Maryland's employers are struggling to fill jobs, while parents face the rising costs of college. The state has also set an ambitious goal: by the 2030-2031 school year, 45% of graduating seniors should complete an apprenticeship or earn an industry-recognized credential. Achieving these objectives will require a significant expansion of youth apprenticeships across the state.

This workshop provides insights into how education can seamlessly transition into apprenticeship. It presents data and statistics highlighting the impact and success rates of Registered Apprenticeship (RA) programs and explores the many benefits of combining traditional education with RA, such as enhanced skills acquisition, job readiness, and long-term career success. Industry experts share examples of successful education-to-apprenticeship pathways. This presentation equips you with the strategies and knowledge to bridge the gap between education and apprenticeship, ultimately benefiting both students and the workforce.

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This Center of Excellence webinar is designed to empower educators, practitioners, and stakeholders with the knowledge and tools needed to seamlessly connect education with Registered Apprenticeship (RA) programs. Attendees will gain insights into how education can effectively transition into apprenticeship, hear comprehensive data and statistics that highlight the impact and success rates of RA programs, and learn about the myriad of benefits of combining traditional education with RA, including enhanced skills acquisition, job readiness, and long-term career success. Industry experts will also provide examples of successfully implementing education-to-apprenticeship pathways. This informative and engaging session will equip you with the strategies and knowledge to bridge the gap between education and apprenticeship, ultimately benefiting students and the workforce.

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In 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor awarded Youth Apprenticeship Readiness grants to 14 organizations to develop or expand registered youth apprenticeships. Grant funds can be spent on activities to support apprentices ages 16 to 24 years participating in Registered Apprenticeship programs in high-demand industries, including manufacturing, health care, information technology, and cybersecurity.

This research report by the Urban Institute provides background on youth apprenticeship programs in the U.S. to provide context for finalizing the design of the implementation evaluation of the Youth Apprenticeship Readiness grants. The report also summarizes the planned activities of the 14 grantees and the key features of each grantee’s youth apprenticeship model and discusses key issues to include in the implementation evaluation.

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The presentation "Essentials of a High-Quality Pre-Apprenticeship" outlines key elements for developing effective pre-apprenticeship programs that prepare participants for high-quality apprenticeship opportunities. It highlights six critical characteristics: transparent entry and success requirements, skill development through hands-on activities, alignment with local employer needs, earning industry-recognized credentials, offering academic and career support, and ensuring a smooth transition to registered apprenticeships. These programs aim to increase diversity and equity, bridge skill gaps, and provide essential support for participants to succeed in their career paths.

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This flowchart shows the relationship between recruitment and retention services for pre-apprenticeship to apprenticeship with your local workforce board. Once a participant transitions from pre-apprenticeship to apprenticeship, available resources for apprentices consist of On-the-Job Training, Supportive Services, and Related Technical Instruction.

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The "Principles for Equity in Apprenticeship" emphasizes designing apprenticeship programs that integrate equity throughout their structure, from recruitment to support systems, to ensure they cater to diverse workers' needs. Programs, including WERC in Los Angeles, leverage socio-economic and cultural backgrounds as assets, using these unique experiences to enhance apprentices' ability to connect in their roles​​. Mentorship and continuous feedback are crucial, helping programs to refine and improve while ensuring apprentices transition smoothly into quality jobs that support families​ ​. Overall, the principles advocate for leveraging race, ethnicity, and gender as strengths and ensuring that apprenticeships lead to substantial career opportunities, not just jobs​.

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This brief outlines principles to guide federal, state, and local decision-makers and partners in developing equitable pre-apprenticeship programs and policy. These principles can mitigate the risk of investing in low-quality programs that lead to nowhere. Use this document to frame, analyze, and receive recommendations for the development of high-quality pre-apprenticeship programs.

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In this webinar, you will learn about strategies for increasing diversity in the apprenticeship pipeline. You will have the opportunity to hear from experts in the field as they share knowledge and resources about increasing diversity in apprenticeship as well as learn some insights shared by states who participated in the Diversity of Apprenticeship Participants Innovation Cohort. You will also hear insights from states who participated in the Diversity of Apprenticeship Participants Innovation Cohort.

