational institutions to realize that our high school and junior high schools, 

that this is a very, very positive alternative for their students, and 

that not everyone was meant to go to a 4-year college or university 

and that it is not a negative thing if they choose a career in a machine shop. Whereas, where I started my career at what was 

McDonnell Douglas. And so certainly, that is the thing; we have to 

change the messaging and the perception. 

Ms. KUNZ. If I could add a few things to that. And Ranking 

Member Murphy, you mentioned kind of even getting more minorities and women involved in manufacturing in these career paths. 

A couple things that SME is doing I will say on the front of—if you 

have heard of 3D printing, additive manufacturing, we do quite a 

bit I mentioned as an organization to help manufacturing. We not 

only develop the workforce, but we try to move technology forward. 

And we recently launched a new apprenticeship program around 

3D printing in collaboration with the Robert C. Byrd Institute, as 

well as America Makes, one of the Manufacturing USA Institutes. 

And I bring that up because that is an example where sometimes 

we think of the traditional, and I think we have covered that pretty 

well—the welders, the machinists, the maintenance technicians, 

which is all really important, but we also have these new jobs that 

are entering the field which will help us change the image and the 

perceptions of manufacturing around high-tech, high-touch, highchallenging jobs that when we have done some workshops with 

young men and women we see the women really gravitate to 3D 

printing, kind of this more design, creative, art side of it. And so 

I think there are things like that, too, that are a little bit maybe 

nontraditional, new technologies that will also help shape the perceptions. 

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Another initiative is also the career counselors. I sit on a National Coalition of Career Counselors, a coalition regarding career 

counseling, which is really trying to get at the fact that there is not 

enough funding related to career counselors, the number of career 

counselors, the ratio to the number of students, and that they are 

really not able to do career counseling. They are a lot of times dealing with other issues—unrelated behavior, whatever it might be. So 

that is also impacting I think what is being told to the students. 

So not only the parents, what is happening in the media, but also 

the career counselors. 

And lastly, I would be remiss if I did not say that I think one 

of the challenges is what is happening actually in the schools. 

There are some schools that have tremendous programs that when 

you go into the school, so now let’s say we get these kids to think 

I want to go pursue a career in something technical. But if they 

walk into that school and the equipment is 30 years old, the curriculum is old, I am not faulting the school. I am saying the funding side. So we are challenged there, too. So when the students 

enter a program that is robust and meeting the needs of the manufacturing community today, we are in good shape. When we do not, 

we kind of fall short. Right? We got them in the pipeline and now 

all of a sudden they come in and now it is a validation of maybe 

what they were told before. And so we have to do things there. And 

our education foundation does quite a bit to work with local employers who really look at the education system as part of their 

supply chain, one of their critical suppliers of people. And those 

employers that decide to actually put their money forward, donate 

it to our education foundation, we go and we work with the administrators, with the community, and with the school hand in hand 

to look and audit their program. To look at their curriculum. To 

look at their career consoling. To look if they have a middle school 

camp that feeds into the high school. And look at the technology. 

All of the things. And basically then take that money from those 

corporate donors and make sure it goes towards the kinds of things 

that builds up the program in those high schools or those career 

education programs. Thank you. 

Ms. MURPHY. Thank you. I see that my time has expired. 

Mr. MAZUR. I would weigh in just briefly on that same question. 

What we face in the tech and software development space is sort 

of different cultural perception gap, and that is this idea oftentimes 

people have that people have to be born to code. That there is 

some, you know, 5 percent of the people out there who have the 

special coding gene and it is only those people who are going to be 

software developers. And when, in fact, that is not true. And so we 

try to be very clear with people that this is an opportunity that 

anyone who has certain foundational skills can take advantage of. 

Do you have 10th grade math skills? Do you have basic proficiency 

and logical reasoning and problem solving? Do you have basic digital literacy? If you have that foundation then, you know, really almost anyone can build the other pieces that will allow them to 

move on down the road towards a career as a software developer. 

