Introduction

While the three pillars of the U.S. AI Action Plan focus on accelerating innovation, building infrastructure, and retaining technological leadership, the plan also recognizes that achieving this vision requires serious investment in educating and training the workforce. To do this, the plan builds upon two previous Executive Orders. EO 14277, “Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth,” concerns the promotion of AI literacy and proficiency among Americans by integrating AI into education, providing AI training for teachers, and investing in early exposure to AI concepts to develop an AI-ready workforce. EO 14278, “Preparing Americans for High-Paying Skilled Trade Jobs of the Future,” concerns the optimization of investments in workforce development to align with modern industry needs, training the next generation of skilled trader workers, and strengthening Registered Apprenticeship programs. 

Both of these EOs were released in April 2025 and contained various time-sensitive action items for which the deadline has passed. Where do they stand now?

The Presidential AI Challenge

EO 14277 created the White House Task Force on AI Education and then directed the Task Force to establish plans for a Presidential AI Challenge within 90 days. This directive was accomplished in August 2025 when a formal guidebook outlining goals, requirements, timelines, and prizes was published. The result is a comprehensive competition that will challenge K-12 students, educators, mentors, and community teams to use AI to solve real-world problems in their own communities.

The competition is divided into four categories: elementary school, middle school, high school, and educators. Student teams can participate in either Track I (“create in-depth proposals for how AI technologies could be applied to address a community problem or challenge”) or Track II (“build a solution with AI technologies that can help address a community challenge”). Educators can participate in Track III (“teach an AI concept to their students in a new, unique way” or “create a tool based on AI technologies to manage some aspect of their classrooms”). All teams are required to submit a written project summary that reflects on learning achievements, research, and lessons learned.

The challenge will take place over three stages: a state championship, a regional championship, and a national championship. Winners at each stage will receive a Presidential Award Certificate, cloud credits, and access to web-based resources. The national champions will also receive monetary awards.¹ Submissions are due in January 2026 with the National Championship slated for June 2026.

America’s Talent Strategy

EO 14278 tasked the secretaries of labor, commerce, and education to review all federal workforce programs and submit within 90 days a report that outlines strategies to bolster the U.S. workforce. Although slightly outside of the 90-day window, the Departments of Labor (DOL), Commerce (DOC), and Education (DoEd) published a report in August 2025. The report, “America’s Talent Strategy: Equipping American Workers for the Golden Age,” presents a new blueprint for the federal government’s reimagined approach to broad workforce development. The strategy consists of five strategic pillars that address various segments of the entire workforce development system, but essentially focuses on enabling states to build innovative and responsive workforce systems, scaling Registered Apprenticeship, and streamlining federal investment.² An August 2025 press release issued by the DOL confirms that this strategy is meant to reflect and prioritize the administration’s vision for the future of American workforce development. 

A Plan for One Million Apprentices

EO 14278 also directed the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Secretary of Education to submit within 120 days a plan to reach and surpass one million new active apprentices. This window would have closed sometime in late August and there is not yet public evidence of this ambitious plan. For example, in a letter to Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer dated August 2025, members of the Congressional Labor Caucus urged prioritization of proven Registered Apprenticeship programs as the secretary “finalizes” the plan. This suggests that no formal plan has been published or circulated. Despite this, there are other indications that federal momentum for expanding apprenticeship programs is gaining traction.

In June 2025, the DOL awarded nearly $84 million in both formula and competitive grants to all 50 states and territories to increase the capacity of Registered Apprenticeship programs. The press release specifically states that this is an important step in meeting the administration’s goal of one million apprentices. It appears that all 50 states received funding through State Apprenticeship Expansion Formula grants. Nine state systems received additional competitive State Apprenticeship Expansion Formula grants.³

In September 2025, the DOL announced partnerships with Alabama and Colorado to specifically develop resources to invest in educational pipelines that can lead to more Registered Apprenticeship opportunities. Both states received $12.5 million for this effort. The DOL and Alabama entered into a cooperative agreement that includes working with state apprenticeship agencies to evaluate existing apprenticeship work processes, developing a public online apprenticeship catalog, and using an employer-demand drive approach to create national frameworks for occupations. The DOL and the Colorado Department of Labor and Education entered into a cooperative agreement that includes developing tools and frameworks to expand pre-apprenticeship programs, integrating Registered Apprenticeship programs into secondary and post-secondary educational pathways, and addressing regulatory barriers for youth employment. All of these initiatives align very closely with initiatives outlined in both EO 14728 and the AI Action Plan.

