The Big Picture
Labor Day is when politicians celebrate the workers Minnesota already has. So the days after are as good of a time as any to ask how they plan to train the workers Minnesota will need next.
Senator Klobuchar’s workforce plan answers that question in a way that aims to reframe how we approach post secondary education and training.
Notably, her plan is not an argument against four-year college but rather an argument against treating four-year college as the only respectable and dependable path to good-paying jobs and careers – a message (and policy) too often underappreciated by Democrats in recent years.
The Democratic candidate for governor is promising to add 10,000 apprenticeship and skills-training opportunities across Minnesota, expanding the earn-while-you-learn model beyond its traditional home in the building trades and into fields such as health care, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing and precision agriculture.
The number is important. But the larger idea behind it may be more consequential: Minnesota should treat apprenticeships, technical credentials and other workforce programs as first-class routes into the middle class—not some consolation prizes for people who chose not to pursue a four-year degree.
The Old (and Outdated) Default
For generations, students have been sold a familiar bag of goods when it comes to the right recipe for career/occupational success: graduate from high school, enroll in a four-year college and earn a degree before beginning a career.
For many Minnesotans, that remains an excellent path. A college education can open doors, increase earnings and prepare students for jobs that require years of specialized study. Klobuchar’s plan appropriately includes proposals to expand community college, university and credential pathways.
But college is not the only serious route to a good life—and treating it that way has carried consequences.
Students can take on substantial debt before knowing whether their degree will connect to a job. Adults supporting families may not be able to leave the workforce for several years. Meanwhile, Minnesota employers struggle to replace retiring workers and fill jobs that require significant training, but not necessarily a traditional bachelor’s degree.
The better goal is not to steer students away from college. It is to stop telling them that every other path represents settling.
Earn While You Learn
Registered apprenticeships offer a fundamentally different bargain.
Participants are employees. They earn wages while receiving structured classroom instruction and supervised training on the job. Their pay typically increases as their skills develop, and completing the program leads to a recognized occupational credential.
That makes apprenticeship an education model and an affordability policy at the same time.
Instead of paying for years before beginning to earn, apprentices earn while they prepare. Instead of hoping that classroom instruction eventually connects to an employer, the employer is part of the training from the beginning.
The model also has evidence behind it.
A 2026 evaluation prepared for the U.S. Department of Labor found that registered-apprenticeship participants experienced significantly higher employment and earnings after enrollment than comparable participants in community-college and employment-service programs. The study found positive results not only in construction, but also in health care, information technology and advanced manufacturing—the same types of fields Klobuchar wants Minnesota to emphasize.
Minnesota Already Has the Machinery
Klobuchar is not asking Minnesota to invent an apprenticeship system from scratch. She is proposing to scale and connect machinery the state already has.
Minnesota had 11,674 active registered apprentices as of July 2025, according to the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry. Apprenticeship Minnesota already registers programs, enforces standards and works with employers and labor-management sponsors. Union training centers have decades of experience preparing painters, electricians, plumbers, pipefitters and other skilled workers. Technical colleges provide classroom instruction. Regional workforce boards connect training strategies to local employers.
The state has also experimented with moving apprenticeship into nontraditional fields. The original Minnesota Apprenticeship Initiative targeted agriculture, advanced manufacturing, health care, information technology and transportation. Existing grants help employers create programs, prepare workers to enter them and provide supportive services that improve completion.
Klobuchar’s plan would build on that foundation. It proposes bringing workforce and apprenticeship programs scattered across state agencies into one easier-to-navigate system, strengthening career matching and helping participants overcome barriers such as child care and housing. It would also create a public-private Skilled Workers and Trades Fund for debt-free short-term training in high-demand occupations.
That is a more credible starting point than another workforce initiative built around a new office, a new website and a new acronym. The task is not to manufacture a system – it is to make the existing system easier to enter, large enough to meet demand and accountable for results.
Why Minnesota Needs It Now
Minnesota’s workforce challenge is not simply about creating new jobs. It is increasingly about replacing the workers who already perform essential ones.
The Department of Employment and Economic Development projects nearly 749,000 job openings between the second quarters of 2025 and 2027. Only about 49,000 reflect net job growth. The rest are largely positions that will open as workers retire, leave the labor force or move into other occupations.
Health care alone is projected to account for roughly half of the state’s gross job gains during that period. Construction, education, skilled maintenance and production will collectively need tens of thousands of replacement workers even where total employment grows slowly—or contracts.
That makes the expansion of career pathways particularly important in Greater Minnesota, where a shortage of nurses, teachers, technicians or skilled tradespeople can determine whether a hospital, school, manufacturer or construction project can continue serving the community.
The 10,000 Test
The ambition deserves credit. The headline number still requires scrutiny.
Klobuchar’s published plan promises 10,000 new “apprenticeship and skills training opportunities.” Those terms are not interchangeable. A registered apprenticeship comes with employment, structured learning, wage progression and enforceable standards. A skills-training opportunity could describe something much shorter—and much less connected to a job.
Specifics still need to be fleshed out on how many of the 10,000 opportunities would be registered apprenticeships, how quickly they would be created, what the expansion would cost or whether Minnesota would count available seats, enrolled participants or completed programs.
Those details will determine whether the plan produces economic mobility that working families so desperately need in the end.
Minnesota should measure completion, job placement, wages, benefits and worker retention as reforms are implemented and evaluated for success. Labor should have a meaningful role in establishing standards, especially as apprenticeships expand into new industries. And funding should follow credentials that workers can carry with them, not narrowly tailored training that benefits only one employer.
The Bottom Line
Minnesota does not need to choose between supporting four-year colleges and supporting apprenticeships. It needs to stop pretending that only one of them represents a valuable and reliable path to a good middle class job or career.
A four-year degree can be transformative. So can a registered apprenticeship that provides rigorous instruction, a recognized credential and a paycheck from the beginning. Technical colleges and shorter career programs can connect people directly to work their communities need.
Those pathways deserve more than occasional praise whenever employers face a shortage. They deserve the same seriousness, investment and expectations Minnesota attaches to a college degree.
Klobuchar’s plan recognizes that reality—and Minnesota already has much of the machinery needed to carry it out.