PHILADELPHIA, PA – Today, the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry joined Rosie’s Girls, a registered pre-apprenticeship program dedicated to expanding opportunities and increasing the representation of women in the building and construction trades, to celebrate the graduation of its latest cohort of pre-apprentices, as well as to highlight the impact of the Shapiro Administration’s continued investments in workforce development programs. In his first two budgets, Governor Josh Shapiro has increased funding for vo-tech, career and technical education (CTE), and apprenticeships by nearly $65 million, which is 50 percent more than the day he took office.
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“Rosie’s Girls truly embodies the spirit of Rosie the Riveter in how it empowers young women to get involved and excel in traditionally male-dominated industries, and it is exciting to see how lives are being changed thanks to its work,” said L&I Secretary Nancy A. Walker. “This program’s success and its growth highlight the impact of the Shapiro Administration’s continued investments in workforce development programs, which are setting our Commonwealth up for success for years to come.”
Rosie's Girls is supported by Apprentice Training for the Electrical Industry (ATEI), in partnership with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local Union 98. The program serves young women in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties.
In August 2023, the Shapiro Administration awarded ATEI $115,169 in grant funding to enhance Rosie's Girls, prepare participants for advanced training in the electrical industry, and familiarize young women with careers in energy solutions, broadband, solar, nuclear infrastructure, and more. Pennsylvania awarded ATEI a $394,380 grant to support the launch of Rosie’s Girls in 2022.
“We are thankful for the Shapiro Administration and its support for Rosie’s Girls,” said Instructor [MD1] and Recruitment and Program Coordinator Teila Allmond. “When we give young women the training they need to break into the electrical field, we are helping them gain access to career opportunities that women weren’t always afforded, despite always having the potential to do just as well as men in these roles.”
Today’s ceremony celebrated 20 young women who have finished the pre-apprenticeship program, including five ambassadors who returned as mentors, with Secretary Walker offering a keynote address. The graduation was followed by the 3rd Annual Rosie’s Girls Trade Fair, which brought together schools, city and state leaders, tool and trade vendors, and other pre-apprenticeship programs.
Investing in workforce development initiatives like Rosie’s Girls remains a cornerstone of Governor Shapiro’s agenda. His proposed 2025-26 budget is focused on building the workforce of tomorrow and addressing critical workforce shortages across all industries. Some key highlights of the proposal include:
- $5 million to support workforce initiatives to educate, train, and recruit nursing professionals,
- $12.5 million dedicated to the Workforce and Economic Development Network appropriation, leveraging $10 million in existing funds and $2.5 million in new state funds to train additional workers,
- $10 million to further boost employment in the behavioral health sector by expanding the Primary Care Loan Repayment Program at the Department of Health (DOH), broadening the program’s geographic eligibility requirements and making it available to behavioral health care workers in all regions of Pennsylvania, and
- $55 million to support childcare workforce recruitment and retention grants. This would provide roughly $1,000 more annually per employee to licensed childcare centers in the Child Care Works program.
Rosie’s Girls is one of more than 100 registered pre-apprenticeship programs in Pennsylvania. A third (33 percent) of the Commonwealth’s pre-apprenticeship programs are in the building trades, while the majority (40 percent) are in manufacturing. In 2024, 14 new programs were registered, including four in the building trades.
Established in 2016, L&I's Apprenticeship and Training Office (ATO) is responsible for guiding and promoting the expansion and compliance of all registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs across the Commonwealth. The ATO currently supports 886 unduplicated program sponsors, 124 registered pre-apprenticeship programs, and 1,557 occupation-specific registered apprenticeship programs across the Commonwealth, with 15,987 registered apprentices currently active.
For more information on the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry, please visit the website or follow L&I on Instagram, Facebook, X, and LinkedIn.
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