U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh announced a $20 million cooperative agreement between the Department of Labor and the nonprofit organization TradesFutures to advance equitable opportunities in construction through DOL’s “Scaling Apprenticeship Readiness Across the Building Trades” initiative. As part of the agreement, TradesFutures seeks to enroll more than 13,000 participants in apprenticeship readiness programs and plans to subsequently place at least 7,000 of them into Registered Apprenticeships in the construction industry.

In partnership with DOL and the National Urban League, TradesFutures will also lead a coalition to develop a unified strategy that creates a gateway for women, people of color, veterans, Native Americans, justice-involved people and other people from underrepresented communities to access and succeed in Registered Apprenticeship programs. The project will explore programs in Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee to support identification of best practices, as well as to provide technical assistance to these states and other apprenticeship readiness programs in additional states that may be supported by future expansion efforts.