The Implementation of Registered and Unregistered Apprenticeship: Evidence From Two Federal Grant Programs

• In Event: New Evidence on the Implementation and Impact of Apprenticeship Programs

Abstract

The DOL Chief Evaluation Office commissioned the Urban Institute and partners Mathemairca and Capital Research Coporation to conduct an evaluation of the Scaling Apprenticeship and Closing the Skills Gap grant program implementation. The implementation study includes 48 grantees: 23 Scaling Apprenticeship and 25 Closing theSkills Gap grantees. The implementation study reports the types of components, models, partnerships, and strategies grantees implemented, how they implemented them, and what grantees and their partners report as promising for reaching the goals of the grante programs.

This report presents findings from the implementation study of the Scaling Apprenticeship and Closing the Skills Gap grant programs. It provides an overview of the Scaling Apprenticeship and Closing the Skills Gap grant programs; describes the evaluation design; summarizes grantee and participant characteristics; discusses apprenticeship program characteristics; describes grantee strategies for recruiting apprentices and helping them persist; and summarizes approaches to employer engagement.

Institution of higher education (IHE) grantees leveraged their position in the postsecondary education sector to recruit from their student populaitons and provide classroom instruction (related technical instruction, or RTI) on-site before connecting apprenties with employers.· Grantees created and expanded apprenticehip programs in nontraditional occupations, with information technology (IT) the most common industry.· More grantees supported registered apprenticeship programs than unregistered programs, but the twop program types shared many characteristics employers described as important.· Although most apprentices were men, larger shared of apprenitces in these two grant programs were women, Black, or Asian relative to registered apprentices nationally.· Apprentice retention strategies included targeting participants with the skills to succeed and providing robust supports.· Collectively, grantees engaged 8,343 employers to participate in apprenticeships, using similar strategies for recruitment regardless of occupational sector. Grantees that used incentives reported they were helpful in recruiting employers.

Future grant programs might consider the occupational focus when providing flexibility to register or not register programs. In some cases, this will depend on the program’s authorizing legislation, which in some cases restricts funding to registered apprenticeship programs.· Different types of grantee organiaztions have unique attributes for reaching program goals and DOL may want to fund a mix of grantee organization types in the future.· Varied employer recruitment messages and strategies recognize employers’ varying motivations to adopt apprenticeship.

Author

• Karen N Gardiner, Urban Institute
  Presenting Author