As the U.S. construction industry faces a shortfall of nearly 440,000 workers in 2025, Wisconsin’s expanding apprenticeship programs are being highlighted as a potential national model. With construction apprenticeships in the state growing for the fourth consecutive year in 2024, Wisconsin is earning praise for its workforce development efforts.

David Polk, director of the Wisconsin Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards, has played a key role in that success since taking on the role in 2022. Through strategic partnerships with technical colleges and a focus on employer-driven training, Polk has helped expand the talent pipeline. In 2024, he was elected president of the executive board of the National Association of State and Territorial Apprenticeship Directors.

“We’re proud of the progress we’ve been able to make,” said Polk. “Employers are having a hard time procuring skilled workers; they have to have a modality to train up talent.”

Despite the program’s success, Polk acknowledges that skilled trades are still not top of mind for many young people. “There’s definitely more work to do to send out a message that registered apprenticeship is a high-level option for a family-sustaining career,” he said. The average apprentice in the state is 26 years old, which suggests many try college or other jobs before turning to apprenticeships.

Registered apprenticeship programs, which are recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor, provide both classroom and on-the-job training, with apprentices earning salaries as they learn. Wisconsin has led this space since becoming the first state to implement such programs in 1911. Today, nearly two-thirds of the state’s apprentices are training for construction jobs, reflecting strong demand from employers.

“If we’re going to administer the training process, we have to ensure that the end product is something our employers need,” Polk said. “We listen to our employers first and then procure the model that will get them the end result for the work they’ll be doing.”

The state has also invested in youth apprenticeship programs for high school juniors and seniors, offering paid on-the-job training across 16 career pathways. Roughly 10–12% of these participants continue into full registered apprenticeships.

However, the programs face ongoing challenges around diversity and scale. In 2024, about 25% of construction apprentices in Wisconsin were women or minorities, with Hispanics making up 8%. While the number of women has increased, they still represent only 4% of total enrollees.

Polk and others worry about the potential impact of anti-DEI policies and immigration enforcement on workforce availability. Nearly one in five construction workers in the U.S. is undocumented. Industry leaders hope work visas will be prioritized over deportation to retain skilled labor.

John Mielke, senior apprenticeship director for Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), sees Wisconsin’s strategy as a potential template for other states. Still, he argues that registered apprenticeships alone won’t solve the labor crisis.

“We’re not going to close the gap with government registered apprenticeships alone,” Mielke said. ABC’s alternative “craft training” model aims to provide similar workplace and classroom experience, and Mielke applauded the Trump administration’s recent rollback of Biden-era requirements that prioritized registered apprenticeships for federally funded projects.

“Like states are the laboratory of democracy, these chapters are laboratories of training,” Mielke said. “We can learn things from them and try to spread best practices.”

As the construction sector races to meet growing demand, leaders like Polk and Mielke agree: bridging the gap will require innovation, collaboration, and a multi-pronged strategy across the public and private sectors.

Originally reported by Carl Smith in Governing.