And so, you know, in our program, in our experience, in a world 

and a realm where if you look at software developers and the demographic makeup of those groups, you know, it is by and large 

SBREP-219A with DISTILLER

17 

still today white men, oftentimes young. We have been able to 

build programs. We have a Coder Girl program. We have other programs that are designed to really help people see other people who 

have gone through this experience. I have shared story with those 

folks, and so we have seen our education programs, for instance, 

in 2017, get to a point where even though, you know, probably 17 

percent of the software developers in the U.S. working today are 

women, 47 percent of the people who are enrolled in our programs 

are women. People of color, again, very underrepresented in the 

field. About 38 percent of the people who took part in our training 

and education programs in 2017 were people of color. 

So if you can understand, people, what the real challenge is and 

what the opportunities are there, then I think you can start to 

break down some of these other kind of cultural concerns and barriers that keep people out. 

Ms. MURPHY. Great. Thank you so much. 

I yield back. 

Chairman KNIGHT. Chairman? 

Mr. CHABOT. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. 

Just a couple questions. I think I would start out with this one. 

Could you discuss any resistance that you still see perhaps in 

some parents because they do not want their kids necessarily to 

have a job where they are going to get their hands dirty or maybe 

be in the skills trades or—and I see a lot of heads nodding. So I 

will start down this end. What can we do about that? Is it an education process? You know, is it kind of like realistically understanding what is in this economy and where the jobs are or just 

what would you suggest? 

Ms. SIMMONS. So most of the parents have a view of some of 

the jobs that the students could go into in an apprenticeship, the 

old model. You know, dirt floors, low lighting, and that is not what 

advanced manufacturing in some of these apprentice programs look 

like today. So we require any student that is interested to bring a 

parent or guardian in for a tour to one of the companies that is offering the apprenticeship so that they can see. And a lot of times 

the students go home excited and saying about this opportunity, 

they are going to pay for my education. They are going to pay for 

me to be in school. And the parents are like, it is too good to be 

true. One thing you learn in life is if it sounds too good to be true, 

it is. But once they come in and they see that every piece of equipment we have has a computer on it and you could eat off our floors, 

then they want to know how they can get into a career in this and 

they want the opportunity. 

And one other thing is going back to the CDCs in the school. 

Jackie Smith is an apprentice of ours, and right before he turned 

16, him and his dad bought a car to work on so when he could 

drive. And he realized that that first time that he loved working 

with his hands. And he was good at it. He had never been able to 

take any CTE classes in his high school because he had a 4.4 GPA. 

He was smart. He was on the track to go to college. And his career 

counselors said no. You need to be in all these AP courses. He 

fought his junior year after working on the car with his dad to get 

into an automotive class. And at that school he had the opportunity—he never even would have had the opportunity to hear 

SBREP-219A with DISTILLER

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about our apprenticeship program. He had the opportunity to hear 

about it. He brought his mom and he brought his dad in. And they 

agreed. And he says, you know, if I would have been in college 

now, I probably would have been miserable. I may have dropped 

out. I would have spent a lot of money on it. I am doing something 

I love and I am going to make just as much money had I gone the 

4-year college route and I am getting it all paid for. He is 19 years 

old. He has a 401(k). He has full benefits, and he is enjoying what 

he does every single day. 

So it is a message to the parents and to these educators that 

these opportunities are great for them. 

Mr. CHABOT. Thank you very much. 

Mr. Forrest, I saw you nodding there, too. So if you would—— 

Mr. FORREST. Sure. The key is always getting the message over 

to the parents. And one of the ways in which we do that, even at 

the community college and in some high schools, is through the creation of a makerspace at those particular facilities. And the 

makerspace provides an environment in which these young people 

are able to go in and explore these careers that involve hands-on 

training. We have a makerspace at College of the Canyons, and 

some of our high schools have makerspaces as well. And so that 

creates an excellent environment for the children and their parents 

to get to see what it is like to be in this type of career field firsthand. And so I really recommend that most of our educational institutions, especially at the high school and the junior high level, 

consider a makerspace relationship, either with one that exists as 

a private-public relationship or try to integrate one into their own 

educational setting. The other is that we do whatever we can to 

make sure that we provide opportunities for these young people to 

be able to build within their own pursuits of their own careers the 

opportunity to do something that is related to making something 

that is part of their curriculum. It has to be integrated in there at 

some point. And once that happens, even if they are not good with 

their hands as some people like to say, still giving them that access 

and that exposure I think is critical to getting them involved and 

excited. 

