(Washington, DC September 10, 2015) – The AFL-CIO applauds the Department of Labor for awarding millions of dollars in grant money to support registered apprenticeship programs across the country.
The AFL-CIO Working for America Institute partners with Jobs for the Future, a national workforce intermediary, the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership and labor-management intermediaries to expand and enhance apprenticeship for production workers in the manufacturing sector in 8 states. This project will replicate the Industrial Manufacturing Technician (IMT) hybrid manufacturing apprenticeship in partnership with unions and their employers. It will promote the growth of the manufacturing sector and advance the skills of production workers.
“We are proud of the professional skills that union apprenticeship programs provide to workers,” said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler. “Apprenticeships are an important pathway to jobs that provide working people with wages to sustain a family. As we look at innovative ways to combat income inequality and to raise wages for all workers, apprenticeship programs should be at the center of that discussion.”
The apprenticeship grants are part of a larger push by the Obama Administration to highlight the need for affordable, quality career and education choices for students and workers.
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The AFL-CIO is also working in partnership with grantees listed below.
The International Transportation Learning Center was awarded a $5 million grant for the National Public Transportation Partnership for Apprenticeship project. The funds will support the implementation of new registered apprenticeships for Signals Maintainers and Transit Coach
Operators, as well as for the expansion of existing programs. A total of 1,297 frontline workers in the public transportation/electro-mechanical industry in metropolitan areas of the US will be trained. Private sector partners include Wider Opportunities for Women and Amalgamated
Transit Union.
Macomb Community College was awarded a $3.9 million grant to fund Michigan
Apprenticeship Program Plus (MAP+). The project will target apprenticeship pathways in IT and manufacturing occupations. MAP+ will register a new apprenticeship in Digital Sculpting, an area with growing hiring needs in the auto industry, and will work with Federal Financial Aid and the United Auto Workers to find innovative ways to leverage funding to create more apprenticeship opportunities. The program will serve 600 apprentices, in the two largest metropolitan areas of Michigan. Employer partners include Atlas Tool, Formtech and Autocam
Precision Components Group.
National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee was awarded a $4.7 million grant to fund
the Pre-Apprenticeship Program (Pre-APP) to increase employment and training opportunities in
targeted H-1B industry occupations within the electrical industry including: Electrical Engineers,
Civil Engineers, and Network Administrators. The Pre-APP program proposes to serve 1000
apprentices in 5 years (200 each year) from 13 proposed electrical training centers including IBEW JATCs by building a pre-apprenticeship curriculum based on apprenticeship requirements, creating pre-apprenticeship opportunities for underrepresented populations, and increasing skilled workers for the electrical industry.
UAW-Labor Employment and Training Corporation was awarded a $5 million grant to fund the
UAW American Apprenticeship Initiative Program. The grant will used for the development of new registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs and for modification of existing programs that will included underserved workers.
Arkansas Department of Workforce Services was awarded $4 million to create new or expand existing registered apprentices in its Arkansas Apprenticeship Pathways Initiative. The program will train 60 apprentices in targeted H-1B job growth industries of IT, Advanced Manufacturing and Healthcare to enable unemployed, underemployed, dislocated workers and underrepresented populations to receive job training while gaining college credit. By strengthening employer partnerships with such companies as CVS Healthcare and Winrock International, the AAPI seeks to integrate a sustainable scalable model for developing employer driven apprenticeships.
Partners from the labor union community including the International Brotherhood Electrical
Workers Local 295 and Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 155 further forge a strong stakeholder network.
Homework Hangout Club, Inc., a non-profit and community based organization that offers job training) was awarded a $2.9 million grant to lead the American Apprenticeship Workforce
Center project in partnership with three trade unions, the Painters/Glaziers, the
Carpenters/Millwrights, and the Plumbers/Pipefitters. The project will implement pre-apprenticeships, job placement programs and union-based registered apprenticeships for 300 underrepresented workers in the Construction Industry in the city of Decatur and Macon County, IL.
Contact: Carolyn Bobb (202) 637-5018