Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry takes a lot of credit or saving the apprenticeship program housed in her department.
Berry was in Kannapolis on Monday to meet with Rowan-Cabarrus Community College leaders and to give a labor forecast, the Salisbury Post reports.
Berry, a Republican, told leaders the trades are the best thing for many young people and that she fought hard to retain control of the apprenticeship program, in which businesses take on and certify apprentices.
When Gov. Beverly Perdue wanted to give the apprenticeship program to the N.C. Community College System, Berry "threw my body over it" to keep the program in the labor department, she said.
Perdue, a Democrat, had proposed shifting all the functions of the program, which was created in the 1930s to the community colleges, since it fit better with the colleges' mission. The legislature kept the program in Berry's department, although it required it to become more self-sufficient.
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