Mr. CHABOT. Thank you very much. 

Do the other witnesses want to weigh in? 

Yes, sir? 

Mr. MAZUR. Can I say just a few words? We serve probably a 

slightly different age range than other folks at the table serve. The 

preponderance of people we served over time are in the 24-to-40 

year old age range. And so we have a nontrivial number of people 

who have gone, they have a 4-year degree, and they got a degree 

in English or History or Literature and in the couple years since 

they have been working 18 hours a week at the FedEx, Kinkos, or 

doing other things, never having had the opportunity to have that 

educational experience kind of launch them into a career that they 

found fulfilling. And so they find us then and they build a new skill 

and we place them into a career in tech and they go off on their 

way. 

I think that experience and the experience of those people may 

resonate with the parents of someone who is sort of insistent that 

someone go down the path of a 4-year degree, that there are plenty 

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of examples of people who go down that path and have a great experience and it is the right thing to do; there are plenty of others 

who do that and it is not the dream they thought it was and so 

that may be an instructive lesson for parents and young people out 

there making this choice. 

Mr. CHABOT. Thank you very much. 

Mr. Chairman, my time is about to expire, so I will yield back. 

Chairman KNIGHT. Thank you, Chairman. 

I just have two final questions. One was about schools, and I 

know Ms. Kunz said, you know, if you walk into a classroom and 

it has got 30-year-old stuff, it is tougher for the kids to get involved. I know I went into a school recently and a company had 

given a lot of this stuff that they had been working on and the kids 

were very, very involved. They were very happy. They knew that 

they were working on equipment that was of this generation and 

they were excited about that. 

But I have also been in classrooms that you have got the 30-yearold microscope or something and it is a paperweight right now. So 

I do think the connections to the businesses, if you are working 

with a business and you are saying, hey, we are going to be your 

pipeline, you have got to help us, I agree that government should 

be very involved in this, but the businesses should be very involved. If we are going to give you what your most vital aspect is, 

and that is skilled labor, then you have got to help us get them 

skilled. 

Ms. KUNZ. Absolutely. I think we certainly are very big advocates for the fact that the corporate industry—and we get the opportunity to work with a lot of companies which is great, but we 

do make the message very clear that your number one asset is 

human capital. Every company can go buy the same C&C machine. 

Everyone can buy the same materials. A lot of those companies 

have access to the same kinds of technology. What makes an organization unique is the people behind the technology. It is the people 

programming and the people planning and the people designing, 

the people maintaining the equipment. And so here it is, this number one, you know, kind of asset and competitive advantage for an 

organization, but all too often, it is normal, a manufacturer is 

thinking about supply chain of its components. Where it is coming 

in, the quality of the parts, and sometimes the human capital side 

is not thought of. So it certainly is a message we carry forward that 

we all have a role and the corporate industry certainly has to look, 

just like it would if they had a supplier who was delivering components that did not have the right quality or met the right specifications, right, to build the plane or to build the car, whatever it 

might be. If the students are coming out with not the right specifications to meet the needs, you have got to go work with your supplier. And that is an important part and aspect of the community 

involvement and it is an important part of the development of their 

own organization strategy going forward. So we really encourage 

that organizations build that into their strategic business plan is 

their human capital strategy and how they can work with schools 

I think is a very critical way of doing that. 

Chairman KNIGHT. And Mr. Mazur, you said something, you 

know, and I think Mr. Forrest will say the same thing. A lot of 

SBREP-219A with DISTILLER

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these people are not 18 years old. A lot of these folks are 30, 35. 

If you go to a community college today you do find your 18-yearolds, but you do find a lot of people that look like me, and they are 

looking to get a new skill or transition or their job was let go and 

now they need a skill. Those are very, very important aspects, and 

that is what happens at what you are doing. That is what happens 

at what apprenticeship programs are doing or community colleges. 

