Story highlights Encouraging apprenticeships is one issue likely to find bipartisan support

The new program will cost $200 million

Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Thursday that looks to expand apprenticeships and job-training programs by giving more freedom to third-party companies and schools, according to two senior White House officials.

The new program, which will cost $200 million and take some authority away from the Department of Labor, looks to start filling the 6 million vacant jobs in the United States that are vacant, in part, because job training doesn't match the skills needed. Labor will provide oversight on the program.

"The President will be calling on businesses across the country to embrace apprenticeships and we do not expect that call to go unanswered," one official said.

Another official said both the President and Ivanka Trump, who is said to have been intimately involved in this executive order, will "use the bully pulpit of the White House ... to maintain a focus on this issue."

Encouraging apprenticeships is one issue the Trump White House will likely be able to find bipartisan support -- something somewhat unheard of in the first few months of the Trump administration. Democrats have stressed the need to train Americans for the jobs that are available, and Hillary Clinton, Trump's 2016 opponent, made pushing apprenticeship programs a part of her campaign.

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