How the Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning Can Help You

Apprenticeship and work-based learning initiatives are true partnership efforts. To build effective, high-quality programs, we work with organizations across a range of disciplines in the public and private sectors:

Business

Finding the talent to keep your business running is hard. We’ll show you how job-based training and education can deliver the return on investment you need. If you set up an apprenticeship program, you could lead the way for your company and industry to create access to professional development opportunities that make you and your workers more productive.

We can help you define your workforce needs, identify the positions that require hard-to-find skills, and set training goals. We can also help you develop training standards and register them with your state or the federal government, identify local sources of talent, and establish the local partnerships you’ll need in order to build sustainable programs.

Intermediaries

Labor-management organizations have long set the standard for apprenticeship and acted as intermediaries that connect the dots among stakeholders. Now, community-based organizations and others are also stepping in to play that role. JFF can build your capacity to serve as a work-based learning intermediary and prepare you to build bridges among employers to grow apprenticeship, serve as a convener, develop occupational standards for new programs, and provide technical assistance to partners and ease the administrative burdens they encounter when delivering training.

Workforce

Apprenticeship and work-based learning models can be valuable business services tools while also leading to strong short- and long-term outcomes for jobseekers. Yet, many workforce agencies don’t know how to incorporate apprenticeship into their toolboxes. JFF can guide you through the process to determine how to best add apprenticeship to the services you provide. We can advise you on integration with state funding and credits, activities and performance measures that are allowed under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, and other best practices.

Postsecondary

Join the growing number of community and technical colleges that are partnering with employers, labor unions, and other organizations to deliver apprenticeship and work-based learning programs. JFF is ready to help you: We currently advise more than 50 community colleges and two state systems on integrating work-based learning into their courses, partnering with employers to jointly create new programs, and implementing credit-bearing apprenticeships.

K-12

Education officials are increasingly recognizing that apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, and other forms of work-based learning are effective ways to prepare students for college and careers. JFF can help you find program models that meet your needs and then assist you with efforts to integrate work-based learning into programs of study, build education-industry partnerships, and navigate relevant administrative processes.

State/Local Government

State and local officials engage with work-based learning as both policymakers and employers. JFF can help you maximize your impact in both areas. As policy advisers, we can help you replicate and scale models that work, based on your local goals and needs. Or, JFF can position you as a leading employer that uses work-based learning programs to attract and advance workers.

Philanthropy

Create opportunities to connect people of all backgrounds with living-wage careers. We can help you drive awareness and adoption of apprenticeship and work-based learning to new and growing industries as well as increase awareness of critical considerations that support a variety of workers, including diversity and equity strategies and wraparound supports.