So, but you hit on one issue—we are voting—coding. 

So when I was a senator in California, I went to a small company, Microsoft, and asked them about what they needed for jobs. 

And they had a program called TEALS. And it was basically to put 

computer science into high schools that did not have computer 

science. We actually brought that into our district. It is in five high 

schools right now and that gives kind of a pipeline into kids going 

into college or into apprenticeship. And then I talked to them about 

getting coders. And I said, you know, at a community college we 

can get you a coder, probably an 18-month certification, maybe 

less. We can get you coders. 

Now, some companies in America want a 4-year degree. I get 

that. But I do not get the fact that if you have got 6,000 job openings and I can get you them in 12 months or 18 months, why would 

you not take them? So I think that that is where you are going is, 

you know, if you have got the aptitude and we can teach you, is 

that where we are going with what you do with coding? 

Mr. MAZUR. Absolutely. And I think it ties into your previous 

question, too, about sort of the notion of the responsibility of companies and employers to kind of own that process and support it 

and be advocates for apprenticeship. You know, we have placed 

hundreds of people in apprenticeship. We have a registered apprenticeship. We have never received a single we owe a dollar in support of our registered apprentice programs. We try to build and design a product and an opportunity that employers want to pay for. 

And so our apprenticeship, our processes and our program that we 

have built for apprenticeship is all driven by essentially success 

fees, placement fees that our employer-partners give to us for providing them someone who has the skill to do what they need to do. 

And so, you know, building that product, building that opportunity that scratches the itch that employers have, which is how 

do I build a sustainable and continuous pool that is growing of junior talent that is going to sustain me as this need continues to grow 

over time, and at the same time, how do I create that pipeline in 

a way that gives employers an incentive to actually fund it and 

make sure that it goes? And so, you know, we have not perfect that 

but that is what we are trying to do. 

I was talking with Mr. Forrest beforehand. You know, last year 

in 2017, we are nonprofit so we raise money and we get grants and 

other stuff. In 2017, 54 percent of our total budget came from our 

own revenue stream from employers, and we expect that in 2018, 

that is going to be between 70 and 74 percent. So, you know, we 

are trying to continue on down the road of building something that 

truly has a market niche that employers want to touch and grab 

and that that will help make more people successful. It will help 

make us successful as an organization, and it will help fill this 

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growing gap. So, a lot of those pieces touch one another. I think 

it is important we think about all of them. 

Chairman KNIGHT. Well, thank you all for coming. We appreciate your testimony today. 

Registered Apprenticeship has experienced a resurgence in popularity among policymakers on both sides of the aisle. We look forward to the findings of the Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion, and we will be eager to hear small business participate in RA 

programs. 

I ask unanimous consent that members have 5 legislative days 

to submit statements and supporting material for the record. 

Without objection, so ordered. 

This hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 3:27 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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A P P E N D I X 

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SME 

MAKING THE FUTURE. TOGETHER. 

Written Testimony 

Committee on Small Business 

Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce 

‘‘How Small Manufacturing Companies Are Utilizing Apprenticeship to Fill 

the Skills Gap’’ 

United States House of Representatives 

Washington, D.C. 

Delivered by Jeannine Kunz 

Vice President of Tooling U-SME 

(training division of SME) 

March 20, 2018 

Thank you, Chairman Knight and Ranking Member Murphy, for 

the opportunity to provide some insight into why and how small 

manufacturing companies are utilizing apprenticeship to fill the 

skills gap. I am representing SME and its training and development division, Tooling U-SME. For 85 years, SME has dedicated 

itself to ensuring the health and competitiveness of the manufacturing industry by developing the workforce and promoting advanced technologies. For the past decade and into the foreseeable 

future, the skills gap threatens the progress of this important sector in our country. According to the 2015 census, small businesses 

represent 89 percent of manufacturing establishments in the 

United States, and most don’t have the resources capable or dedicated to building strong structured workforce programs from the 

ground up. These businesses, employing 44 percent of the manufacturing workforce, are often experiencing extreme challenges to the 

operation and growth of their organizations, which ultimately 

threatens our economic progress as an industry and nation. 

