Strategies

• 1. Build Programs to Meet Regional Employer Needs

  Summary

  Employers are much more likely to consider apprenticeship programs if they can clearly see how the model will meet their most pressing talent-development needs, and if there are systems and structures in place to support their capacity to participate.

  Conducting a labor market analysis to see what skills are in demand can boost employer interest. This can be done by engaging with local and state workforce agencies, many of whom regularly conduct this research. Many workforce agencies can also provide information on existing Registered Apprenticeship programs that organizations interested in setting up new youth apprenticeships can work with as they design their programs, perhaps with an eye toward developing pathways—such as pre-apprenticeship programs that lead to Registered Apprenticeship. When possible, would-be apprenticeship providers can also survey potential participants (such as opportunity youth) to identify overlap between employer demand for skills and the occupations that interest prospective participants, and then focus program development efforts on areas where these align.

  Additionally, community colleges, community-based organizations, or workforce intermediaries such as labor unions, industry associations, or individual third-party companies can serve as apprenticeship sponsors in lieu of employers themselves. This is an attractive option, because having an organization with apprenticeship knowledge and practice expertise as the program’s sponsor can ease the administrative burden on employers. A sponsor is responsible for designing, registering (if needed), and implementing apprenticeship programs in the workplace. A sponsor that is also the training provider—as is often the case when a community college or a labor union serves as sponsor—is in a good position to align and structure the training so that it meets employers’ requirements and establishes the foundation of a career pathway. Sponsors that are not employers can further ease the burden on employers by ensuring that a full range of services and supports is available to apprentices who need them. Finally, in addition to presenting participants with certificates when they complete their apprenticeships, they can help apprentices earn professional certifications and work toward degrees by awarding credit for the coursework they complete and the skills they acquire.

   

  Strategy in Action 

  Deep East Texas College & Career Academy

  Based in Jasper, Texas, DETCCA is a collaboration of six school districts and two postsecondary institutions that’s dedicated to increasing access to college and career pathways for young people, including opportunity youth.

  DETCCA is new to apprenticeship and is building its programs from the ground up. The organization conducted a labor market analysis and identified apprenticeship options that would be well suited to opportunity youth, but it has faced challenges when it comes to engaging employers in apprenticeship activities. Here are two examples:

  • A lack of employer exposure to and experience with apprenticeship
    Many employers in the region are not familiar with apprenticeship, and those that are don’t have the capacity to take on the administrative responsibilities of running programs themselves. They are reluctant to participate in Registered Apprenticeships, even as pilot projects, because they see them as major undertakings that require long-term commitments.
  • Funding difficulties due to low population density
    Operating an apprenticeship program in sparsely populated rural areas like East Texas can be challenging from a financial standpoint because it’s hard to recruit enough participants to finance a program, and even if cohort sizes were bigger, it’s unlikely that employers would hire apprentices in large numbers. These problems were exacerbated during the pandemic because labor markets became less predictable and young people grew more disconnected and more difficult to reach with fewer in-person education and employment opportunities.
    

   

  To increase apprenticeship opportunities in the area, DETCCA became a sponsor of a Registered Apprenticeship for welding technicians—a move that put the institution at the center of the region’s apprenticeship system. Now that the organization is a sponsor, DETCCA staff can take on the work necessary to register programs themselves, removing the burden from employers. DETCCA manages the administrative components of registered programs, provides guidance and support to employers, and delivers the necessary related technical instruction. Employers are responsible for hiring apprentices and providing them with mentorship and on-the-job training—and they must offer apprentices wage increases as they acquire new skills and competencies. This was an important step in expanding access to apprenticeship in the region. It also helped attract opportunity youth and other target groups. With the early stirrings of an economic recovery leading to increased demand for transportation and logistics services, DETCCA is exploring existing federally registered apprenticeship programs in that sector, including one for professional truck drivers. This strategy that could help create local employment opportunities for the region’s next generation of workers as the current transportation and logistics workforce ages.

  DETCCA has also partnered with the Jasper Economic Development District (JEDCO) and the area’s chamber of commerce. These moves have provided additional entry points into the employer community and helped identify employers who could benefit from apprenticeships. For example, JEDCO and the chamber have organized employer networks that DETCCA can connect with to deliver apprenticeship learning sessions, support efforts to build sector strategies, and raise the overall awareness of apprenticeship.  

