This bill makes it easier for working learners and employers to convert apprenticeship experience into recognized postsecondary credentials and coordinated aid, but it raises student data‑privacy risks and imposes upfront compliance and resource burdens on institutions and sponsors.
Students and apprentices can earn academic credit for apprenticeship-related instruction, making it easier for working learners to complete postsecondary credentials.
Students and postsecondary institutions gain shared data systems to track Title IV enrollment and completion, improving coordination of financial aid, coursework, and credential attainment.
Employers, sponsors, and colleges get clearer pathways and articulation agreements that strengthen hiring pipelines and make apprenticeship credentials more widely recognized.
Students' apprenticeship and education records would be shared across agencies and institutions, increasing risks to privacy and data security for learners.
Postsecondary institutions and apprenticeship sponsors (especially smaller schools and small businesses) will face administrative, IT, and implementation costs — and competitive pressure to join consortia — that can strain resources.
Linking multiple funding streams and programs (Perkins, Rehabilitation Act, HEA) requires compliance and planning changes that create short‑term administrative burdens for institutions and state agencies.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires Labor and Education to make an interagency agreement to create and support a voluntary consortium aligning apprenticeships with secondary and postsecondary education, data sharing, credit agreements, and guidance on federal funding use.
Introduced February 26, 2025 by Amy Klobuchar · Last progress February 26, 2025
Requires the Secretary of Labor to work with the Secretary of Education to create an interagency agreement, within one year, to align registered apprenticeship programs with secondary, postsecondary, and adult education. The agreement must set up and support a Registered Apprenticeship College Consortium that promotes credit awarding, data sharing about apprentices’ postsecondary enrollment and completion, guidance on using federal education funding, technical assistance, public information, and electronic transcript and articulation agreements—while making consortium participation voluntary.