Lastly, the DOL’s FY2026 budget-in-brief makes several mentions regarding Registered Apprenticeship. The budget requests the consolidation of federal programs into a single grant-awarding program—the “Make America Skilled Again” (MASA) initiative—with a requested budget of $2.9 billion.⁴ The budget requests that MASA spend at least 10 percent of its funding on Registered Apprenticeship activities to help realize the administration’s one million active apprentice goal. This equals out to about $88.9 million reserved for apprenticeship programming alone. While the single program is designed to give states much broader flexibility to respond to their unique workforce needs without having to apply for and manage multiple federal grants, it is still very unclear if this interdepartmental transfer will actually reduce federal bureaucracy.

Conclusion: What Gaps Remain?

While it is promising to see such renewed energy devoted to education and workforce development, its success depends heavily on how state and local workforce systems respond, and perhaps more concerningly, how DoEd transfers of function to other federal agencies will hamstring existing efforts through either loss of institutional subject-matter knowledge or transitional frictions. It is also unclear how the recent November 2025 DoEd announcement will affect existing agreements outlined above.

Regardless, challenges persist in the broader workforce development landscape—fragmented training systems, insufficient public funding, and regulatory disincentives continue to plague what is currently a patchwork instead of a cohesive infrastructure. Previous CSET research explored how current workforce development infrastructure will need to evolve to meet changes brought about by AI. Results indicated that state-level programs and initiatives must be agile, responsive, and conducive to connecting workers with employment opportunities. The U.S. AI Action Plan, America’s Talent Strategy, and EO 14278 each acknowledge these challenges as a barrier to workforce development and insist on both a streamlined and innovative federal approach that empowers states.

However, these plans are not the first time that federal guidance has recommended workforce program consolidation to address fragmentation. For example, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) raised concerns about workforce development program overlap, inefficiency, and ineffectiveness in 2000, 2011, and 2019. The 2019 report specifically recommended that DOL conduct a review of its workforce development efforts and publish a multi-year strategy to reduce duplicative efforts and to evaluate program effectiveness, to which DOL agreed, and has taken steps to coordinate efforts since 2023. This is also not the Trump administration’s first attempt at merging DoEd and DOL efforts, but previous efforts were stalled because of authorizations required from Congress.

Lastly, although there is still no public plan to meet the administration’s ambitious goal of reaching one million active apprentices, evidence suggests that Registered Apprenticeship programs are gaining momentum—especially in high-demand fields such as cybersecurity and AI. Apprenticeship falls into a broader category of education and training more commonly referred to as “work-based learning,” which is a method of instruction that provides practical opportunities for career readiness through structured, experiential, and hands-on learning. Work-based learning has been gaining policy traction for the last several years, but there are still barriers that prevent increased participation. Previous CSET research explored these barriers, with respect to cybersecurity jobs, and found that employer disinterest, a broken entry-level job system, and state-level policy incentives prevent wider adoption and scaling.

Regardless, the efforts and initiatives outlined above will be worthwhile to watch as they continue to develop. Aligning education, technology, and work is not just a policy goal—it is the foundation for maintaining the United States’ edge in a rapidly changing global economy.

1. Elementary: $10,000 for the school, homeschool, or community group; Middle School: $10,000 per team member; High School: $10,000 per team member; Educator: $10,000 per team member
2. These pillars are: (1) Industry-Driven Strategies, (2) Worker Mobility, (3) Integrated Systems, (4) Accountability, and (5) Flexibility & Innovation.
3. These additional systems are: Georgia Technical College System; Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity; Indiana Department of Workforce Development; Maine Department of Labor; Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development; Montana Department of Labor and Industry; Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission; Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training; and Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
4. The affected programs are: WIOA Adult; WIAO Dislocated Worker; WIOA Youth; Employment Service State Grants; Dislocated Worker National Reserve, including Strengthening Community Colleges, Workforce Opportunity for Rural Communities, and other set-asides; Apprenticeship; YouthBuild; National Farmworker Jobs Program; Indian and Native American Programs; Reentry Employment Opportunities; and Workforce Date Quality Initiative.