The United Services Military Apprenticeship Program (USMAP), operated by the Department of the Navy, provides active duty Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy service members with the opportunity to undertake and complete apprenticeships that meet the requirements of civilian Registered Apprenticeships. USMAP offers three potential benefits: (1) a vehicle for service members to increase their skills beyond the military job requirements, thereby raising their productivity while in the military; (2) a way of documenting and communicating their skills, competencies, and experience to civilian employers; and (3) a tool for the military to recruit Sailors and Marines interested in gaining a valued occupational certification.

This report has two primary goals: (1) to describe how the program has evolved, how it operates, and how the relevant stakeholders (including military personnel and program participants) perceive the strengths and weaknesses of the program, and (2) to describe strategies for evaluating the impact of USMAP. To achieve these goals, the evaluation team interviewed several USMAP officials and conducted separate focus groups with USMAP participants, USMAP completers, and USMAP supervisors.

The report describes several aspects of the programs operations and perceived strengths and weaknesses.

1. Service members report that completing an apprenticeship brings little gain to participants while they remain in the Navy or Marine Corps, beyond some advantage for promotions.
2. USMAP documents the skills and experience service members routinely attain in the military.
3. Apprentices and supervisors display only a limited understanding of the purposes of USMAP.
4. USMAP has not communicated extensively with private employers to show how they can benefit from hiring apprenticeships completers in specific fields.
5. Although definitive data following entering apprentices through completion are lacking, the evidences suggests rates below 50 percent. Focus group comments indicate that weak initial communication, the limited use of completions for moving up within the service, few private employer links, and administrative barriers probably all contribute.

The report makes the following recommendations to strengthen the program.

• All eligible service members should be informed about the opportunity to participate in the program.
• USMAP could be incorporated into the transition protocol to help service members make the transition to civilian employment.
• The connections between USMAP and employers should be improved.