$145M in Apprenticeship Funding Got Zeroed Out — Now What?

The Department of Labor had $145 million earmarked for apprenticeships in shipbuilding, semiconductors, and healthcare. Then it got zeroed out. Jerremy Alexander Newsome and Dave Conley close the Work In Progress opener by pulling apart the distance between what Washington announces and what actually lands. Workforce training budgets are shrinking. Skilled trades can't find workers. Immigration enforcement cut the pipeline further. Meanwhile, every country doing this well — Denmark, Germany, Singapore, Japan — shares costs across government, employers, and individuals. America's version? Figure it out yourself. The old contract is dead. AI is the accelerant. No one's writing the replacement.

Timestamps:

1. (00:19) $145M for apprenticeships — zeroed out before a single worker got trained – headlines land but funding doesn't
2. (00:19) Workforce training authority dropped from $3.9B to $3B – the budget is shrinking while the need is exploding
3. (00:19) Pell Grants for eight-week programs start July 2026 – sounds great until you ask who's paying for it
4. (15:02) AI didn't break the contract — it expired on its own – school, degree, job, house stopped delivering years ago
5. (15:02) Denmark shares the risk three ways — America dumps it on the worker – that's the one structural difference no one wants to adopt

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