Politicians call for more apprenticeships to fill need for skilled labor

New Jersey’s federal and state politicians are proposing plans to expand apprenticeship programs, through public-private partnership funding, in order to fill skilled labor jobs that remain vacant in the U.S.Though there are roughly 10 million unemployed individuals in the country, 4 million jobs exist in manufacturing and other skilled labor jobs, according to U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.).

“We need to get it right, do it right and to lead, not follow” other countries in local production, Booker said at a media event Monday at Falstrom Co. Inc. in Passaic.

“I’ve been frustrated watching what’s happening around the globe and seeing what other countries are doing and we are not in preparing their workforce,” Booker said.

Jobs exported for cheaper labor overseas, along with increased automation, combined with the push to attend universities has left a gaping hole in the work force of skilled laborers.

Michele Siekerka, CEO and president of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association, said the skilled work force is a top concern for all her members on a daily basis.

“New Jersey businesses want to invest in their work force; they know that having that strong work force makes them competitive,” she said.

The problem isn’t just exported jobs and lack of training at home.

“It ain’t the immigrants that are taking our jobs … it’s innovation, it’s automation,” said U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), who was also at the event.

He also said that, for too long, the goal was to send the future work force through college rather than offer various routes to lifelong careers — especially for jobs that “get their hands dirty.”

When asked what effect a push to expand apprenticeships would have on the higher education system in the country, Booker replied that it, too, needed change.

“We need to reimagine our entire higher education system,” he said. “I think that we are really falling behind. This idea of training people for jobs that don’t exist anymore is just not acceptable. We are in, no exaggeration, we are in a crisis point in America right now.”

But that doesn’t mean stopping immigration, according to both Booker and Assemblyman Gary Schaer (D-Passaic).

“I’m with Gary. I’m big on immigration. Most people don’t understand that immigration helps grow our economy,” Booker said. “But why issue H1-B visas when we are not … training and preparing our people here for the jobs of the 21^st century?”