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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This document by The Aspen Institute provides findings on how construction pre-apprenticeships programs connect low-income adults to construction careers and help construction employers find the diverse, skilled workforce needed to be successful. The report also outlines working within the construction industry, the value pre-apprenticeship programs provide, as well as policy recommendations for workforce development leaders.

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The National Skills Coalition gives an overview of work-based learning and discusses how childcare and pre-apprenticeship have a role in expanding and completing apprenticeship programs. The brief also gives recommendations for federal and state policy to make these two offerings available nationwide.

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