Lawmakers push blue-collar pathways to address labor shortage

Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle said the U.S. needs to expand non-college career pathways, suggesting trade programs, education reform and on-the-job training to address the labor shortage. 

Despite a better-than-expected jobs report last week, companies large and small are still struggling to fill positions, as millions of workers have yet to rejoin the workforce since leaving amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), speaking at The Hill’s “Future of the Workplace” event Wednesday, said that investment in “good education and good skills doesn’t mean that we need to go and push everyone to get a worthless degree in college.” 

Spartz, a member of the House Education and Labor Committee, said that more government spending wasn’t the answer, instead calling for more “lifelong learning” skills to be taught in primary and secondary school.

“For a lot of us, you need to try and get real skills and get a job and then figure out if you need to go to college,” Spartz told The Hill’s Steve Clemons. “A lot of new careers aren’t even requiring all that much education.”

“How can you be a great learner and have the desire and fundamentals to learn?” she asked. “We need to go back to K-12 and see where we are and restructure our postsecondary education and align it with K-12 in skill attainment.”

Also speaking at the event, sponsored by Philip Morris International, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) said that “connecting government and private enterprise” was key to matching soon-to-be grads with jobs.  

She cited the Pennsylvania Pipeline Project, a workforce development program that operates in her district.

“The Navy has partnered with local manufacturers and with local community colleges, technical schools to make sure that we are recruiting and training young people with the skills that the employers in the region need,” she said. 

She also pointed to a welding competition where high schoolers trained in the trade could show off their skills to potential employers — and even leave the event with a job.

“These are kids in high school, looking at walking out the door and into jobs that start at $18 an hour and go up from there,” she said. “Good wages, full benefits, and lots of opportunity to build a career.”