A plan to prepare Minnesota’s workforce for the future by:
- Build real on-ramps to good jobs. Expand apprenticeships and earn-while-you-learn pipelines for Minnesotans at any stage in their career, especially in teaching, health care, public safety, and the trades.
- Raise academic achievement across Minnesota. Expand the use of evidence-based curricula that have been proven to work in districts across the country to increase reading and math skills, so more kids graduate ready to succeed.
- Open the doors to college and credentials. Expand community college and one-to-four-year degree pathways that connect directly to in-demand careers.
Amy Klobuchar knows there are many paths to success. Her grandpa was an iron ore miner who never graduated from high school, but saved money in a coffee can to send her dad to college. Her dad graduated from Minnesota North College – Vermilion Campus, then known as Ely Junior College, and earned his journalism degree from the University of Minnesota before going on to be a sports reporter and a newspaper columnist. Her mom was a teacher who taught second grade until she was 70-years-old. Senator Klobuchar knows from experience that various credentials, apprenticeships, or college degrees can open up doors to good careers across Minnesota.
As governor, she’ll make sure Minnesotans can get the skills they need to build a good life here at home. Because a strong economy depends on preparing Minnesotans through high-quality education, increasing student achievement, apprenticeships, workforce programs for high-demand jobs, one-to-four-year degrees, and beyond. She’ll work with employers to create credentials that give students the skills they actually need to get a job. That’s how we support an innovation economy and stay competitive in emerging and growing industries like health care and biotech, precision agriculture, and advanced manufacturing.
1. Build On-Ramps to Good Jobs with Apprenticeships and Workforce Training
As our U.S. Senator, Amy Klobuchar has worked across the aisle to expand pathways to good jobs. She led the bipartisan Freedom to Invest in Tomorrow’s Workforce Act, signed into law last year, to allow families to use 529 savings accounts to pay for skills training, credentialing, and apprenticeships. And she has long championed her bipartisan American Apprenticeship Act to provide tuition assistance for workers in registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs. She knows these programs work, and as governor, she will expand them in Minnesota.
Use apprenticeships and new workforce pathways to increase opportunities.
- Strengthen registered apprenticeships by adding 10,000 apprenticeship and skills training opportunities, roughly doubling the number of registered apprentices. Build on the success of apprenticeships in the trades – like for electricians and plumbers – by bringing the Minnesota Apprenticeship Initiative to additional industries like biotech, health care, advanced manufacturing, and precision agriculture. Connect high school students directly to emerging and high-demand careers in cybersecurity, technology, and nursing, as well as the trades – which is especially important right now in the age of AI.
- Expand educators, health care, and public safety professional pipelines. Broaden recruitment of educators, health care, and public safety professionals, including teachers, nurses, doctors, med techs, and police officers by waiving initial application fees to reduce the financial burden on recent graduates and new professionals. Expand alternative pathways and streamline credentialing so promising workers, including graduates in other fields, can transition more easily into classrooms and clinical settings.
Make it easier to navigate skills training and match with a job.
- Align workforce and higher education. Combine skills training, apprenticeships, and workforce programs from various state agencies into one place so Minnesotans can find and access these opportunities. Build on what works instead of adding duplication to give students, job seekers, and employers clear pathways and accountable results.
- Strengthen career navigation and job matching. Give workers and employers better tools to connect and pair training with supportive services, especially childcare and housing, that too often keep people from finishing a program or taking a job. Leverage regional Workforce Development Boards to ensure strategies are informed and responsive to the needs of local communities and employers.
Respond to the current and future needs of workers and employers.
- Launch a Minnesota “Future of Work” initiative with incentives, credentials, and public-private partnerships that help businesses train their employees in emerging fields such as cybersecurity, tech management, and advanced robotics.
- Launch a public-private Skilled Workers and Trades Fund. Create a dedicated, public-private fund for debt-free, short-term training in the trades, health care, education, emergency services, public safety and other in-demand occupations. Built alongside employers, this fund can prepare our workforce for a changing job landscape as a result of AI.
