Excerpt:

MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) Senator Bernie Sanders brought a special guest to the Statehouse Friday. German Ambassador to the U.S. Peter Wittig spoke to lawmakers about Germany's apprenticeship program. Sanders is an advocate of expanding apprenticeship and workforce training programs here in America.


Daniel Bartlett has completed an electrical internship with Benoit Electric in Berlin. Now he's ready for a career. "I learned a lot in the field, hands on experience, definitely everyday going to work, forty hours a week. You learn crazy amounts of stuff and it's just very beneficial," Bartlett said.

That's the kind of training that German Ambassador Peter Wittig was touting at the Statehouse. "It's this combination of on-the-job training and formal education and in the colleges and community colleges -- and that is in our view the recipe for success," he said.

Wittig had lawmakers' attention. They want to grow Vermont's workforce -- and Vermonters' incomes. He says apprenticeships do that in Germany. Wittig says the 1.3 million trainees there -- in more than 300 programs -- spend 70-percent of their time at a company and 30-percent at school. Most are hired by the companies that train them. "They hope that then this apprentice will then stay in the company and this is the case in 70-percent of the cases," he said.

http://www.wcax.com/content/news/Vt-lawmakers-briefed-on-benefits-of-expanded-apprenticeships-473626223.html

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet