Apprenticeship Expansion and Modernization Fund Technical Assistance Initiative

Project Highlights

Launching a peer learning community.

The project team designed a technical assistance program, recruited top-notch subject matter experts, and established a peer learning community comprising youth apprenticeship (and preapprenticehip) champions in traditional and non-traditional sectors and occupations.

Meeting target enrollment.

The project successfully enrolled youth from underserved communities in Registered Apprenticeship—701 apprentices were enrolled in 62 occupations.

Expanding programs and engaging employers.

The project helped create seven new programs, expand ten more, and engage 234 employers in apprenticeships.

“
Thank you JFF and SPR for helping us learn about apprenticeship and successfully compete for funding to sustain our work with young people—we can’t wait to take our programming to the next level!”

Jason JuddEducate Maine

Apprenticeship and work-based learning programs have benefited from increasing levels of federal, state, and philanthropic investment for over a decade. But young people—especially those not employed or in school already—often lack access to these opportunities.

That’s why SPR partnered with JFF, NAWB, and District 1199C to support an apprenticeship expansion effort focused on these youth. With support from the US Department of Labor’s Apprenticeship Expansion and Modernization Fund (AEMF), our team launched a national network of 15 local projects to build apprenticeship onramps and programs for opportunity youth.

And by the end of the project, most sites had built supportive local employer and community partnerships and all had secured additional resources or were actively pursuing them.

Related project

California Apprenticeship Initiative: Technical Assistance and Evaluation

07/21/2022

Related Resource

How Apprenticeship Programs for Opportunity Youth Stay Resilient Through the COVID-19 Recession

This report looks at strategies for sustaining and expanding Registered Apprenticeship pathways for opportunity youth amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The report draws on promising practices from workforce boards and community based organizations, and addresses systemic and ongoing challenges including the digital divide, occupational mobility, and the provision of services and supports.

Learn More

Related Resource

Supporting continuous learning and improvement.

The project delivered dozens of peer learning activities and apprenticeship trainings. It documented key strategies, lessons, and learnings for the benefit of the field, such as in this online resource:

Promising Approaches to Connecting Opportunity Youth to Registered Apprenticeships.