Ivanka Trump’s Jobs Effort Opens White House Doors for Companies

(Bloomberg) — Ivanka Trump has opened the White House doors and her father’s administration to companies that participate in a worker-training initiative she’s led, even as the president adopts policies that labor unions say would weaken apprenticeships.

The president and his daughter, who is a senior adviser in the White House, celebrated the anniversary of her “Pledge to America’s Workers” program late last month. More than 300 companies including Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., WalMart Inc., Salesforce.com Inc., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. have agreed to train more than 12 million people, the White House says.

Participating in the program may score the companies goodwill and even face-time with a president who sometimes considers policies that would hurt them. For example, Trump has threatened to slap tariffs against cars Toyota imports to the U.S. and on iPhones imported from China, and he’s criticized the price of weapons Lockheed makes for the military, its most important customer.

For the companies, participation is low-risk. Much of the training would have been done in the absence of Ivanka Trump’s initiative, some companies say, and the program sets few standards for employers to meet and carries no repercussions if they fall short. After signing pledges, participating companies have received visits from Ivanka Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and members of the president’s cabinet, as well as invitations to the White House.

The president has touted the pledge as part of his economic agenda on the campaign trail.

“Republicans believe that a nation must care for its own citizens first,” he said at a rally in Cincinnati last week. “Our pledge to America’s workers has secured commitments to train more than 12 million Americans for the jobs of tomorrow. You know who’s working very hard on that? You’ve probably never heard of her — Ivanka Trump.”

‘Decimate’ Apprenticeships

The initiative, which has no federal funding, has also helped Trump make clear that he considers employee training the responsibility of the private sector. The Department of Labor recently proposed a regulation that would allow employers to set their own standards for apprenticeship programs, a proposal the administration says would expand such opportunities for workers.

The AFL-CIO, though, said the new rules “could decimate training and labor standards in registered apprenticeship programs across the country.” The proposal would “give employers license to implement whatever low-road standards they see fit,” said Carolyn Bobb, a spokeswoman for the group.

Jessica Ditto, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement Friday that “the pledge has been a catalyst to create over 12 million training and education opportunities for future and current workers and should be applauded by all.”

An official who asked not to be identified said that the program is designed as a call-to-action, that the private sector is better suited than government to handle training, and that companies’ pledges are vetted before being accepted. The official rejected the AFL-CIO’s view, saying the proposed new apprenticeship rules would expand the program to companies that previously found it unworkable.

Executives at companies and industry groups that have signed it say the pledge at the very least helps draw attention to the need to train and re-train workers in an economy with near-record low unemployment. White House events celebrating the initiative have included heartfelt testimonials from workers who were promoted after receiving technical training.

Todd Thibodeaux leads an association of IT companies that offers training programs for a sector starved for workers. Known as Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), it pledged 625,000 worker certifications for the White House program. Thibodeaux was invited to the White House in July to sign his group’s pledge.

“For us, it was a continuation of things we were going to do anyway, that we were already doing, but an opportunity for us to pledge our commitment,” Thibodeaux said. The tech sector needs to do more to open doors for new workers, even if they don’t have a college degree, he said.

“If 500 people find out about CompTIA because we did the pledge, and that helps them get a job, it’s a huge win for us,” he said.