President Trump issued a flurry of executive orders last week relating to education and workforce development. Most continued the administration’s predictable attacks on traditional higher education, but one stands out for setting a proactive vision for a better American education and workforce system: the executive order on apprenticeships.

If the administration follows through on this order, it could be the biggest contribution it makes to building a stronger U.S. labor market.

What sets the order apart? It reflects a growing awareness — on both sides of the aisle — that America’s higher education system is broken. Its accompanying fact sheet rails against our “one-size-fits-all approach to workforce preparedness, which previous Administrations promoted as ‘college for all.’” Trumpian rhetoric notwithstanding, the facts don’t lie: according to Bob Lerman, my co-founder at Apprenticeships for America, apprentices get around 2 percent of the funding that college students receive from the federal government.

The order also sets a clear goal and creates a road map to get there. The order calls for a plan to reach 1 million new active apprentices, which while not a huge increase from the 680,000 apprentices currently active in the country, marks the first time an administration has set an actual goal rather than simply continuing to shell out apprenticeship dollars to workforce boards and community colleges hoping for something good to come of it.

The road map to those 1........

© The Hill