The National Skills Coalition has released a new brief, Partnering Up: how industry partnerships can bring work-based learning to scale . The report outlines the importance of local, industry-driven partnerships between workforce, education, and human services systems and stakeholders to scale work-based learning strategies like apprenticeship.
Work-based learning programs can address business demand for workers and workers' skills needs. For small- and medium-sized companies, however, there are often challenges to starting or running these programs. Businesses and communities across the country master these challenges by working together in industry or sector partnerships that bring together multiple employers in a targeted industry with the workforce, education and human service systems to aggregate skills demands across firms and identify training and employment strategies that meet those shared needs.
These partnerships address several barriers businesses face in expanding apprenticeship. Among other things, partnerships:
- Foster and create a community of business leaders engaged in a common goal of upskilling a local workforce in a strategic way that benefits the broader community;
- Help businesses work together to design curriculum and benchmarks of the on-the-job component of a program or circulate best practices as well as training front-line workers and managers to aid their provision of mentoring or training.
- Link businesses with available subsidies, tax credits, and other incentives available to companies starting or expanding programs to ease financial barriers, particularly for small firms and for companies hiring workers with barriers to employment;
- Recruit participants for the work-based learning programs, particularly individuals receiving additional workforce and human services, and identify pre-employment or pre-apprenticeship training needs, access integrated education and training that can ensure success in later work-based learning pathways and leverage the spectrum of training options available under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act;
- Connect to and provide subsidies for transportation, child care services and other support services that ensure the broadest pipeline of workers not only have access to work-based learning but succeed in these programs; and
- Provide tools, clothing, and other required items workers need to start employment.
- Tailor training, support, and employment opportuni¬ties to the region in which businesses operate – both in response to local demand and as an outgrowth of local relationships.
Groups like the Healthcare Industry Partnership in metro Atlanta , Oregon Manufacturing Innovation Center Training (OMIC Training) in Portland Oregon, UpSkill Houston in Texas, and the Advancing Manufacturing Partnership in Indiana all bring together businesses, community organizations, labor partners, policy makers and representatives from the workforce, education and human services systems to support workforce development and work-based learning.
The report makes several recommendations for federal and state policy makers.
The Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA) Grant Initiative: Application Period Opens; Webinar Scheduled for January 24
Youth apprenticeship should be a widely accessible option for young people to gain the foundational skills, experience, and credentials needed to thrive in a rapidly changing economy. This week, New America and the members of the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship have applications for the PAYA Grant Initiative , which will support states, cities, and regions working to make this vision a reality.
The PAYA Grant Initiative will award four to eight grants (up to approx. $200,000 each) to support partnerships working together to build high-quality youth apprenticeships to meet local economic need. The grants will support partnerships in designing and implementing strategies to:
- launch, expand and strengthen youth apprenticeship programs aligned to the PAYA Principles for High-Quality Youth Apprenticeship ;
- advance policy and system alignment to mainstream youth apprenticeship; and,
- improve understanding and awareness of youth apprenticeship to lay a foundation for sustainable expansion.
To accelerate this work, grantees will also receive technical assistance from the PAYA National Partners and will engage as a cohort in cross-site learning activities. Together, the grantee cohort will form a visible national community of innovators at the forefront of the movement to expand participation in high-quality youth apprenticeship programs that produce equitable outcomes for students, employers, and communities.
Please review the PAYA Principles and PAYA Grants FAQ before beginning the application, and feel free to share this email with any youth apprenticeship practitioners who might make good candidates for the initiative. You can also attend a webinar scheduled for Thursday, January 24th to learn more about the initiative's goals and selection process. The deadline for submissions is 11:59 pm on March 8th, 2019.