Dear Helmets to Hardhats user:
Helmets to Hardhats has worked for over sixteen years to create better pathways and advocate for the transition of military service members to quality careers and training within the construction industry. This training has been under the registered apprenticeship model, a model that North America’s Building Trades Unions and its contractor partners have worked diligently to ensure quality and effectiveness. They have delivered this training at little, to no, cost to our military service members; a method that has allowed service members to keep their GI Bill dollars. This proven joint labor-management approach, often referred to as the other four-year degree, has been hailed by many leaders throughout the United States as the gold standard of apprenticeship training.
The future of this training, and the pathway that our transitioning Military Service Members use, is at risk. A new proposal by the U.S Department of Labor (DOL) could undermine the training and labor standards that are required of federal and state approved registered apprenticeship programs.
On June 25, the DOL proposed a new system that will allow private groups free reign to invent watered-down standards and certify sub-standard quasi-apprenticeship programs. These programs
do not follow the registered apprenticeship model of the construction industry. They have named these programs Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAPs).
The stated purpose of the IRAP effort is to improve apprenticeships in industries where there are none. This is not the case in the construction industry, where the majority of registered apprenticeships exist. In fact, the number one group with the most registered apprentices in the United States is North Americas Building Trades Unions and their contractor partners. The second largest group is the United States Military.
I do not know why the DOL has proposed possibly allowing IRAPs in the construction sector. However, that is exactly what they have done. They have asked the American people for their opinion and given us
until August 26, 2019, to let them know how we feel about their proposal to damage our livelihoods and water down the training and certifications in our fields of expertise. I ask that you tell the DOL to keep IRAPs out of the construction industry. Help us protect a system that has provided so much to our nation’s military veterans and families.
At Helmets to Hardhats, we are dedicated to providing connections to quality careers and training. The sad fact is that there are many programs in existence today that want nothing more than to take our military service members’ GI Bill dollars. In return, they provide the service member with sub-par training, no employment and mail the veteran a certificate that is not worth the paper it is printed upon. If IRAPs are allowed in the construction sector, they will become another one of these worthless programs taking advantage of veterans.
Please click on the link below, which will assist you in submitting a comment to the DOL. There is one for veterans and one for family and friends. If you have a family member, have them select the family and friends link. Please share the process with anyone who you think wants to help protect the future pathway of our military veterans to the best apprenticeship training and careers in the construction industry. Together, we can defend that which has provided pathways to tens of thousands of military veterans; enabling them to enter the middle class and secure a future for themselves and their families.
No IRAPs in Construction! Please send your comments to DOL today.
Thank you,
Darrell L Roberts
Helmets to Hardhats
Executive Director
Veteran
- Public/Friends and family of the trades: https://www.saveconstructionapprenticeships.org
- Military veterans in construction: https://www.saveveteransapprenticeships.org
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