WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says apprenticeships could match workers with millions of open jobs, but he’s reluctant to devote more taxpayer money to the effort.

Instead, Trump and Labor Secretary Alex Acosta say the administration is focused on getting universities and private companies to pair up and pay the cost of such learn-to-earn arrangements.

The president has accepted a challenge from Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff to create 5 million apprenticeships over five years. Now, as part of a weeklong apprenticeship push, he is visiting Waukesha Technical College in Wisconsin today with his daughter, Ivanka, as well as Acosta and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

“Apprenticeships are going to be a big, big factor in our country,” Trump said Monday.

Many employers and economists welcome the idea of apprenticeships as a way to train people with specific skills for particular jobs that employers say they can’t fill at time of historically low unemployment. The most recent budget for the federal government passed with about $90 million for apprenticeships.