   

• 2. Leverage Existing Apprenticeship Expansion Efforts

  Summary

  Since 2015, the federal government and many states have consistently invested in apprenticeship expansion efforts. As a result, the number of new apprenticeships has vastly increased, with more than 3,000 new programs registered with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship in 2020, despite the havoc caused by the pandemic. Moreover, apprenticeship is expanding beyond the trades, with programs emerging in sectors like health care, manufacturing, technology, and education.

  This rapid growth can make new programs difficult to sustain. Programs can find themselves competing for both employers to host apprenticeships and individuals to serve as apprentices. In addition, labor markets may change, leading to reductions in demand for apprentices in certain industries or occupations, and funding may run out before new programs have become big enough to stand on their own.

  Mature apprenticeship systems harness the efforts of many stakeholders. Employers, educational institutions, students, and workers rely on intermediary entities to facilitate participation in apprenticeship and help new programs grow. These entities typically develop deep knowledge about apprenticeship relationships with employers and maintain established apprenticeship programs that can be customized to meet specific employers’ needs, so employers don’t have to build them from scratch. Often, they also support complementary programs—such as pre-apprenticeships and related work-based learning initiatives that serve as pathways to Registered Apprenticeship for young people and their employers.

  This broader systems approach makes it easier for programs to engage employers, who can gradually increase their participation rather than having to either opt in or opt out. It also helps apprenticeship providers and intermediaries scale apprenticeship by strengthening systems rather than by building new programs on their own.

  The bottom line is that a systems approach to apprenticeship makes effective use of the collective efforts of all stakeholders for the benefit of entire sectors, regions, or states.

   

  Strategy in Action

  The Southeast Michigan Community Alliance and the Workforce Intelligence Network

  One of 16 Michigan Works agencies, the Southeast Michigan Community Alliance’s Michigan Works office is a workforce board-local government partnership that administers workforce development activities in Michigan’s Wayne and Monroe counties and provides administrative support to the Workforce Intelligence Network (WIN), a regional initiative dedicated to data-driven workforce solutions.  

   SEMCA Michigan Works and WIN joined AEMF with a plan to create health care apprenticeship opportunities for young people (including opportunity youth) through a partnership with the Health Careers Alliance for Southeast Michigan. But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the region’s health care system faced hiring freezes and layoffs and began focusing almost solely on expanding COVID testing and treatment, and the employers targeted for the apprenticeship program stepped back from efforts to build workforce programs. Therefore, SEMCA and WIN began exploring opportunities in other apprenticeship expansion efforts in the region, including programs focusing on manufacturing, information technology, and construction. 

   Looking at the construction industry in more detail, they recognized a need to better prepare young people for success in the Registered Apprenticeship system. To do this, SEMCA and WIN began strengthening partnerships with organizations that serve opportunity youth, working with them to align career and technical training with the requirements of existing Registered Apprenticeship programs using pre-apprenticeships and other onboarding activities.  

   SEMCA and WIN are currently helping an organization called Youth Solutions—a nonprofit provider of experiential learning, career exploration, and coaching and mentoring services—develop a pre-apprenticeship. The program’s entry requirements will be aligned to those of  Southeast Michigan Construction Academy and the Emerging Industries Training Institute Registered Apprenticeship programs, and with those of programs offered by Associated Builders and Contractors of Southeast Michigan and the Michigan Concrete Association. The ultimate goal is to designate youth construction training programs across the region as pre-apprenticeships that qualify young people who complete them for entry into Registered Apprenticeship programs—where they will prepare for good jobs and rewarding careers in construction.   

   SEMCA and WIN are also tapping resources available through statewide employer programs, including the Going Pro Talent Fund, which awards grant funding to employers through the workforce system to encourage them to develop workplace training programs. Because training requirements are aligned, the Talent Fund could support pathways into Registered Apprenticeships for opportunity youth, or pathways to advancement for existing workers, whose positions could then be open to apprentices, opportunity youth among them—across industries. Because these grants are awarded through the workforce system—which SEMCA is a part of—they also create opportunities for recipients to partner with Michigan Works agencies that provide federally-funded Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA) services to opportunity youth.   

