The Apprentice: White House Edition

President Trump Calls on Companies to Say, “You’re Hired!”
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While “You’re Fired!” was his TV catchphrase on The Apprentice, on Thursday President Donald Trump asked companies to say “You’re Hired” to apprentices across the country. In signing the executive order, Trump roughly doubled to $200 million the taxpayer money spent on learn-to-earn programs. Under the order, the Labor Department will set up broad standards to allow industries to design individual apprenticeships. Related: Here’s why you should become an apprentice “We’re training people to have great jobs and high paying jobs,” Trump said at a White House ceremony. “We’re here today to celebrate the dignity of work and the greatness of the American worker.” The increased funding will come from existing federal programs. The president is directing the government to review and streamline some 43 workforce programs across 13 agencies. Companies have long complained that they can’t find trained people to fill highly technical jobs, and apprenticeship programs have sprung up around the country. Up until now, companies had to register with the Labor Department and adhere to specific government guidelines. And the nation’s industries are behind building apprenticeship opportunities. As Jay Timmons, President and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, wrote in his intro to WorkingNation’s FutureWork series, Toyota: Model of the Future, “The United States can empower individuals to seize a brighter future in manufacturing by Establishing apprenticeships and on-the-job training to allow employees to earn a paycheck while they grow their skills.” Nonetheless, apprenticeships are few and far between. Of the 146 million jobs in the United States, about 0.35 percent — or slightly more than a half-million — were filled by active apprentices in 2016. So to achieve the goal of filling millions of more jobs through apprenticeships, it would require the government to massively ramp up its efforts. Join the conversation: People are talking about apprenticeships on our Facebook page. We’d love to know what you think too.  

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.