The latest news about apprenticeships throughout South Eastern Pennsylvania

Welcome to the second issue of the Apprenticeship SEPA E-Newsletter. We created this e-newsletter to keep you informed about what’s happening with apprenticeships in the South Eastern PA (SEPA) region, nation, and world, as well as spotlight the hard-working partners and apprentices that make these programs a success. I’ll use this space to provide any important updates and/or thoughts that I have about apprenticeships. I hope you find this e-newsletter informative and insightful, and please don’t hesitate to contact me at mgenua@philaworks.org with any suggestions for future issues.

It truly is amazing to see the growth of pre-apprenticeship and Registered Apprenticeship programs across the region, state, and nation in the past year and a half. The SEPA region is now home to new apprenticeship programs in healthcare, IT, and advanced manufacturing, while the skilled trades are adding pre-apprenticeship programs to their long-standing Registered Apprenticeship programs. We are seeing more employers accept the apprenticeship model as a viable training and talent development strategy, but a lot of work still needs to be done to get the word out to employers and create a true Apprenticeship SEPA system in the region. So, I encourage current employers with apprenticeships, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, training providers, public agencies, and other partners to contact an employer (or better yet employers) in your network and set-up a meeting with me to discuss apprenticeships. If you bring them to the table, I’ll commit to meeting each and every one of them.

-Mark Genua, Apprenticeship Program Director, Philadelphia Works

Partner Spotlight: The Wistar Institute

The Wistar Institute’s Biomedical Research Technician (BRT) Training Apprenticeship is the first-ever registered, nontraditional apprenticeship program for biomedical research ratified by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry.

The BRT Training Apprenticeship offers apprentices a career pathway to becoming biomedical research technicians in a research laboratory environment. Through advanced training, participants will acquire skill sets to facilitate experimental procedures, manage a laboratory and monitor lab safety, conduct data analysis on experiments, and other highly-skilled techniques, with the goal of supporting a lead scientist and other staff in a laboratory setting to advance scientific hypotheses and outcomes. This apprenticeship model successfully creates cross-boundary collaborations between industry, academia, and research institutes, offers in-depth training and education while providing students a wage, and gives trainees the skill sets sought after by the life sciences industry.

The apprenticeship is an extension of The Wistar Institute’s Biomedical Technician Training (BTT) Program, created close to 20 years ago by William Wunner, Ph.D., as a partnership with the Community College of Philadelphia. Successful completion of the BTT program at The Wistar Institute is a pre-requisite of the apprenticeship program.

Learn more about The Wistar Institute and their new Registered Apprenticeship program here.

Source : The Wistar Institute

Apprenticeship as a Talent Development Strategy

This article was written by Seyni Ndaw, one of Philadelphia Works' Summer Work Ready Interns.

On July 11, 2017, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia hosted a conference entitled Apprenticeship as a Talent Development Strategy at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia where representatives from various employers, non-profits, and workforce boards around the area came to learn about Registered Apprenticeship programs in both traditional and non-traditional industries. There were a variety of panels and presentations covering topics such as the benefits of Registered Apprenticeships, the process of setting up an apprenticeship program, and the history and future of apprenticeship programs.

The National Apprenticeship Act was made effective in July of 1937. Preceding the second World War, apprenticeships typically fell under manufacturing, construction, and utilities, aligning with the era of the New Deal. However, apprenticeships began to branch out to other fields such as firefighting, police force, medical technicians, and similar health and safety careers after the war. Currently, efforts are constantly being made to bring apprenticeship programs to more and more unique positions and careers.

Including a Registered Apprenticeship program in one’s company holds a multitude of benefits. Eric M. Ramsay (Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, PA), Jim Foti (U.S. Department of Labor, PA), and Bernard E. Treml III (U.S Department of Labor, NJ) all represented their respective states during the approval process for registering new apprenticeship programs. Jim Foti made the excellent point that we find ourselves in a time where many matured workers are preparing to retire, and unfortunately a large majority of our younger workers are not able to pursue higher education because of financial barriers, which is inevitably withholding them from pursuing their desired careers. Registered Apprenticeships are specifically designed to assist individuals into immediate employment opportunities after completing their apprenticeship to the standard of the company. With apprenticeships, these individuals can pursue their dreams, and companies can recruit employees by directly training them for the skills they need.

