Wisconsin's Construction Training Program Could Serve as National Model

The number of men and women participating in construction apprenticeship programs in Wisconsin increased for the fourth year in a row in 2024. This trajectory needs to be repeated in state after state to get within shouting distance of the nearly 440,000 more workers the industry will need this year to meet demand for new construction.

Wisconsin has earned national attention for its success in growing state apprenticeship programs over the last several years. David Polk, the director of the Wisconsin Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards since 2022, has been a huge part of that success. He’s fostered partnerships with community and technical colleges to create a bigger pipeline to apprenticeships and has doubled down on making sure those apprenticeship programs teach skills employers really need.

In 2024, Polk was elected president of the executive board of the National Association of State and Territorial Apprenticeship Directors. “We’re proud of the progress we’ve been able to make,” Polk says. “Employers are having a hard time procuring skilled workers; they have to have a modality to train up talent.”

Jobs for skilled workers pay well, especially relative to the requirements for entry. Even so, they are not top of mind for many high school students, Polk says. The average age of apprentices in Wisconsin is 26.

To Polk this suggests they tried college, or whatever job they could find after high school, and only later discovered they could be paid to learn a skill valued by employers. “There’s definitely more work to do to send out a message that registered apprenticeship is a high-level option for a family-sustaining career,” he says.

Design Based on Need

“Registered” apprenticeships are industry-vetted and validated by the U.S. Department of Labor or a state apprenticeship agency. Graduates earn a nationally recognized credential and a salary during their training.

Thirty-three states and territories offer such apprenticeships. Wisconsin was the first state to do so, in 1911. It offers apprenticeships in numerous sectors, including IT, agriculture and health care, but nearly two-thirds of participants are earning credentials for construction jobs. This is driven by workforce need, reflected in the number of companies contracting with the state to provide apprenticeships.

In 2024, nearly 2,000 employers who could offer construction apprenticeships were registered with the Wisconsin Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards. The apprentice and the employer sign a contract with the state, and the bureau oversees program delivery. Employers pay apprentices for the days they receive classroom instruction as well as those spent at work sites.

There are multiple channels for apprentice recruitment. A Youth Apprenticeship program is offered to Wisconsin high school juniors and seniors, with 16 program areas.

This two-year program includes classroom instruction and on-the-job training. Participants are paid. In recent years, about 10-12 percent of youth apprentices have bridged to a registered apprenticeship.

Wisconsin’s Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards also recruits apprentices through partnerships with school districts and the state’s technical college system. Contractors recruit as well, to grow the pool of workers with the specific skills they need. The state oversees the development and delivery of apprenticeship training and contracts with the entities that provide it.

“If we’re going to administer the training process, we have to ensure that the end product is something our employers need,” Polk says. “We listen to our employers first and then procure the model that will get them the end result for the work they’ll be doing.”

Challenges of Diversity and Scale

About 1 in 4 Wisconsin construction apprentices were women or minorities in 2024. Hispanics were the most-represented minority group, at 8 percent. There were more women than ever, but they still made up only 4 percent of the total.

Nationally, just over 1 in 10 construction workers are women, a share that is almost twice what it was a decade ago. Some worry that this trend could be slowed by anti-diversity, equity and inclusion policies enacted by the federal government and changing views about targeting discrimination or sexual harassment that has made construction sites uncomfortable for female workers.

There’s little room to turn workers away. Beyond a shortage of workers in the hundreds of thousands, changes in immigration policy could force skilled workers off job sites. It’s estimated that almost 1 in 5 construction workers are undocumented.

The construction industry hopes work visas could be emphasized over deportation of workers it can’t spare to lose. Shortages drive up wages as companies compete for skilled workers. Construction costs are already going up over worries about how much tariffs will increase the cost of materials.

John Mielke, senior apprenticeship director for Associated Builders and Contractors, applauds the work Polk is doing. He sees Wisconsin programs as a model for other states — but, he says, state programs aren’t enough to meet the moment.

All of the Above

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) supports registered apprenticeship programs, says Mielke, but they produce only about 40,000 completers per year. “We’re not going to close the gap with government registered apprenticeships alone,” he says.

It will take an “all of the above” approach to meet industry’s need, he says. ABC offers paid apprenticeships it calls “craft training.” Mielke says their workplace and classroom training is comparable to registered apprenticeships.

ABC welcomed an executive order by President Donald Trump rescinding Biden-era requirements for hiring registered apprentices for federally funded construction projects. Aside from concerns about the number of graduates, it sees some state programs as dominated by unions and thus anti-competitive.

Mielke would hope to see more registered apprenticeship programs as well as more craft training from ABC chapters, with government being open to exploring new ways to do things at a scale that can meet the construction industry’s needs.

“Like states are the laboratory of democracy, these chapters are laboratories of training,” Mielke says. “We can learn things from them and try to spread best practices.”