Elyse Ashburn

Feb 6, 2025 | workshift.org | Elyse Ashburn |Paul Fain |Colleen Connolly

An aborted federal funding freeze causes confusion among education and job training providers, while the White House still plans to review spending on apprenticeships, WIOA, and workforce training under CHIPS. Also, Augusta Tech’s bid to become an anchor institution for its region’s industrial revival. Education and job training programs aimed at working-class Americans largely have avoided pitched political battles.

Jan 29, 2025 | workshift.org | Elyse Ashburn |Paul Fain |Colleen Connolly

Education and job training programs aimed at working-class Americans largely have avoided pitched political battles. With bipartisan support and relatively modest federal funding, they lack the infotainment appeal to fuel soundbites from lawmakers or arguments on social media. That changed this week with a (now rescinded) memo from the Office of Management and Budget, which ordered a 90-day pause on trillions of dollars in federal grants and assistance.

Dec 11, 2024 | workshift.org | Elyse Ashburn

The U.S. Department of Labor has withdrawn an 800-page proposal to update the registered apprenticeship system that was unlikely to stand in the new administration. The rule changes aimed to increase worker protections and quality by requiring better outcomes data, streamlining aspects of the process for creating apprenticeships, and making apprenticeship more compatible with K-12 and college education.

Nov 11, 2024 | workshift.org | Elyse Ashburn

Labor is having a moment in the U.S. The country’s dockworkers just successfully led a three-day strike for higher pay, and crippling strikes by UPS Teamsters and the nation’s rail workers were narrowly avoided in the past two years after concessions from employers and, in one case, intervention from Congress. Public support for unions is at the highest level since 1965, after reaching its nadir in 2009.

Oct 10, 2024 | workshift.org | Elyse Ashburn |Paul Fain

Labor is having a moment in the U.S. The country’s dockworkers just successfully led a three-day strike for higher pay, and crippling strikes by UPS Teamsters and the nation’s rail workers were narrowly avoided in the past two years after concessions from employers and, in one case, intervention from Congress. Public support for unions is at the highest level since 1965, after reaching its nadir in 2009.