Upcoming NGA Events: (Please note that further details and information about other events can be found on the COP calendar)
- AAI Learning Network Call: Tuesday, May 5 from 3-4 pm
- This Learning Network call will provide AAI grantee team leads the opportunity to discuss best practices and common challenges with the cohort. An agenda will be available closer to the event.
- Dial-in Information: 888 475 4499; Meeting ID: 947 9170 0143; Passcode: 221177
- AAI Webinar: AAI Program Integration with Postsecondary Education: May 11 from 3-4 pm
- Community colleges have long been key players in apprenticeship program development and success. As colleges face uncertainty due to the current health and economic crisis, it can be helpful to utilize lessons from the Great Recession to plan for future program needs. NGA will lead a conversation with AAI grantees discussing the role of community colleges in the last recession, highlighting enrollment trends and ways apprenticeship programs can best serve participants and businesses. Please join us for this conversation, featuring NGA higher education experts and community college administrators that ran programs during the Great Recession.
- Please register for the webinar here. Please note that you will need the registration password (required to prevent hacking): 576837.
- For more information on upcoming AAI events, please see the AAI Community of Practice calendar.
AAI Resources:
- AAI Community of Practice COVID-19 Resource Page: Includes a variety of resources including NGA Technical Assistance Memos on improving access to online learning and adjusting work-based learning structures, U.S. DOL guidance on grant management, and unemployment insurance information for states.
- The Workforce GPS webpage for COVID-19 resources includes FAQs to help state and local workforce leaders:
Apprenticeship Resources
- WBL Office Hours: Moving Apprenticeship Online: May 14 at 11 am EST
- Join presenters Maria Brady, Multi-State Navigator for the Dallas Office of Apprenticeship, U.S. Department of Labor and Jennifer Jirous-Rapp, Senior Consultant for Maher & Maher as they discuss how employers and apprentice sponsors can support their apprentice program during COVID-19 through online learning and training. Participants will learn how they can make changes to their DOL registered apprenticeship program to support distance learning, tips and resources to support apprentices virtually, and ways their programs can continue while apprentices and mentors shelter-at-home. Please register here.
- Employer innovations in light of COVID-19: AAI grantee United Way of Buffalo and Erie County shared that a few of their employer partner sites have been crucial in the fight against COVID-19:
- Century Mold released their new “Halo Mask” into production to assist healthcare workers on the frontlines.
- Eastman Kodak shared that they produced the chemicals for the production of hand sanitizers.
- Trident Precision released information that they have been making the parts for a blood analysis machine used in COVID testing by Becton Dickinson & Company, a Global Medical Technology company.
- Lessons Learned from the American Apprenticeship Initiative – What Grantees Wish They Had Known – This webinar targeted to Closing the Skills Gap grantees highlights the experience, success stories and promising practices of three high-performing college-level AAI grantees, who are currently at the end of a five-year grant that implemented strategies to expand the use of apprenticeships.
- Philadelphia Works is hiring for a Director of Apprenticeship Strategies
Apprenticeship in the News:
- U.S. Department of Labor Announces Funding Availability for State Apprenticeship Expansion Grants (U.S. DOL): The U.S. Department of Labor announced the availability of $73 million in state apprenticeship expansion grants aimed at expanding apprenticeship throughout the country. States must submit all required documents here by May 21, 2020.
- MN DEED Awards more than $1.3 Million in MJSP Grants (MN DEED): AAI grantee The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) awarded nine workforce development grants totaling nearly $1.3 million under the Minnesota Jobs Skill Partnership (MJSP) to assist businesses and educational institutions in training workers to keep high-quality jobs in the state.
- Newport Commission, ASU-Newport Partner with ACDS on IT Training Center (Arkansas Business): The Newport Economic Development Commission and Arkansas State University-Newport are partnering with the Arkansas Center for Data Sciences to bring a regional information technology training center to downtown Newport, which will offer a range of apprenticeship programs.
- Oshkosh, TCAT in Early Stages of Expanding Apprenticeship into Grainger (Citizen Tribune): Grainger County Board of Education approved purchase of three Powerway welders, that will spur an extension of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology’s apprenticeship program with Oshkosh Industries of Jefferson City.
