Gov. Shapiro visits Steamfitters for ‘Apprenticeship Week’
JACKSON TWP — Gov. Josh Shapiro visited Steamfitters Local Union No. 449 on Tuesday, Nov. 14, to celebrate National Apprenticeship Week.
“I believe that when we look into the future of opportunity here in this Commonwealth — of jobs, of safe communities, of economic opportunities for families — I think it runs through facilities like this,” Shapiro said.
Touring the facility with Ken Broadbent, business manager at Steamfitters, Shapiro said he was impressed with the evolution of the pipeline fitting and plumbing industry in the state.
“I think that’s important for folks to see,” Shapiro said. “The new way we’re doing this work is highly technical.”
In July, Shapiro’s administration awarded the local $90,000 in grants through the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, which was used to fund a marketing campaign to attract candidates for their apprenticeship program.
Steamfitters’ award was among nearly $400,000 granted to five registered pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs in the state.
“We have to do a better job in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to invest in people like you,” Shapiro said to the audience of union workers. “So you can in turn make our communities safer, stronger and more vibrant.”
Department of Labor and Industry secretary Nancy A. Walker, who was also in attendance, said programs like Steamfitters’ were helping prepare “the next generation of Pennsylvania workers.”
“We are reaching women, people of color, veterans, the reentry community — people who are just looking for better and different opportunities,” Walker said.
The 2023-24 budget includes $23.8 million to build partnerships between career and technical education, and Walker said the Shapiro administration has added $6 million for pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs.
“That puts people on career paths not just to a job, but it puts them on a career path to family-sustaining wages and benefits,” she said. “One of the things we’re also looking at, in addition to finding opportunities for new training, is to find ways to eradicate barriers.”
In August, Shapiro created the Commonwealth Workforce Transformation Program, “fully funded with $400 million to be able to train 10,000 new workers” in on-the-job training over the next five years.
“Kenny and the work that he’s doing here is quite literally changing the landscape of this Commonwealth,” Shapiro said.
Broadbent said this was not Shapiro’s first visit to the facility.
“He wanted to come back because it’s National Apprenticeship Week and walk the school and communicate with all the apprentices,” he said, “because it’s something he believes in his heart.”
With National Apprenticeship Week running Nov. 13 to 17, Broadbent said the facility is training 450 apprentices and journeymen “for a middle-class way of life.”
“He knows that we are an asset to the state and not a detriment,” he said. “And nobody believes that more than governor Shapiro.”
According to the United States Department of Labor, Tuesday highlighted “Registered Apprenticeship in New and Emerging Industries” as part of the weeklong celebration.
“When I think about freedom, when I think about opportunity, it runs through places like this and folks like you,” Shapiro said. “And I’m proud to be here making these investments in you and your future and in all of our collective future.”