The apprenticeships are structured to follow an “Earn while you Learn” model, where individuals are rewarded for their accomplishments throughout training and instruction. An active apprentice, Jeffrey Bond (Community Health Worker Apprentice at Philadelphia FIGHT), spoke as a panelist during the conference - praising the patience and dedication of the employers to him as an apprentice and the benefits of having hands-on, on-the-job training.

When considering creating a Registered Apprenticeship program for your company, it is important to establish partners that will assist you through the process. These include business partners, workforce intermediaries and educational institutions, public workforce systems and an apprenticeship system. These partners can assist you and your company by identifying skills your apprentices will need, providing funding for training and other supportive services, and even serving as a sponsor.

If you are interested in setting up a Registered Apprenticeship program for your company, contact your state’s Federal Representative, or for national employers, contact the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship at 202-693-2796 or apprenticeship.usa@dol.gov.

NEW: Apprenticeship Guide 2017

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, with help from the Urban Institute, U.S. Department of Labor, and Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, has released a guide which explores apprenticeship, the talent recruitment and development strategy that integrates on-the-job learning and related technical instruction.

The guide primarily examines Registered Apprenticeship (RA) programs, which traditionally have been used in construction and the skilled trades, but are now being applied in high-growth sectors such as information technology, health care, and advanced manufacturing. The guide, which explains how RAs work, examines long-term programs as well as new and noteworthy ones, and is intended as an educational resource for private-sector employers and organizations involved in workforce development in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

Within the pages of the guide, you'll find case studies of successful RAs throughout the region and should help employers understand the current state of apprenticeship and decide if they want to further explore the apprenticeship model in their own workplace.

Learn more and get your own free, downloadable copy of the guide here .

Resource Center: Expanding Apprenticeships for Veterans

Men and women who have served their country in the armed forces bring valuable skills and assets to any employer.

Bringing a veteran on as an apprentice means not only having an apprentice with more than the average entry-level experience, but a work ethic worthy of the U.S. Military.

Check out these resources for both veteran apprentices and employers seeking to recruit veterans for their apprenticeship programs.

Apprentice Spotlight

This article was written by Seyni Ndaw, one of Philadelphia Works' Summer Work Ready Interns.

It’s important to not only know how Registered Apprenticeships benefit companies, but also the benefits they hold for the participants. We interviewed a pre-apprenticeship participant named Tyrrell Minerva about his experience in his program. Tyrrell is currently an AmeriCorps Digital Service Fellow working with the Urban Technology Project and plans to finish this August.

When asked about the benefits to participating in a pre-apprenticeship or apprenticeship program, he said, “Every time you’re in the field you’re always learning something new. If you happen to make a mistake, it’s used as a learning experience. This is a place where we can learn and make mistakes without the fear of being immediately fired.” Tyrrell’s response speaks to the main goal of apprenticeship program: to train skilled workers efficiently and thoroughly without the level of pressure official employment can sometimes harbor. This way, participants can learn valuable skills without limiting themselves due to uncertainty.

You can read Tyrrell's entire interview here.

Advancing Apprenticeship as a Workforce Strategy

Registered Apprenticeship is a proven workforce strategy that can help state and local workforce systems transform how they meet the needs of businesses and workers and fully achieve the vision for the workforce system under WIOA. The critical strategies that are called for in WIOA, such as sector strategies and career pathways, are at the heart of the apprenticeship model.

The foundation of apprenticeship is deep industry engagement that can further the workforce system’s efforts to support regional economies. Apprenticeship is an effective work-based learning approach that builds worker skills and establishes pathways to higher levels of employment and wages.