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The report presents American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) implementation study findings. The primary data source is interviews conducted during in-person site visits to 10 AAI grantees in spring 2019 and follow-up telephone calls with grant staff in fall 2020. The report documents the design and operation of grant activities and identifies potentially promising practices, implementation challenges, and lessons for future initiatives.

Research Questions

• What are the context, characteristics, and partnerships of the grantees?
• What are the strategies and activities for recruiting employers and registering apprenticeship programs?
• What are the strategies for recruiting and supporting apprentices, including underrepresented populations?
• How are instructional and training content developed and delivered?
• For grantees that include pre-apprenticeships, what are the content and structure of the programs?

Key Takeaways

• Grantees reported advanced manufacturing was an important industry in which to expand apprenticeship.
• Grantees reported challenges to developing apprenticeship programs in IT and healthcare.
• Grantees registered more apprentices in manufacturing and construction than in IT and healthcare.
• Grantees funded staff to identify employers and assist them with apprenticeship design and registration.
• Grantees identified employers through partner referrals.
• Grantees’ employer selling points focused primarily on worker productivity and customized skill sets.
• Grantee sponsorship or identification of a sponsor reduced employers’ time and effort associated with program development and registration.
• Availability of grant funds to offset RTI and OJL costs facilitated employer adoption of apprenticeship.
• Grantees had some success registering diverse populations into apprenticeships.
• Some employers used apprenticeships to train incumbent workers for higher-skilled occupations.
• Grantees generally used common recruitment strategies to identify potential apprentices.
• Some grantees described pre-apprenticeship programs as a way to prepare underrepresented populations for, and encourage their hiring into, registered apprenticeship programs.
• Some pre-apprenticeship programs enabled employers and pre-apprentices to determine whether the occupation was a good fit for the potential apprentices.
• Compared to AAI apprentices, a larger share of pre-apprentices were women, as well as younger and more racially diverse.

Citation

Copson, E., Kappil, T., Gardiner, K., Clarkwest, A., Engle, H., Trutko, A., Trutko J., Glosser, A., Webster, R., Kuehn, D., Lerman, R., Shakesprere, J. (2022). Abt Associates. Implementing Registered Apprenticeship Programs: Experiences of 10 American Apprenticeship Initiative Grantees. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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This study was sponsored by the Employment and Training Administration, Office of Policy Development and Research, Division of Research and Evaluation, and was produced outside of CEO’s standard research development process.