Last week, I was contacted by a gentleman out of East Texas.  The poor man was beside himself.  He had recently been laid off from a plant, along with 500 other workers.  He went into great detail about how he was looking into his options, looking for a sustainable career, how he has a family to support, and that he has a great qualifications from work experience and previous schooling.  He is very interested in joining a registered apprenticeship program.  Bottom line - he's trying to find a new path, one he's being forced to take and was completely unexpected.  His path led him to me. 

I referred him to one of our programs just over the border in our great state of Louisiana, one that I feel he can apply his previous experience to most easily.  I also called the training director and let him know this gentlemen would be contacting him.  Although the training director was happy to talk to him, he made it very clear that they have more apprentices than they can handle since there is less work in the construction industry right now.  I thought to myself, it wasn't that long ago that the opposite was true. Some of our Louisiana program sponsors were desperate for good candidates to apply to their programs, wages were higher (thanks to post-Katrina ramifications), and work was more plentiful.  Now, many of our sponsors are beating off applicants with a stick.  For a split second I wondered what the cause is for this turn of events (it was early morning and my brain wasn't operating at full power yet), and then it occurred to me.  It's the economy, stupid.

When the good folks in the Office of Apprenticeship asked me to be a regular blogger on this site, and then suggested I write about the effects of the economy on registered apprenticeship, I shuddered.  I'll be honest with you, if I had to pick one subject matter that I'd avoid at all costs, it's anything having to do with economics.  Jamming a needle in my eye is a more attractive option.  I barely passed Economics 101 in college.  That and chemistry are two areas I cannot wrap my brain around.  Thankfully, chemistry is not exactly a common topic of conversation.  But the economy is - and will always continue to be.  Lucky for me, you can have an opinion on the economy and not know very much about the economic theory behind it.  Chances are, few people do.

We here in "Sportsman's Paradise" are definitely feeling the affects of this disappointing and difficult economy - particularly on the state level.  Initially, Louisiana was insulated from the economic fall out, and we were very proud of the fact that we were doing so well when the rest of the country was struggling.  Fast forward a year, and the landscape looks very different.  The legislature is cutting and slashing the state budget as we speak, which means less resources for the public, yet far more demand for them due to the seemingly daily plant closings and WARN notices our agency learns about.  These dislocated workers are out there looking for opportunities that will help them survive, and they're going to our one-stops (which in Louisiana are called Business & Career Solution Centers) in record numbers. 

This leads me to my next dilemma.  How do I move our integration action plan forward in our Centers under these conditions?  It's not appropriate to push our frontline staff to refer jobseekers to apprenticeship programs when many of those programs can't take them.  Their application logs are growing longer by the day.

Closer to home, I'm personally struggling with how to promote registered apprenticeship and recruit new program sponsors, given an economy that is straining to keep its head above water.  Employers are making significant reductions to their workforce, dealing with declining revenue - so I keep hearing that the last thing they are going to focus on is a training model that will add another line item to their balance sheet - and it's hard to argue with that.  Or is it?

It seems my inaugural blog is asking more than telling, so I'm tossing this back to you.  What do you think? How is your state handling this?  Do you feel like registered apprenticeship has taken a hit or slowed down?  Do you have a good argument for employers to utilize the program despite budget woes?  Please comment below and add your two cents.  We want to hear from you!  Share your expertise with others. 

Don't forget to keep an eye out for my June blog, "The ESAC Diaries."