Policy Alert: Executive Orders to Strengthen the Current and Future Workforce

Action: Executive Orders "Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth” and “Preparing Americans for High-Paying Skilled Trade Jobs of the Future”

What it does: On April 23, the President signed two Executive Orders that target future-focused workforce development for the incumbent and next generation workforce. An Executive Order on artificial intelligence (AI) in education establishes the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence Education to “promote the appropriate integration of AI into education, providing comprehensive AI training for educators, and fostering early exposure to AI concepts and technology to develop an AI-ready workforce and the next generation of American AI innovators.”

Another Executive Order focuses on registered apprenticeships and other Federal workforce development investments. The order charges the Secretaries of Labor, Commerce, and Education with developing a report to outline strategies that streamline Federal workforce development resources; reform administrative and programmatic requirements; discover opportunities to upskill incumbent workers including by using artificial intelligence (AI); map college alternative credentials to employer needs; make information collection more efficient; explore statutory authorities to promote innovation and system integration; and identify programs or spending that fall short of desired outcomes. Additionally, the Secretaries are ordered to develop a plan to establish more than 1 million new active apprentices.

Key Insights

• The Executive Order on AI directs the Task Force to establish a Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenge across various age categories, geographies, and topical themes to encourage wide adoption of AI and highlight student and educator achievements in AI.
• The Task Force is instructed to establish public-private partnerships to develop AI resources. The executive action also encourages the use of existing Federal funding, including agriculture, research, and teacher training, to further the purpose of the order.
• The Secretary of Education is directed to issue guidance on using federal grant funds to “improve education outcomes using AI, including but not limited to AI-based high-quality instructional resources; high-impact tutoring; and college and career pathway exploration, advising, and navigation.” The Secretary of Labor is also tasked with increasing participation in AI-related Registered Apprenticeships. Given the recent cancelation of Federal research and teacher training grants, as well as an Executive Order to close the US Department of Education, the level of Federal involvement and duration of these new initiatives is unclear.
• A White House fact sheet connects the Executive Order on workforce programs to the President’s efforts on “reshoring and re-industrialization” as well as to a Bureau of Labor Statistics projection of an annual shortage of nearly a half million workers over the next decade: “As the potential of American AI increases, and as America reshores manufacturing and makes Made in America a mark of international envy, America will need more skilled tradesman [sic] than we’re prepared to train.”