In response, we have worked with manufacturers, educators and 

workforce organizations throughout the country to build training 

programs that support workforce learning initiatives and offer a 

national perspective with localized solutions. Hundreds of thousands of individuals from more than 5,000 companies and 600 educational facilities partner with us to strengthen the knowledge and 

skills of today and tomorrow’s manufacturing workforce. Now more 

than ever, manufacturing is in critical need of help to combat challenges facing the industry at unprecedented levels. 

As many already know, the skills gap is widening due to several 

factors colliding at once. The retirement of millions of experienced 

and knowledgeable workers is creating a worrisome vacuum. Other 

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factors, such as the introduction of new technologies and 

misperceptions about the image of manufacturing, contribute to a 

shortage of workers entering the field. In fact, over the next decade, nearly 3.5 million manufacturing jobs will likely need to be 

filled. Because of the skills gap, 2 million of those jobs are expected 

to remain unfilled. 

Yet, the industry is not prepared. Tooling U-SME’s Workforce 

2021 Assessment, a five-year study, reveals companies are falling 

dangerously behind when it comes to addressing the manufacturing 

skills gap. Nearly nine out of 10, or 88 percent, say that their company is having problems finding skilled workers in manufacturing. 

And small companies, on average, are more challenged to find 

skilled workers than larger companies, as they have additional disadvantages when it comes to factors such as health and benefit 

plans. Small businesses often cite the challenge of hiring and training an employee, only to have the larger company down the street 

recruit that employee away. 

Since the workforce and skills gap challenge runs deep, there is 

not a one-size-fits-all solution for small businesses. Rather, they 

need an arsenal of several accessible, interwoven options, so they 

can address various needs as they arise and evolve. 

There is no doubt that the small-business arsenal should include 

apprenticeship, a positive solution with a measurable return on investment. Small businesses in manufacturing are known for informal, tribal knowledge-driven approaches that do not validate the 

transfer of skills to new workers. This puts their organizations at 

significant risk, especially with the retirement of baby boomers. 

Manufacturers must have formalized programs in place for 

onboarding and on-the-job training, such as formal competencybased apprenticeship programs. 

As manufacturers struggle to find qualified workers, they are 

tapping into an age-old training approach with a modern twist. 

Around for generations, apprenticeships—which allow employees to 

earn while they learn—are seeing a renaissance as the industry addresses the skills gap. By establishing apprenticeship programs 

around industry-wide standards, U.S. employers who sponsor such 

programs can more quickly build a pipeline of skilled workers, 

boost retention, reduce recruiting costs and improve productivity. 

We believe that training and professional development is the key 

to the future success of manufacturing. Additionally, we believe 

that forward-thinking technical schools and community colleges are 

our critical partners in this effort. Manufacturers are the keepers 

of vital knowledge and technologies, but this knowledge will be lost 

through transition and a retiring workforce unless it is passed on. 

We have developed an extensive, diverse catalog of manufacturingspecific content and innovative learning tools to help manufacturers bolster their expertise and leverage their people to successfully 

compete in today’s economy. 

SME supports nationwide Department of Labor apprenticeship 

programs with a competency-based approach to traditional apprenticeship models. In the past, apprenticeships have involved completing Related Training Instruction and On-The-Job Training 

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hours to attain journey worker and journey-level status. However, 

today’s apprenticeships differ from earlier iterations. Informal, 

time-based programs are being replaced by formal, competencybased programs. SME believes that competency-based learning and 

development programs are essential to successful learning of specific job roles. Our Apprenticeship Acceleration Framework examines the necessary knowledge and skills that support common apprenticeship job functions. This is especially important for small 

businesses, as they typically don’t have a Human Resources Department or Learning Officers to create these programs from 

scratch. Instead, they must rely on government and associations to 

provide a framework, standard or structure to work within. 

