Remarks at the "National Journal Live" Conversation, Washington, D.C., November 3, 2015

[as prepared for delivery]

Good morning and thanks so much for that warm welcome. It's an honor to be here to talk with Steve and with all of you and with folks out there in the twitter-verse about our work in the Obama Administration to rebuild and modernize our workforce development system.

I want to start by providing an important bit of context about our economy and how far it's come in recent years. In late 2008, we were staring into the abyss. The economy was hemorrhaging jobs — two million of them lost in the three months before President Obama took office. But today the Great Recession is in the rearview mirror, and we have the wind at our back again. The national unemployment rate is down to 5.1 percent, and we're in the middle of the longest streak of private-sector growth on record — 67 consecutive months to the tune of 13.2 million jobs... and my expectation is that we'll add to that total when we release October's numbers this Friday.

But we're not spiking the ball and doing our end zone dance. We know there's considerable unfinished business. Too many people still can't find work. Too many are struggling just to get by, let alone get ahead. The challenge before us is making sure that wind at our back propels everyone forward. We need to create an economy based on shared prosperity, an economy that works for everyone.

And one of the most important ways we do that is by investing in our people, empowering them with the skills and training they need to live out their highest and best dreams.

As I've traveled around the country during my two-plus years as Labor Secretary, I've met with a lot of business leaders, large and small. And to a person, they tell me the same thing. I heard it at Boeing in Seattle; I heard it from an HVAC company in upstate New York; I heard it from the manufacturing council in Wisconsin. It's like a Groundhog Day moment, because I keep having the same conversation over and over. They say: Tom, I'm bullish about the future. I want to grow and expand my business. But what I need is a pipeline of skilled workers.

Filling that pipeline has been at the very top of our agenda, and more than ever we're doing it in collaboration with those employers. It just stands to reason: if you want to help people get good jobs, it's a pretty good idea to talk to the job creators. So we're no longer doing what I call "train and pray"— that's when you train people in widget-making and then pray that someone out there is hiring widget-makers. That doesn't make any sense. Instead, we're being responsive to the demand needs of employers, aligning our programs with those needs, arming people with the skills that are relevant to opportunities that are actually available. This is what we call job-driven training.

And at the end of the day, it's a win-win. The way I see it: the workforce system has two clients: workers get the tools they need to punch their ticket to the middle class and businesses get the world-class workforce they need to stay profitable and competitive. And the Labor Department plays a kind of Match.com role in bringing them together.

We're really in the middle of a fundamental transformation in the way we prepare people for 21st century careers. I like to think of it as our Eisenhower moment. Sixty years ago, President Eisenhower had the audacity to think big, building a network of interstate highways that facilitated commerce and powered decades of economic growth. Today, we are embarking on a different kind of infrastructure project — investing in our human capital infrastructure, constructing and modernizing a skills superhighway.

That superhighway has all kinds of on-ramps and off-ramps where people can pick up stackable, portable credentials. The destination is the same for everyone — a middle-class job and economic stability — but there are a lot of different ways to get there. The superhighway also has dedicated lanes for people with specific needs — disconnected youth, people with disabilities, veterans, people coming out of the criminal justice system and more. Because we believe that the economy works best and the nation is strongest when we field a full team.

But I want to zero in today on one of the most important stops on that superhighway — one that holds out a lot of promise, but one that, frankly, we've undervalued — and that's apprenticeship.

This is National Apprenticeship Week, as designated by the President. There are more than 200 events happening nationwide, with companies like Ford, Alcoa, and Nestle holding activities and open houses. Pepperidge Farms is also celebrating — not only are they known for Goldfish crackers, but now for apprenticeships too! So it's the perfect moment to talk about this issue. But the truth is I don't need a special hook; I preach this gospel all the time. As far as I'm concerned, it's National Apprenticeship Week 52 weeks a year.

Because apprenticeship works. The learn-while-you-earn model is tried-and-true. The average starting salary for an apprenticeship graduate is $50,000 a year. And he or she — and we want there to be more "she's" than ever — will earn over their careers $300,000 more on average in wages and benefits than their peers who don't apprentice. On the employer side, apprenticeship is a great strategy for recruiting and retaining top-notch workers who keep the business productive and profitable. International studies show that for every dollar a company puts into apprenticeship, they get nearly $1.50 back in return.

All over the country, I've seen inspiring examples of young people for whom apprenticeship has opened doors of opportunity.

I saw it at an IBEW training facility in San Francisco last year, where a young man named Anthony told me that his journeyman's license has given him his "golden ticket" to the middle class.

I saw it in Boston where the current Mayor, Marty Walsh, created a pre-apprenticeship program called Building Pathways back when he was the head of the local Building Trades. It takes people from some of the city's poorest neighborhoods and communities, including public housing residents, and prepares them for a union apprenticeship that is a springboard to a middle-class job.

In Los Angeles, I met a young woman named LeDaya Epps who grew up in foster care and has faced more than her share of adversity in life. She bounced around a few jobs but was struggling to settle into a career. And then she went to a job fair and signed up for a union apprenticeship in construction. She went through a rigorous bootcamp, and now she's got a great job on the crew building the new light rail system in LA, a job that provides some security for herself and her three kids. LeDaya's powerful story got the attention of the First Lady, who invited her to be one of her guests at the State of the Union address earlier this year.