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In this report, Young Invincibles provides recommendations on how Illinois can create apprenticeships that achieve gender and racial equity. The recommendations are based on a review of state and local strategies for scaling apprenticeships that serve women and people of color, examining work in Oregon, South Carolina, New York, and Massachusetts. You'll also read about strong practices in Illinois, learned from the apprenticeship and work-based learning programs of multiple partners nationwide. In this report, you will learn about the apprenticeship landscape in Illinois and the challenges the state faces in apprenticeship growth as well as the state's equity vision.

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As part of the Center of Excellence’s work on System Alignment and Strategic Partnerships in Registered Apprenticeship, the Center chose five initial states in 2021 to do focused work with leaders across workforce, industry, education, and labor. California was one of the five states. Center lead, Safal Partners, engaged the California Workforce Association (CWA) as a lead partner on the Center grant.

Together, Safal Partners, CWA and leadership from the state apprenticeship agency (Division of Apprenticeship Standards – DAS) and the U.S. Department of Labor (U.S. DOL) Office of Apprenticeship (OA) formed a Leadership Team of representative organizations to guide the Center’s work in the state. The team is comprised of 26 members representing industry, workforce, education, government, and labor; it has representation from both the state and local level within each sector.

This Center of Excellence California Regional Sessions Report-Out documents the 2022 regional sessions utilizing methods such as asset mapping and guided questions focused on opportunities and actions. Overviews of meeting outputs are recorded from the Sacramento, Clovis, Long Beach regions.

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Center partner, the Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE), held their Annual Conference in Nashville, TN in 2024. Center subject matter experts, Katie Adams, Nicole Klues, and Dr, Amber Gallup, presented about expanding pre-apprenticeship opportunities for adult learners through employer engagement to grow their registered apprenticeship program. This interactive session explored tools and strategies for fostering strong partnerships between adult education programs and employers to enhance pre-apprenticeship and registered apprenticeship opportunities for students.

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Properly implemented supportive services can ensure higher retention rates for apprentices in skilled, nontraditional occupations. However, most Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs don’t have a framework for working with state or federal grant programs or their local workforce development board (LWDB) to access Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and non-WIOA funded supportive services for their youth or adult apprentices. Learn how one CTE Center works with its LWDB and braids state and federal apprenticeship grant funding to provide critically-needed supportive services to apprentices.

As a Registered Apprenticeship program sponsor, the Special School District of St. Louis County’s Adult CTE Department has implemented a promising programmatic model and support service delivery practice for its multi-occupation adult apprenticeship programs, including Certified Nurse Assistant, Certified Medication Technician and Level One Medication Aide, as well as its “Healthcare S.T.A.R.S.” Pre-Apprenticeship program. These practices range from mentoring, case management, and linkages with community services partners to providing financial assistance with childcare, transportation, housing, and utility costs.

This presentation was given during the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) CareerTech Vision 2023 workshop.

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This report by the National Skills Coalition articulates the imperative for establishing a racially inclusive workforce through comprehensive training and advocates for the implementation of both state and federal workforce development policies to advance racial equity in educational attainment, employment, and income. The United States of America boasts a distinctive strength in its ethnic and racial diversity among residents. Nevertheless, disparities persist for Black, Latinx, Pacific Islander, Native, and specific Asian American workers in areas such as educational attainment, employment, and income. This report suggests policies such as investing in apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship to address decades of intentional, structurally racist policies.

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WorkforceGPS has compiled resources for quality pre-apprenticeship programs that lead to Registered Apprenticeship. Pre-apprenticeships not only build the basic literacy, math, and work-readiness skills today’s employers require, but also provide pre-screened, qualified, and job-ready apprentice pools. Join WorkforceGPS to access these key resources.

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Building and maintaining a highly skilled and diverse construction workforce is imperative. To help foster this understanding, the Aspen Institute’s Workforce Strategies Initiative (WSI) investigated how pre-apprenticeship programs are used to train low-income and disadvantaged adults for careers in construction. The following research interviewed 25 leaders of promising and innovative pre-apprenticeship programs across the country to explore factors that impact how programs are designed and to identify policies that constrain and support their efforts. Above all, they found that pre-apprenticeship programs play a significant role in developing a skilled and diverse construction workforce.

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