   Finally, Michigan’s most recent State Apprenticeship Expansion grant includes a focus on youth and people with disabilities. This too creates opportunities for SEMCA and WIN to connect providers and build pathways that help opportunity youth access Registered Apprenticeship with the support of programs designed to serve them.  

• 3. Build Internal Capacity to Support and Scale Apprenticeship

  Summary

  When organizations launch new workforce programs, there is a common sequence of activities—design the program, recruit and train participants, place participants, and provide follow-up support to employers and participants. Apprenticeship is different. The job comes first, and the training is carefully calibrated to need and largely provided by employers. When workforce organizations engage employers in apprenticeship, they are not selling training but acting as partners in identifying and meeting talent needs through a long-term, grow-your-own-talent strategy—one that is regulated by state and federal law. That’s why training and capacity building are so important for workforce organizations advancing apprenticeship.

  Training employer-facing staff, adapting internal processes, and registering and sponsoring programs are three ways organizations can build this capacity.

   

  Strategy in Action

  Goodwill of North Georgia

  Goodwill of North Georgia runs some 68 retail stores, over 50 donation centers, and provides facility support services to a variety of organizations in the metro Atlanta area. Revenue generated from our stores, helps fund the operation of 13 career centers that offer 12 certificated training programs and eight targeted workforce development programs, including one called Youth Employment Services, which serves 16-to-24-year-olds. Overall, Goodwill of North Georgia serves more than 27,000 people each year and provides vocational training to more than 1,000.

  Goodwill of North Georgia had just registered its first apprenticeship (in floor, technical and custodial services) when it joined the opportunity youth apprenticeship effort with a plan to launch four additional programs in maintenance, logistics, transportation, and welding.

  The pandemic slowed some of that momentum. Forced to close its stores in response to the crisis, Goodwill of North Georgia lost some of its ties to young people and the organizations that serve them. The shutdown also limited its ability to recruit employers to apprenticeship programs. At that point, the organization opted to focus on the future and began to build its staff’s capacity to support apprenticeship. It also aligned business processes so that when new programs could launch, they would be able to scale quickly.

  Here’s a rundown of the activities Goodwill of North Georgia engaged in during the shutdown:

  • The employment team, who typically focused on job placement, began learning about apprenticeship so that team members would be better prepared to present apprenticeship as a combined training and employment option for employer partners and customers once the pandemic subsided. The organization provided brief, informal learning engagements (which might involve reading an article or engaging in a conversation) and scheduled formal trainings to be delivered during the summer and fall of 2021.
  • Apprenticeship program staff submitted work process schedules for four additional apprenticeship programs with the aim of registering six programs by late summer 2021—in medical coding, technology, maintenance, highway construction, retail, and logistics.
  • The contracts team adapted its templates and processes to accommodate structured wage progression, classroom training, and specific on-the-job-training hours and tasks apprenticeship requires. This shift provided two key benefits for the opportunity youth apprenticeship team: It removed administrative barriers for successful apprentices whose responsibilities and wages increase at regular intervals during their programs, and it created opportunities to discuss apprenticeship with employers as contracts are renewed or renegotiated.
    
    

  In December 2020, Goodwill of North Georgia hosted a recovery-centered employer roundtable to gather information about how employer needs have changed, and to introduce its apprenticeship offerings. Participating employers were enthusiastic about the apprenticeship initiative. As a result, the organization will host similar events regularly, with the twin goals of identifying employer partners and expanding the number of opportunity youth apprenticeship champions.

  In early 2021, Goodwill of North Georgia secured a new grant to support opportunity youth programming, including Registered Apprenticeship. The grant complements the organization’s employer engagement efforts by linking enrollment and recruitment for existing federally registered programs to local expansion initiatives and efforts to build apprenticeship development strategies into the workplans of the new grant-funded opportunity youth program staff.

  Finally, as recovery efforts proceed, Goodwill of North Georgia plans to resume efforts to sponsor apprentices, which will give employer-facing staff an opportunity to engage employer partners as peer employers of apprentices themselves.