Filed under skilled-trades.

The Welder, the AI Module, and a Plan Still Being Drafted

The US Department of Labor has obligated nearly $189 million in apprenticeship grants since mid-2025 — without filing the strategy document Executive Order 14277 required eighteen months ago. The arithmetic is clear: employer-sponsor acquisition costs unaddressed, pre-apprenticeship attrition at 82 per cent, and thin manufacturing sector density put the current trajectory at roughly 850,000 apprentices by 2030, not a million. The plan the law required is not written.