Through our partnerships, SME has seen how well the apprenticeship model has worked for small businesses. For example, the 

Manufacturers Association of Central New York, known as 

MACNY, represents more than 300 manufacturers and business organizations across Central and Upstate New York. These small- to 

mid-sized companies have the same challenge as bigger companies—a rapidly retiring workforce. But unlike bigger companies, 

they don’t have the resources, time and money to start their own 

training program and address their workforce needs. 

MACNY is part of a bigger organization called the Manufacturers Alliance of New York State, which brings smaller associations 

together for statewide economy of scale on issues such as working 

with the government, taxation, workers’ compensation, understanding new processes and grant funding. Martha Ponge, Director 

of Apprenticeships for MACNY, said, ‘‘As a group, we realized that 

not only did we need to raise up the middle skills for manufacturing, but that entry-level positions were in jeopardy. Collaborating to solve the problem gave us positive results and a pathway 

for expanding our growth.’’ 

MACNY partnered with Tooling U-SME to define the standards 

of apprenticeship for its program, and to deploy training and measurement tools to both develop and assess apprentices. Tooling USME facilitated multiple workshops with MACNY stakeholders and 

representative employers to finalize the knowledge and skill requirements of each occupation. 

MACNY is also collaborating with Working Solutions New York, 

a Workforce Investment Board that serves as a connector between 

the U.S. Department of Labor and American Job Centers. Working 

Solutions was awarded American Apprenticeship Initiative grants, 

and turned to MACNY to provide the Tooling U-SME competencybased outline for apprenticeships in seven occupations. In addition, 

Tooling U-SME was asked to design a pre-apprenticeship program 

so Working Solutions could provide companies that were not quite 

ready for a full apprenticeship with an alternative to begin their 

workforce education and fill their pipelines. This program is focusing on high school students, dislocated workers and veterans. 

MACNY is in discussions with leadership to take that pre-apprenticeship program and implement it in the Syracuse Public School 

system in 2018. 

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Another superb example of how apprenticeship can positively affect small business is Cox Manufacturing in San Antonio, Texas. 

For more than 60 years, Cox has been a maker of precision cut 

metal components. Since 2010, Cox has grown from 70 employees 

to 140 employees. Sean Althaus, training coordinator for Cox, said, 

‘‘It’s difficult to grow in manufacturing without the right people in place. Companies need to have apprenticeship programs 

in place for the long run. I’ve been able to see, firsthand, the 

apprenticeship program grow to a state-of-the-art model that 

can compete with other businesses and programs across the 

country. The biggest advantage for a company is related to culture and retention. Turnover has been on a downward trend 

the last two years. It’s an investment in the future.’’ 

Sean went on to say that apprenticeships are a risk-free, debtfree way for people to gain skills and education. Apprentices get 

paid by their companies to perform normal duties and earn while 

they learn. The key component is that they come out with Department of Labor credentials, which are objective third-party credentials recognized at any facility. 

Cox and other small companies are having a lot of success pursuing an apprenticeship strategy that helps build an appealing culture and the talent pipeline. There are cost savings, too. According 

to the 2014 Accenture Manufacturing Skills and Training Study, 

the average manufacturer can lose 11 percent of annual earnings 

due to the skills shortage. 

One last example of how small businesses are using apprenticeship to fill the skills gap is the Westside Industrial Retention & 

Expansion Network, also known as WIRE-Net, based in Cleveland, 

WIRE-Net, a nonprofit economic development organization, has 

been supporting local manufacturers since the late ’80s. The organization had heard from many manufacturers who were ready to 

invest in apprenticeship programs in order to grow their talent 

base, but did not have the time and expertise to implement them. 

To address this, WIRE-Net created an apprenticeship program 

for a consortium of smaller companies, called the Northeast Ohio 

Manufacturing Apprenticeship Consortium. With this plug-andplay approach, local manufacturers rely on WIRE-Net to handle the 

administration and logistics of establishing an apprenticeship program, removing a major barrier to implementation. WIRE-Net also 

negotiates with educational providers on behalf of the consortium, 

and provides expert, structured, on-the-job training for the apprentice mentors at each company. 

