Breaking the Bottleneck: How New Apprenticeship Funding Can Unlock Scaled Talent Pipelines

Recorded live at the 2026 ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego, this session featured Bridgett Willey, Executive Director / COO at UW Health WorkForward; Lori Partain, Chief People Officer at Helios Consulting; Nicholas Morgan, President at Adaptive Construction Solutions, Inc.; Marek Laco, Deputy Assistant Secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor, and Ryan Craig, Managing Director at Achieve Partners.Apprenticeships were described as moving from pilot to a viable pathway, driven by a fundamental shift in how the U.S. funds them. The session spotlighted employers and intermediaries building modern apprenticeship programs in sectors like tech and healthcare, as formula-based funding replaced fragile, one-off grants and “train and pray” programs. Speakers unpacked how treating apprenticeships as real jobs—with built-in training and predictable dollars flowing directly to employers—was changing the landscape, what was working on the ground, and how policy and practice could align to reach 1 million apprentices in the next three years.