A $250,000 Schools-to-Work investment from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry earlier this year has launched a registered welding pre-apprenticeship program at Industrial Arts Workshop, a Pittsburgh nonprofit, the agency announced. The program will train at least 15 high school students each year. The launch adds to the Shapiro administration's apprenticeship tally: since Governor Josh Shapiro took office, L&I has registered 183 new apprenticeship programs and 103 new pre-apprenticeship programs statewide. The announcement also ties into the governor's bipartisan 2026-27 budget, which adds another $10 million for career and technical education. Pre-apprenticeships like this one are designed as on-ramps: students get foundational shop skills and safety training that count toward a registered apprenticeship with an employer afterward. For high school students considering the trades, a registered pre-apprenticeship matters more than a generic shop class because completion carries formal recognition with registered sponsors, shortening the path to paid apprenticeship placements. The program's scale is deliberately small at launch - at least 15 students a year - so its significance is as a replicable model for urban pre-apprenticeship rather than a large-volume pipeline.