II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 235
To direct the Secretary of Labor to enter into contracts with industry inter-
mediaries for purposes of promoting the development of and access
to apprenticeships and related pre-apprenticeships for secondary school
students.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY23, 2025
Mr. H
EINRICH(for himself and Mr. MORAN) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Edu-
cation, Labor, and Pensions
A BILL
To direct the Secretary of Labor to enter into contracts
with industry intermediaries for purposes of promoting
the development of and access to apprenticeships and
related pre-apprenticeships for secondary school students.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Apprenticeship Path-4
ways Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
In this Act: 7
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(1) APPRENTICESHIP.—The term ‘‘apprentice-1
ship’’ means an apprenticeship registered under the 2
National Apprenticeship Act. 3
(2) D
ISABILITY.—The term ‘‘disability’’ has the 4
meaning given such term in section 3 of the Ameri-5
cans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 6
12102). 7
(3) D
ISCONNECTED YOUTH .—The term ‘‘dis-8
connected youth’’ means any individual who— 9
(A) has attained age 16 but not age 25 on 10
the date of selection for an apprenticeship; 11
(B) is not regularly attending any sec-12
ondary school, area career and technical edu-13
cation school (as defined in section 3 of the 14
Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Edu-15
cation Act of 2006 (29 U.S.C. 2302)), or post-16
secondary school during the 6-month period 17
preceding the date of selection for the appren-18
ticeship; and 19
(C) is not regularly employed during such 20
6-month period. 21
(4) E
ARLY COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL .—The term 22
‘‘early college high school’’ has the meaning given 23
such term in section 8101 of the Elementary and 24
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 25
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(5) EDUCATIONAL SERVICE AGENCY .—The 1
term ‘‘educational service agency’’ has the meaning 2
given such term in section 8101 of the Elementary 3
and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 4
7801). 5
(6) H
IGH SCHOOL.—The term ‘‘high school’’ 6
has the meaning given such term in section 8101 of 7
the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 8
1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 9
(7) I
NDUSTRY INTERMEDIARY .—The term ‘‘in-10
dustry intermediary’’ means an entity that— 11
(A) in order to accelerate apprenticeship 12
program development, to help establish new ap-13
prenticeship partnerships at the national, State, 14
or regional level, and to promote access to ap-15
prenticeships for secondary school students, 16
serves as a conduit between— 17
(i) an employer; and 18
(ii) an entity such as— 19
(I) an industry partner; 20
(II) the Department of Labor; 21
and 22
(III) a State agency responsible 23
for workforce investment activities; 24
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(B) demonstrates a capacity to work with 1
employers and other key partners to identify 2
workforce trends and foster public-private fund-3
ing to establish new apprenticeship programs; 4
and 5
(C) is an entity such as— 6
(i) a business; 7
(ii) a business-related nonprofit orga-8
nization, including industry associations 9
and business federations; 10
(iii) a private organization functioning 11
as a workforce intermediary for the ex-12
press purpose of serving the needs of busi-13
nesses, including community-based non-14
profit service providers and industry- 15
aligned training providers; or 16
(iv) a consortium of any of the enti-17
ties described in clauses (i) through (iii). 18
(8) L
OCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCY .—The term 19
‘‘local educational agency’’ has the meaning given 20
such term in section 8101 of the Elementary and 21
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 22
(9) N
ATIONAL APPRENTICESHIP ACT .—The 23
term ‘‘National Apprenticeship Act’’ means the Act 24
of August 16, 1937 (commonly known as the ‘‘Na-25
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tional Apprenticeship Act’’; 50 Stat. 664, chapter 1
663; 29 U.S.C. 50 et seq.). 2
(10) P
RE-APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM .—The 3
term ‘‘pre-apprenticeship program’’ means a train-4
ing model or program that— 5
(A) prepares individuals for acceptance 6
into an apprenticeship program; 7
(B) meets the standards, for such a model 8
or program, established under the National Ap-9
prenticeship Act; and 10
(C) is registered under the National Ap-11
prenticeship Act. 12
(11) R
EGION.—The term ‘‘region’’ has the 13
meaning given the term in section 3 of the Work-14
force Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 U.S.C. 15
3102). 16
(12) S
ECONDARY SCHOOL .—The term ‘‘sec-17
ondary school’’ has the meaning given such term in 18
section 8101 of the Elementary and Secondary Edu-19
cation Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801). 20
(13) STEM.—The term ‘‘STEM’’ means 21
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. 22
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SEC. 3. SECONDARY EDUCATION APPRENTICESHIP CON-1
TRACTS. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of Labor (referred 3
to in this section as ‘‘the Secretary’’), in consultation with 4
the Secretary of Education, shall enter into contracts with 5
industry intermediaries for the purpose of promoting the 6
development of and access to apprenticeships for sec-7
ondary school students, from amounts appropriated under 8
subsection (f). 9
(b) E
LIGIBILITY.—To be eligible to be awarded a con-10
tract under this section, an industry intermediary shall 11
submit an application to the Secretary, at such time and 12
in such manner as may be required by the Secretary, that 13
identifies proposed activities designed to further the pur-14
pose described in subsection (a). 15
(c) S
ELECTION.— 16
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary shall award 17
contracts under this section based on competitive 18
