Here is what that mysterious $36 million Arkansas apprenticeship award is for.

It raises more questions, but we now have a trend.

Last month, I wrote about an unusual find in the federal government’s legally required records on grants spending: the U.S. Department of Labor had given a tremendous noncompetitive apprenticeship award ($35.8 million) to Arkansas, a state that is just establishing its infrastructure to administer Registered Apprenticeship, the federal consumer-protection device that is the main way America regulates apprenticeship.

That was interesting—and a little weird. Typically, when the federal government gives somebody a few dozen million dollars for apprenticeship, they want to talk about it. Yet, Trump II only in the past month announced $25 million in cooperative agreements to Alabama and Colorado for apprenticeship development projects, despite awarding those funds at the start of February.

Well, this week I found documents that explain the unusual purpose of the Arkansas award, which remains unannounced. It speaks to what appears to be the predominant strategy of the second Trump Administration in apprenticeship expansion and workforce development. It’s not a bad idea, but it has its limitations.