2. Raise Academic Achievement Across Minnesota
Amy Klobuchar believes in using the best ideas – because Minnesota’s kids deserve excellence, and our economy needs a strong workforce. As both a mom and the daughter of a teacher who taught second grade until she was 70-years-old, Amy Klobuchar knows the importance of education and student achievement. As governor, she will use proven evidence-based approaches to raise student achievement, reduce racial and economic disparities in education, and push real improvement in our schools.
Use proven approaches to raise student achievement.
- Improve reading and math skills. Ensure proven, evidence-based curriculum in elementary classrooms, and give teachers and parents the training and materials to deliver reading and math excellence. Instruction must follow what the research shows works to lift student achievement and reduce disparities in education. This is similar to the evidence-based approaches taken in other states, which are using phonics curriculum, high-quality instructional materials, and teacher training to improve reading and math scores. Require parent-teacher meetings for students who are behind in reading and math.
- Give children the extra help they need to succeed with reading and math tutoring. When students fall behind in reading or math, they shouldn’t be left to struggle. Partner with schools to provide regular, small-group tutoring that helps students build confidence, catch up, and stay on track. Research shows that targeted tutoring is one of the most effective ways to accelerate learning and close opportunity gaps. Establish a Minnesota Summer Reads Initiative to support summer reading programming through public-private partnerships.
- Advance Minnesota STEM education. Partner with our world-class tech, manufacturing, and medical employers to expand science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, with mentorships, internships, and curriculum aligned to the jobs being created in Minnesota.
- Make sure our educators have the resources they need to succeed. Continue to strongly fund our schools and work to make health care more affordable for school personnel.
- Keep students on task. Ban cell phones and other personal mobile devices in K–12 classrooms, with narrow exceptions for genuine emergencies and medical needs, and work with school districts on screen time limits.
- Boost attendance to ensure kids are learning. Work with schools, parents, and communities to track real-time daily attendance so that kids are at school and learning. Expect schools to identify attendance concerns early, communicate promptly with families, and intervene before attendance problems become academic problems. Send automated alerts to families as soon as students show early signs of chronic absence.
Build clear, early pathways from school to opportunity.
- Start career exploration and work-based learning earlier. Partner with businesses to begin career exploration in middle school, and expand high-quality Career and Technical Education (CTE), internships, youth apprenticeships, and job-based learning so students see a direct line from school to a good job.
- Open more doors to advanced curricula. Establish statewide expectations that schools automatically offer enrollment in advanced courses for students who demonstrate proficiency for those classes.
3. Open Doors to College and Credential Pathways
A one-to-four-year degree and beyond are pathways that provide options to students and expand our workforce. Amy Klobuchar has advocated for more federal funding for community, technical, and tribal college programs. As governor, Klobuchar will keep working to expand affordable access to all Minnesota colleges, including community and technical colleges, so costs never keep a Minnesotan from a credential that leads to a good job.
Expand college and credential pathways to the workforce.
- Create partnerships between local employers, community colleges, and public and private colleges and universities. Partner community colleges with local employers who are competing in the global economy to design curricula and credentials for high-demand jobs that exist right now, in fields such as clean energy, advanced manufacturing, AI, and health care, so training aligns directly with local hiring needs. Work with the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities to align programs with regional employers and simplify the transfer from community colleges into four-year degrees.
- Launch Employer Training Incentives. Implement a tiered tax credit for small- to medium-sized businesses that supports training, allowing businesses to offset some of the cost for recognized certifications.
- Expand three-year degrees. Support accelerated higher education pathways modeled after successful initiatives like the Rochester NXT GEN MED program. By partnering with employers and utilizing year-round learning, students can enter the workforce a year sooner with less debt.
Help high school students start working toward a credential or college.
- Continue dual enrollment and early college. Pair high school with college-level coursework aligned with high-demand skills, so students can leave high school with real momentum toward a credential or degree.
- Automatically notify high school seniors of Direct Admissions. Notify graduating seniors of the Minnesota public and private colleges that they have qualified for based on their GPA.
