What's New?

Office of Apprenticeship and the Women's Bureau Announces $1.8 Million Grants to Support Women in Non-Traditional Occupations On June 14, the Office of Apprenticeship and the Women's Bureau jointly announced the awarding of nearly $2 million in grants to support the Women in Apprenticeship and Non-traditional Occupations (WANTO) grant program. Six grantees received $300,000 each to promote the recruitment, training, employment and retention of women in apprenticeship and non-traditional occupations. The program provides grant funds to eligible community-based organizations that establish a consortium with at least one Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) sponsor to provide training, placement, and support services to women for careers in non-traditional occupations.

New Briefing Papers on Registered Apprenticeship and Healthcare

The Office of Apprenticeship has released two new briefing papers on Registered Apprenticeship and healthcare that make the case for using the model in this growing industry. Registered Apprenticeship helps address some of the critical issues in healthcare including recruitment and retention, cost-effective training, wage increases and improved patient care. Both papers describe some of the successful models that exist as well as discuss opportunities and challenges.

Using Registered Apprenticeship to Build and Fill Healthcare Career Paths, discusses how Registered Apprenticeship can be a critical part of building the healthcare workforce by increasing skill levels without huge cost increases. The model offers the structure and rigor that helps professionalize entry-level healthcare occupations and prepares individuals for the challenge of higher level health careers. Apprenticeship is already used extensively in healthcare without being called "apprenticeship." Nurses do clinical rotations and doctors serve residencies before they complete their degrees and nearly all healthcare occupations require a demonstration of competency before a certificate or credential is awarded.

Using Registered Apprenticeship to Build and Fill Career Paths in Health Information Technology focuses on the earn and learn aspects of the model, showing that workers' skill levels increase simultaneously while they study their profession, so they become more productive at a faster rate than if they were only taking classes. The traditional health information technology model focuses only on classroom education.

The Office of Apprenticeship is pleased to announce that we will be hosting a series of town hall meetings and a webinar listening session on Apprenticeship's Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) regulations (29 CFR part 30). The town hall meetings will be in Washington, DC, San Francisco, and Chicago throughout the month of March. The attached announcement provides important information and details regarding these meetings. In early March, ETA will publish a Federal Register Notice to formally announce these meetings and to provide details for submitting written suggestions and feedback.

Click here to get more information and important details on the town hall meetings.

OA Issues Report on the “Greening” of Registered Apprenticeship

“The Greening of Registered Apprenticeship: An Environmental Scan of the Impact of Green Jobs on Registered Apprenticeship and Implications for Workforce Development,” highlights the trends and activities of industries expected to drive the emerging Green economy. The report findings, issued by the Employment and Training Administration in mid-October, were compiled through a series of interviews with leaders in Registered Apprenticeship, including businesses and labor management organizations, to help identify the steps they are taking to prepare the U.S. workforce for the demands of a Green economy. The report provides a great opportunity to better understand the impact of 'Green' and help identify the policy and program development underway for Green-related initiatives. We encourage you to read the report to learn more on the efforts being made throughout the Registered Apprenticeship system to prepare workers for careers within Green industries.

Click here to Read the Report

• Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 114 - [SGA 09-03] Registered Apprenticeship for Youth and Young Adults With Disabilities Initiative; Solicitation for Cooperative Agreements.
  
  
  

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Top Questions about RA

What is Registered Apprenticeship?

Registered Apprenticeship programs meet the skilled workforce needs of American industry, training millions of qualified individuals for lifelong careers since 1937. Registered Apprenticeship helps mobilize America's workforce with structured, on-the-job learning in traditional industries such as construction and manufacturing, as well as new emerging industries such as health care, information technology, energy, telecommunications and more. Registered Apprenticeship connects job seekers looking to learn new skills with employers looking for qualified workers, resulting in a workforce with industry-driven training and employers with a competitive edge.

What types of jobs are available through Registered Apprenticeship?

The Registered Apprenticeship program offers access to 1,000 career areas, including the following top occupations:

• Able seaman
• Carpenter
• Chef
• Child care development specialist
• Construction craft laborer
• Dental assistant
• Electrician
• Elevator constructor
• Fire medic
• Law enforcement agent
• Over-the-road truck driver
• Pipefitter

How does Registered Apprenticeship benefit employers?

In addition to available tax benefits and workforce development grants in some states, Registered Apprenticeship benefits employers by providing them with a pipeline of skilled workers with industry-specific training and hands-on experience. Registered Apprenticeship programs are customizable to match employers' needs, and highly flexible to always to meet employers' changing requirements.

For more information on how RA benefits employers, click here.

Earn Learn Succeed Newsletter

ELS, the official Office of Apprenticeship e-newsletter, communicates timely information about the revised apprenticeship regulations including related meetings and events.

• Most Recent ELS newsletter: Volume 3, Issue 1 (Posted March 8, 2010)
  
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Recently Issued

• Research
  • This is a study ETA commissioned by Robert Lerman of the Urban Institute and American University, "The Benefits and Challenges of Registered Apprenticeship: The Sponsors' Perspective." Findings show that 97 percent of Registered Apprenticeship sponsors—employers and labor-management programs alike— are highly satisfied with the model and would recommend it to other businesses. More than 80 percent of sponsors say that they use Registered Apprenticeship to meet their need for skilled workers. Another 72 percent say that Registered Apprenticeship helps them show which workers have needed skills; and 68 percent feel that the model raises productivity, strengthens worker morale and pride and improves worker safety. Few other publicly funded workforce programs have this level of satisfaction from employers and labor-management partnerships.
  • Washington State Workforce Board 2008 Evaluation of Apprenticeship
  • Oregon's Forgotten Middle-Skill Jobs: Meeting the Demands of a 21st Century Economy
  • Middle Class Task Force Report - Green Jobs: A Pathway to a Strong Middle Class
• Other
  • 
    You spoke and we listened. Many of you in attendance at the recent Action Clinics requested a forum to continue to share best practices, identify common solutions, and explore new ideas. In response to your requests, OA is excited to announce the launch of your Community of Practice (CoP), a new online forum for continuous information sharing, highlighting of best practices, and exploration of innovative new ideas and projects. Stay connected with your colleagues, share your challenges and solutions, post all the great materials from the Action Clinics and other venues related to apprenticeship, and learn about new strategies and approaches. A key characteristic of the CoP is that members "own" and drive the process of sharing, learning, knowledge development, and stewardship. The community was created to provide all partners who support registered apprenticeship with open channels of communication, increased knowledge, and broader access to information and materials. Some areas around which the community will be opening its' doors for discussion include: Employers and National Sponsors - promote your program; highlight your innovative efforts and recruit new apprentices:
    
    

    Apprentices - share your experiences with your peers and others

    Registered Apprenticeship - learn best practices around leveraging Workforce Investment Act (WIA) partners and other key stakeholders

    WIA programs and One-Stop Career Centers - learn how integrating Registered Apprenticeship can increase options for your customers and improve your performance measures

    Education Communities - learn how registered apprenticeship can support your students and provide one seamless pathway to career success

    Join the CoP today by clicking here.

Guidance

• Department of Labor Publishes Rules to Modernize National Apprenticeship System