The Infrastructure of Apprenticeship

Almost everyone understands the basic concept of apprenticeship.  It’s some combination of academic learning about a subject combined with on-the-job training.  The on-the-job training usually comes as part of a job and results in the apprentice getting paid for the time spent learning their craft.  This system of training is documented as far back as the 1700s BCE.

Apprenticeship became a formally recognized and regulated system in the United States with the passage of the National Apprenticeship Act in 1937.  The original intent of the law was to establish and protect labor standards for apprentices in the United States.  More specifically, the objective was to guard the welfare of apprentices, encourage their inclusion in formal labor and collective bargaining contracts, and bring together employers and labor groups to create training programs.  The process was turned over to the Department of Labor to create a related regulatory framework and work with states to oversee apprenticeship.

Interestingly, the National Apprenticeship Act came into being because the U.S. Supreme Court declared a predecessor law unconstitutional.  Congress passed the National Industrial Recovery Act in 1933 to allow the President of the United States to regulate industry in an attempt to ensure fair wages and prices in an attempt to stimulate economic recovery.  This law resulted in the establishment of the Public Works Administration and allowed the federal government to recognize trade unions among other things.  In a complicated case involving analysis of both the separation of powers and commerce clauses, the Supreme Court struck down the law as unconstitutional in A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States. 

After the Schechter case, then U.S. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins started a Federal Committee on Apprenticeship and asked the committee to develop federal policies in relation to apprenticeships.  The National Apprenticeship Act was the result of that committee’s work.  It formally created a committee to set minimum standards for apprenticeships.  That job was later turned over to the Department of Labor, which maintains control of it to this day.