criteria to be prescribed by the Secretary. 19
(2) P
RIORITY CONSIDERATION FOR CON -20
TRACTS.—In awarding contracts under this section, 21
the Secretary shall give priority consideration to 22
intermediaries proposing contracts targeting— 23
(A) engagement with students from sec-24
ondary schools in which 40 percent of the stu-25
dents the local educational agency serves are el-26
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igible for free or reduced price lunches under 1
the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch 2
Act (42 U.S.C. 1751 et seq.); 3
(B) engagement with students served by— 4
(i) rural high-need local educational 5
agencies with locale codes of 32, 33, 41, 6
42, or 43; or 7
(ii) educational service agencies serv-8
ing rural high-need local educational agen-9
cies with locale codes of 32, 33, 41, 42, or 10
43; 11
(C) engagement with students residing in a 12
Census tract that is a high poverty area, as de-13
fined in section 681.260 of title 20, Code of 14
Federal Regulations, or a successor regulation; 15
(D) engagement with disconnected youth; 16
(E) engagement with an Indian child, as 17
defined in section 4 of the Indian Child Welfare 18
Act of 1978 ( 25 U.S.C. 1903); 19
(F) increasing participation of women in 20
building trades and technology; and 21
(G) engagement with individuals with dis-22
abilities. 23
(d) U
SE OFFUNDS.— 24
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(1) GENERAL ACTIVITIES.—An industry inter-1
mediary that is awarded a contract under this sec-2
tion may only use the funds made available through 3
such contract to carry out activities designed to fur-4
ther the purpose described in subsection (a), includ-5
ing— 6
(A) facilitating the development and provi-7
sion of apprenticeships and related pre-appren-8
ticeships, in the occupations of high need listed 9
in subsection (e), through collaborations with 10
public and private entities that provide job-re-11
lated instruction, such as on-the-job training, 12
pre-apprenticeship training, and technical train-13
ing; 14
(B) encouraging entities to establish such 15
apprenticeships and related pre-apprenticeships; 16
(C) identifying, assessing, and training ap-17
plicants for such apprenticeships and pre-ap-18
prenticeships who are— 19
(i) enrolled in secondary school; 20
(ii) enrolled in an early college high 21
school that focuses on education in STEM 22
subjects; 23
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(iii) individuals age 18 or older who 1
meet appropriate qualification standards; 2
or 3
(iv) enrolled in a pre-apprenticeship, 4
or a training initiative for an apprentice-5
ship, that allow adults to concurrently in-6
crease academic and workforce skills 7
through proven, evidence-based models 8
that connect all learning to the specific ap-9
prenticeship involved and significantly ac-10
celerate completion of preparation for the 11
apprenticeship; 12
(D) tracking the progress of such appli-13
cants who participate in such apprenticeships; 14
(E) orientation and training prior to the 15
apprenticeship, and ongoing support; 16
(F) recruitment and retention of employer 17
partners; 18
(G) administrative and operational activi-19
ties; 20
(H) coaching, including development of life 21
skills, social-emotional skills, soft skills, employ-22
ability skills, and workforce readiness; 23
(I) wraparound support services, including 24
monitoring of academic progress of the appren-25
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tice, and provision to the apprentice of financial 1
incentives of payments for child and family care 2
costs (such as transportation assistance or a 3
gas card), and of free tutoring and career serv-4
ices (which may include benefit counseling), in 5
order to create a community of apprentices par-6
ticipating in the activities described in sub-7
section (b); and 8
(J) paying 50 percent of the wages of an 9
apprentice for the duration of the apprentice-10
ship involved. 11
(2) G
OODS AND SERVICES.—An industry inter-12
mediary that receives a contract under this section 13
may use the funds made available through such con-14
tract for goods and services, including— 15
(A) related educational goods and services, 16
including provision of tuition assistance, books, 17
and fees associated with any related instruction; 18
(B) equipment and tools related to the ap-19
prenticeship occupation; 20
(C) clothing, including construction boots, 21
kneepads, hard hats, and visibility vests, related 22
to the apprenticeship occupation; and 23
(D) technology and internet access. 24
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(e) OCCUPATIONS OFHIGHNEED.—The occupations 1
of high need referred to in subsection (d)(1)(A) are occu-2
pations that relate to— 3
(1) building trades, including— 4
(A) carpentry; 5
(B) plumbing; 6
(C) welding; 7
(D) electrician occupations; 8
(E) machinist occupations; 9
(F) mechanic occupations; 10
(G) pipe fitting; 11
(H) heating, ventilation, and air condi-12
tioning occupations; 13
(I) operating engineer and equipment oper-14
ator occupations; 15
(J) cement mason occupations; 16
(K) sheet metal work occupations; 17
(L) boilermaker occupations; 18
(M) solar installation; and 19
(N) roofing; 20
(2) architectural and engineering drafting and 21
design; 22
(3) health care, including the occupations of— 23
(A) emergency medical technicians; 24
(B) phlebotomists; 25
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(C) pharmacy technicians; 1
(D) respiratory therapists; 2
(E) home health aides; 3
(F) radiologic technologists; 4
(G) licensed practical nurses; 5
(H) nurse technicians; and 6
(I) laboratory technicians; 7
(4) teaching, including early childhood edu-8
cators; 9
(5) technology, including— 10
(A) computer science occupations; 11
(B) fabrication laboratory technician; 12
(C) telecommunications occupations; 13
(D) data science occupations; and 14
(E) product management; and 15
(6) manufacturing. 16
(f) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 17
are authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary such 18
sums as may be necessary for the purposes of carrying 19
out this section. 20
Æ
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