In 2016, the Employment and Training Administration awarded small accelerator grants to states, territories, and the District of Columbia to encourage states to expand apprenticeship opportunities. ETA later awarded another $51 million in State Apprenticeship Expansion (SAE) grants to 36 states and one territory to support states' in continuing this work and developing and implementing comprehensive expansion strategies for apprenticeships. Thirty-seven of these SAE grantees received continuation funding of $49 million, for operation through Fall 2020.

This report summarizes a survey of grantees documenting their efforts to support the expansion of apprenticeship programs, and documenting challenges and needs for technical assistance to further expand apprenticeships.

Survey findings indicated that, overall, grantees made efforts to expand their registered apprenticeship systems.

• A majority of grantee respondents (64 percent) reported that their agency had increased staff working on apprenticeships,
• More than two in five (43 percent) reported that legislative or regulatory changes to support apprenticeships had been made in the previous three years.
• Grantees reported that their state had implemented or had introduced incentives offered to employers to sponsor registered apprenticeship programs.
• 14 states reported that state funding for related technical instruction only became available in the past two years, increasing the number of states offering this support to 35 of 52 states responding (68 percent).

In addition, states reported changes to their registered apprenticeship systems as a result of implementing provisions in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), such as:

• Adding registered apprenticeship programs to their eligible training provider lists (77 percent), and
• Having more WIOA funding available for apprenticeship (47 percent). In addition, most state respondents reported that the growth in registered apprenticeship met or exceeded the states' expectations in both construction occupations (81 percent), which have a long tradition of using apprenticeship training, and non-construction occupations (74 percent).