What types of apprenticeship partnerships make sense for your program?

If you're new to apprenticeship, there's all kinds of things you're learning on the fly. Hopefully, one thing you'll learn is you don't have to do it all yourself! There are a variety of partnerships you can form that will help support your program, but if you're like us, you may not even know where to start.

What types of partnerships make sense for your organization? Or what type of partnerships make sense for apprenticeships generally?

That certainly depends on your organization, your industry, and even your state. Let's break it down a bit.

Apprenticeship Offices

Let's start with what we hope is the most obvious. You should consider your local apprenticeship office as your first partner. We wrote a bit about this in our recent post on ATRs -- apprenticeship training representatives -- so check that out if you haven't already.

National, regional, and state apprenticeship offices and agencies provide technical assistance and support to program sponsors, answer questions about the apprenticeship model, guide partners on each phase of developing a program, connect businesses to training providers, and advise partners on available funding sources to support apprenticeships.

They're a fantastic one-stop shop both when you're getting started in apprenticeship and when you're not sure where else to turn with questions you might have. If you need help finding your apprenticeship office, first, figure out if you're an OA or SAA state, and then find the appropriate contact for your state office.

Intermediaries

Looking for another potential one-stop shop partner? That'd be an intermediary partner. We recommend intermediaries to almost anyone new to apprenticeship.

An apprenticeship intermediary is an organization with the capacity, expertise, and network to help businesses successfully create, launch, and expand apprenticeship programs. Intermediaries could be any of the following: Industry Associations and Business Organizations, Community and Technical Colleges, Non-Profit and Community-Based Organizations, Labor Management Partnerships, or Workforce Development Boards.

Many of these partnerships are bespoke to your needs. If you need a partner that'll handle everything -- paperwork, tracking, recruitment, etc. -- most intermediaries will do that. If you just want a partner to help you get started, register you standards, and then step back, you'll find that, too. Intermediaries make apprenticeship their business and can often help you determine what other partnerships you might need.

Educators

Depending on your organization, an education partner may be essential or not at all necessary. If you're a community college apprenticeship or a union training center, you probably have this one covered. But, how about you employers out there? Do you have your own training center? Do you want to be in charge of instructors and curriculum?

If not, you're going to want an education partner. These partners really can vary in terms of the type of institution. An educator can refer to an institution such as a 4-year college, community college, career and technical school, or even an online curriculum provider. The educator delivers academic and skills instruction driven by industry standards -- sometimes synchronously, sometimes not. In an apprenticeship, the education and training provider can grant credentials based on competency testing, facilitate access to financial aid and other support resources (e.g., student loans, tutoring, counseling), or use marketing and outreach channels to identify potential apprentices.

In many states, you can find potential educator partners from an ETPL, or eligible training provider list, which is a list of educators registered for your state.

One final note - in some states, you'll be required to have this partnership. Take California, for example. If you're registered with California's Division of Apprenticeship Services, you'll be required to partner with a LEA, or Local Education Agency.

Employers

Let's look at the other side of the coin now. Let's say you're an educator organization, yourself. If you're running an apprenticeship, you're going to need to partner with employers. There's been a lot of this over the last 5-10 years with the rise of community colleges becoming apprenticeship sponsors through grants. You do not have an apprenticeship without an employer who can actually hire your apprentice so this is critical for educator sponsors. To build employer partnerships, you'll need a few things.

First, you should connect with the people in your organization who help place students already. This could be an industry-focused department, but it can also be certain instructors who've built their own industry boards for their programs. Next, work on thinking and speaking like an employer. Grants are not what drives them. Employers want you to solve their staffing problem. Do that, and they wont even need (but may want!) support from your grant funds.

Workforce Development Boards

Workforce Development Boards direct federal, state, and local funding to workforce development programs. They help employers meet their needs for skilled workers and help career seekers find career and economic advancement. Workforce development boards can be a partial one-stop shop for your needs much like intermediaries, but their involvement in apprenticeships varies widely from location to location.

Non-profits

This is a deliberately vague category, but you may find you need support for something specific to your organization. Maybe your apprentices need help getting childcare or transportation? Or maybe you're looking to expand the number of women in your construction program?

Look to non-profits in your space, and they can often help fill in these types of gaps with existing tools, funding, and connections.

Sponsors

Finally, we're writing this all from the perspective of sponsors, but what if you're one of the organizations above but not a sponsor, yourself? Well, find the sponsors! An apprenticeship sponsor is association, committee, or organization that operates a Registered Apprenticeship Program, meaning they've registered their program with a state or federal apprenticeship agency. This entity assumes the full responsibility for administration and operation of the apprenticeship program. Sponsors can be a single business or a consortium of businesses. Alternatively, the sponsor can be a workforce intermediary, such as an industry association or a labor-management organization. Community colleges and community-based organizations can also serve as sponsors of apprenticeship programs. If you're looking to partner with sponsors, check out Apprenticeship.gov, search WorkHands, or browse apprenticeship programs by state.

Remember, this is just a few of the partnership options! Take the time to find the partnerships that are right for you and how you want to run your apprenticeship program.