Worker shortages: Is access to child care a key solution?
Brianna Crusoe no longer frets about how she’ll provide for herself and her two young children after moving from a low-paying casino job into a union electrical apprenticeship with a strong salary and benefits.
Ms. Crusoe, from D’Iberville, Mississippi, is a graduate of the Women in Construction (WinC) program sponsored by the nonprofit Moore Community House, which paid for six months of child care while she trained and entered a skilled trade.
“They know how it is a struggle to have a child and work without child care,” says Ms. Crusoe, about WinC, which she graduated from in 2018. She’s now an electrical apprentice who appreciates having a 401(k), health insurance, and a job with above-state-average wages.
Around the United States, other trade groups are emulating programs like WinC as they try to add more women to their in September 2020 that helps trade workers find child care for nontraditional hours. A program in Oregon provides for those enrolled in pre-apprenticeship programs.
