With an estimated 10,000 baby boomers turning age 65 each day and approaching retirement, there is a growing need to find qualified individuals to fill jobs across many employment sectors. 

One tool that is helping businesses fill these skilled-labor gaps are apprenticeship programs. The recent National Apprenticeship Week helped draw attention to these important state-managed programs that allow people to be paid while obtaining technical certificates and other credentials that lead to successful careers.

Apprentices work full time under the supervision of a skilled worker and commit to taking related classroom instruction at night or on weekends. Apprenticeship positions can be offered by an employer, groups of employers, or jointly by employers and unions. In each case, the employer(s) or a union works in conjunction with the New York State Department of Labor to register the position with the apprenticeship program. The apprenticeship opportunities are then listed by region in a special section of the Department of Labor’s site. Central New York and the North Country currently have opportunities available in construction, health care, carpentry, electrical engineering, and masonry. 

There are several advantages to obtaining an apprenticeship position. One advantage is that the job-placement rate is high. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, nearly nine of 10 apprentices are employed after completing their apprenticeship. Another benefit is the competitive salaries associated with skilled labor. The average starting annual salary for a skilled laborer is $60,000. In New York state, apprenticeship opportunities have increased in part thanks to a $4.2 million grant that the state received from the U.S. Department of Labor in 2017 and other recruitment efforts. In December 2017, there were 16,717 apprentices and in August 2018, there were 18,334. 

Apprenticeship programs have long served as an excellent alternative for high-school graduates who choose not to attend a four-year college. Depending on their interest, an apprentice can learn skills relating to a variety of fields. In fact, the additional funding recently provided by the U.S. Department of Labor is designed to help develop apprenticeship opportunities in emerging fields such as advanced manufacturing, health care, and information technology, as well as other in-demand occupations.

Employers, local unions, business organizations, nonprofit organizations, or groups of employers may apply for an apprenticeship through the State Department of Labor. For each apprenticeship, a contract is established between the apprentice and the employer and registered with the Department of Labor. Each apprenticeship has its own standard training outline, which details the on-the-job training and classroom instruction requirements. Classes and training materials are typically paid for by the program. The length of each apprenticeship varies anywhere from one to six years. Typically, those interested in joining an apprenticeship program have their high-school diploma, but some apprenticeships can start earlier as long as the applicant is 16 years old and meets other qualifications outlined by the sponsor.

Classroom-related instruction is fulfilled through a trade school, local college, or through a BOCES program. At the successful completion of the apprenticeship program, the Department of Labor awards the apprentice with a “Certificate of Completion.” To learn more about apprenticeship programs and about local jobs and apprenticeship programs, please visit: www.labor.ny.gov/formsdocs/factsheets/pdfs/P535.pdf. You can also visit a list of active sponsors who are advertising apprenticeships at https://labor.ny.gov/apprenticeship/appindex.shtm. 

To read more about National Apprenticeship Week, visit https://www.apprenticeship.gov/national-apprenticeship-week.        

William (Will) A. Barclay is the Republican representative of the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses most of Oswego County, including the cities of Oswego and Fulton, as well as the town of Lysander in Onondaga County and town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County. Contact him at barclaw@assembly.state.ny.us or (315) 598-5185.

Suppose you learned that one in three young people is convinced the earth is flat. And that many believe the Moon landing was faked in a NASA studio. Imagine you read that a third of young folks will tell you the Holocaust never happened.

Would this news disturb you? If it did, would you think our education system maybe has a few holes? After all, these people are not long out of school. And a third of them amounts to many millions. You would not think loony cultists could capture that many minds.

Would you perhaps place some blame on social media? Knowing that they are the primary sources of news and information for millennials.

Perhaps you would blame time. The years that have passed. You know, young people know so little about World War II and the slaughter of Jews. And they were not around to follow the astronauts and their voyage on television.

A recent survey found that more than one-third (36 percent) of American millennials and those in Gen Z have “favorable” feelings about communism. And, almost double that number said they would vote for a socialist (according to a YouGov poll conducted for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation).

For sure, there are many culprits who contributed to these beliefs. Educators, for instance. Many young people had teachers who failed to teach the evils of communism. Many had professors who praised communism and socialism. The profs downplayed the bad publicity communism earned. They claimed communism and socialism are good, but bad guys hijacked it in some countries and gave it a bad name.

We had such idiots even from the 1930s to the 1950s. Communism was alive and butchering then. Yet many profs, journalists, and Hollywood types of those years were gulled by the propaganda. They knelt at the communist altar. Claimed the USSR was nirvana.

Hell, we have profs today who sing communism’s merits. 

Anyone over age 50 who praises communism belongs in a padded cell.

Free and informed people ought to agree upon a few things: Eggs don’t bounce. No bones in tripe. You can’t straighten bananas. And communism has been abominable.

The USSR adopted communism. It rammed it down the throats of its own people. And later down the throats of millions of semi-slaves. In countries it took over after World War II. It sponsored and encouraged the spread of this disease to more countries.

Under its beloved communism, the USSR butchered tens of millions of people. It imprisoned them within its borders. It flung countless folks into unspeakable gulags. The nation tortured them for speaking out. It deliberately starved them to force the state ownership of farming. It ruled by poisonous brutality.

China took up communism under Mao. Under that system it doubled up on the atrocities of the USSR. Mao’s regime tortured, savaged and murdered 50-60 million people. Today, Chinese communists imprison over a million Muslims in concentration camps.

Cubans have exterminated thousands for their resistance to communism. Two million Cubans have fled that miserable failure of a country.

Oh, if you visit you are guided to parts of Cuba that look rundown but okay. But Cuba, by law, squelches freedoms you take for granted. It virtually imprisons its people. It tortures anyone who steps out of line.

Communism is a despicable system. It leads to mass killings, to starvation, to brutalities. It fosters ghastly sadism.

And yet more than one-third of our young people think favorably of it? What does this say about our education system, then? Do millennials also love Bubonic Plague?

If this country can turn out such ignorance, we ought to be turning our education system upside down. Its wheels have fallen off.

If we cannot educate our young people on the atrocities of communism we might as well bring back witch burning, worshiping of goat dung, and the like. 

From Tom…as in Morgan.       

Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home in upstate New York. You can write to Tom at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com, read more of his writing at tomasinmorgan.com, or find him on Facebook.