For decades in America, it's the labor movement that has been the tip of the spear on apprenticeship. Unions — especially the Building Trades — have led the way, partnering with industry to help millions of people find career pathways. It's their work that has given apprenticeship such an impressive return on investment.

And they've continued to innovate in this space in recent years. Since 2009, for example, the painters' union has been a credit-awarding academic institution, essentially a college unto itself. And now, several other trades are exploring a similar step. The Building Trades also has a pre-apprenticeship program called Apprenticeship Readiness, a three-week intensive course that allows students to bone up on core skills that helps them to qualify for apprenticeships. And it's produced real results, with an apprenticeship placement rate of over 70 percent.

What we want to do now is build on this foundation laid by the Building Trades. We want to expand apprenticeship into other high-growth industries — like health care, IT and cybersecurity, fields that you don't normally associate with apprenticeship. The President has set a high bar: to double the number of Registered Apprenticeships in the coming years. And we're already making substantial progress toward that goal — adding more than 70,000 apprenticeships nationwide, nearly a 20 percent increase, in just two years.

We want to double and diversify, making sure that apprenticeship opportunities are available to women, to communities of color, to underserved populations and others who have struggled to navigate or access the skills superhighway.

So last month, the president made an historic announcement — $175 million in American Apprenticeship Grants, representing the largest-ever federal investment in apprenticeship. There are 46 winners throughout the country — partnerships among employers, unions, non-profits, local workforce boards, community colleges and others. I was just in Cleveland yesterday, where they are one of the beneficiaries of a grant that will establish and expand apprenticeships for frontline workers in public transportation. All told, we anticipate the grants will create 34,000 apprenticeship positions, while catalyzing new partnerships and innovation that will further expand apprenticeship.

But in addition to an infusion of resources, I would argue that we need something of a culture change. We need to start building a movement that changes people's assumptions about apprenticeship, that affords this training model the stature it deserves. I told you before about the remarkable apprenticeship success stories I've been able to see in my travels. But I also have a lot of conversations with parents and educators around the country, who aren't yet sold on this idea. "Our kids are going to college," they tell me. And what I tell them is: "Apprenticeship is the other college... without the debt."

We need to break out of this mindset that you can either go down the college track or the apprenticeship track and never the twain shall meet. It's not an either-or, it's a "both-and". The two can and should be very much integrated. A lot of local apprenticeship programs have built relationships with local colleges through what we call articulation agreements. We're taking that a step further with a new national network called the RACC, the Registered Apprenticeship College Consortium. It's already 222 colleges strong, and it allows graduates of apprenticeship programs to take their years of on-the-job training and convert them into credits toward an associate or bachelor's degree at any of the member schools. Let's not set up a false choice between continuing your education and starting your career. They're not mutually exclusive; in fact, they go hand-in-hand.

As we take these important steps forward, there's a lot we can learn from our friends around the world who've really embedded apprenticeship in their workforce DNA. That's why I've traveled to the UK, Germany and Switzerland — to strengthen our apprenticeship partnership with them and learn from the incredible work they've done in this space.

In talking to Swiss employers, what I noticed right away is that they speak of apprenticeship not as a cost, but as an investment — one that they expect will reap dividends for the bottom line. The other big takeaway is the youth of Swiss apprentices. At the age of 16 or 17, many of them are working, being mentored by trained professionals and going to school learning advanced technical concepts. At 18, they're regularly turning out products for clients and adding value for their companies.

There's no wrong road in Switzerland, because they have what they call "permeability" built into the system. So, if you choose to apprentice — that doesn't box you in or pigeonhole you. I met many former apprentices that went on to become engineers, get their PhD's or, in one case, go on to be the CEO of Zurich Insurance. On Switzerland's skills superhighway, it's easy to shift lanes, take detours and explore different routes.

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I want to move on to the conversation and Q&A, so let me just close by saying we have a remarkable opportunity here. The timing couldn't be more perfect for lifting up apprenticeship, for a renewed commitment to this time-tested approach to workforce development. After all, there are 5.4 million job openings out there for the taking by people with the right training.

Apprenticeship is a centerpiece of this administration's work because it's an investment in the competitiveness of our businesses, the strength of our economy and the potential of our people.

Apprenticeship has application across the economy. It offers a bright future for people who want to work with their hands, as well as those pursuing careers in the so-called knowledge industries. Whether your plan is to write code, drive trucks or fix sinks — whether you're looking to hire someone with competency in carpentry or computer programming — apprenticeship can be for you.

We had a remarkable gathering at the White House last month of CEOs, union leaders and others — all of whom have skin in the apprenticeship game, all of whom have experienced its success — and are now prepared to spread the word, to be ambassadors for this powerful idea, to share best practices and recruit others to get on the bandwagon. I believe we're on the cusp of a game-changing apprenticeship movement, one that will make that skills superhighway sturdier than ever, one that will usher in shared prosperity in the 21st century. I'm excited about where we're headed, and I look forward to discussing it with you further. Thanks so much.