Oklahoma lawmakers think apprenticeships could help solve a looming worker shortage in the state, and they’re willing to use tax incentives to encourage employers to offer them.
Lawmakers heard about South Carolina’s incentive on Wednesday during an interim study. It offers employers $1,000 for each apprentice employed at least seven months, and after it was instituted, the state saw its number of apprenticeships increase sixfold.
Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma Vice President of Community Workforce Jenna Morey said Oklahoma will be short 20,000 workers by 2028, with most of the jobs needing them requiring a certification, degree or other credential.
"With the unemployment rate and employers really needing skilled labor and the labor shortages that we’re facing, it really is the prime time to institute something like this, even better than the situation that South Carolina was in when they created their program," Morey said.
Morey said nationally, businesses see a $1.47 return on every $1 invested in apprenticeships.
Manufacturing would be hit hard by a lack of skilled workers. It's expected that industry will account for 5,000 of the forecasted 20,000 worker shortage.
Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance President and CEO Dave Rowland said most manufacturing companies are smaller operations who can’t shut down to train workers, so it’s hard for them to keep up with rapid advances in industry technology.
"And what we have recognized is the ones who are accelerating, the ones that are moving manufacturing forward and closing this gap are the ones that are using the apprenticeship model," Rowland said.
South Carolina's incentive may not have the same effect in Oklahoma, though. MidAmerica Director of Workforce Development Scott Fry said several businesses in the Pryor industrial park told him they're too small to scale up their apprentice programs.
"But through some of those conversations, I think a light bulb turned on also that this may be an incentive for them to implement more apprenticeship programs in different occupational areas," Fry said.
Construction industry reps urged caution if lawmakers consider an incentive. They said matching its requirements to a federal proposal to expand apprenticeships could lead firms desperate for labor into bidding wars for inexperienced workers.
