Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning)
WASHINGTON – Rep. Tom Reed (R-Corning) is announcing his support for a bipartisan proposal to increase workforce development by providing tax credits to companies that offer apprenticeships to individuals in the labor force in need of learning new skills.
On Tuesday Reed discussed his support for the Leveraging and Energizing America’s Apprenticeships program, also known as the LEAP program. Reed said that currently across the country, manufacturers are struggling to fill positions due potential workers lacking the necessary skills.
“We’ve seen reports of about nine million unemployed Americans, and yet there’s five million job openings,” Reed said. “A lot of those disconnects in those job openings that those nine million folks could apply for result exactly from the situation of not having the skills necessary to fill those open positions.”
Reed said the LEAP Act could help address this issue by giving tax credits to programs and employers that develop apprenticeships, with the company receiving a $1000 tax credit for ever apprenticeship involving an individual over the age of 25, while also providing a $1500 tax credit for every apprenticeship involving an individual 25 or under. He added that there is no limit on the number of apprenticeship tax credits a company could receive, but also added there would be oversight to prevent abuse of the program through the Department of Labor’s office of apprenticeship.
There’s no timetable for when the measure would be acted on by the house. A similar version of LEAP has also received bipartisan support in the Senate.
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