The consortium approach translates into buying power. It also 

helps persuade trainers to be responsive to the needs of consortium 

members, especially in terms of scheduling technical course work. 

This ensures apprentices meet standard credentials such as those 

of the National Institute of Metalworking Skills. WIRE-Net also 

identifies sources of training dollars to keep training costs affordable for small- and medium-sized manufacturers, working with 

both local and national partners. 

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In summary, the health of small businesses is vital to manufacturing’s success. The largest OEMs in the world rely on the supply 

chain of small businesses. All too often, we are hearing of small 

businesses turning down orders or delaying expansion because they 

don’t have the right talent in place. Apprenticeships are a proven 

and needed piece of a company’s workforce strategy to combat the 

skills gap. They help small businesses build a pipeline of skilled 

workers, grow internal talent, retain employees, reduce recruiting 

costs and improve productivity. Undoubtedly, support of small businesses needs to be at the forefront of our conversations about 

strong economic and workforce development. We thank the Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce for taking the time and 

care to better understand the role apprenticeship plays, and to 

stress its importance as part of a strategic and multi-pronged attack on the skills gap. 

Thank you. 

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Chairman Knight, Ranking Member Murphy, and distinguished 

Members of the Committee: 

On behalf of the Iowa Brewers Guild, I’d like to express my appreciation for the opportunity to share our experience working with 

the Registered Apprenticeship system to establish our program. 

The Iowa Brewers Guild is the trade organization for the growing craft brewing industry in Iowa, and along with promoting and 

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protecting Iowa beer, one of our primary goals is to improve the 

quality of beer brewed in the Hawkeye State. To that end, we offer 

workshops and an annual technical conference to our members and 

the general public. 

A few years ago, we watched as brewery after brewery opened 

and expanded across the state, and we became concerned about the 

skillsets necessary for continued success. On the surface, brewing 

beer seems a fun occupation—and it is. But it is also dangerous 

work that requires scientific precision for success. If our breweries 

were to compete in the broader beer scene, we would need to take 

steps to have well-trained brewers available in our state. 

Enter the Registered Apprenticeship Program. 

We were surprised to learn that no apprenticeship standards existed for a professional brewer. As there are very few brewing 

schools or training programs across the world (and none in Iowa), 

our Board of Directors elected to pursue an apprenticeship program 

of our own. Along with members of our Education Committee, I researched the process and appropriate criteria, and engaged the Office of Apprenticeship in Des Moines. 

Everyone I encountered in the process was helpful and supportive as we worked to construct our Standards of Apprenticeship, 

and we were pleased to learn that our plan was approved by the 

Department of Labor a few months later. 

Due to the small size of our Iowa breweries, we’ve known all 

along that we would run very few apprentices through our program. (At present, we have only one apprentice in the program at 

Firetrucker Brewery in Ankeny—the experience is going well for 

all parties.) However, there is much interest from those looking to 

become professional brewers, and I have many applications on file 

(from Iowans, out-of-staters, and as far away as Brazil) ready for 

a position to open up. Beyond potential apprentices, I’ve received 

queries from colleges, brewers guilds, and Workforce Development 

offices from other states looking into the idea of creating a program 

of their own. 

Iowa has long been known for having a strong educational system, and so regardless of how many apprentices our breweries are 

able to engage in the coming years, we feel great satisfaction in 

knowing that the Iowa Brewers Guild forged a path to make Professional Brewer a Department of Labor-approved apprenticeable 

occupation. We are hopeful that other businesses or organizations 

will take our framework and apply it to training programs in their 

own states and communities. 

We believe the apprenticeship process is a respectable means to 

job training and a valuable credential for job seekers to carry, especially in an occupation such as ours. We are proud of our part in 

designing a program from which others around the country may 

also benefit, and I am pleased to report that our experience with 

both the Office of Apprenticeship in Des Moines and the Department of Labor in Washington, DC has been positive and professionally rewarding. 

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Sincerely, 

J. Wilson 

Minister of Iowa Beer 

Iowa Brewers Guild 

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Æ 

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