Across Connecticut, Vasaturo’s story is retold thousands of times in automotive garages, machine tool factories and scores of other trades where the path to good-paying jobs is not college but the “earn as you learn” apprenticeship track that was launched in 1937, when the nation was in the grips of the Great Recession. A $3.5 billion bill that would expand apprenticeships to more job seekers in more fields passed the House of Representatives earlier this month, with the hope of giving workers displaced by the COVID-19 pandemic a practical and proven track to full-time work through on-the-job training. The bill would bring $2 million to Connecticut’s Office of Apprenticeship Training to build new partnerships with unions, trades schools and companies, to reach traditionally underserved job-seekers, and to make sure there are more success stories like Stewart’s Barbershop in Bethel. “People don’t want to be poor. People don’t want to be unemployed,” said Hayes. “If we create opportunities and invest in people to help them become self-sufficient, people will contribute to the community. People will buy home. But we have to remove the barriers.”
https://www.ctinsider.com/local/newstimes/article/People-don-t-want-to-be-poor-Bill-touts-15947730.php?cmpid=gsa-newstimes-result&_ga=2.101712577.1766626267.1613475842-101939534.1604457274