Promising Approaches for Connecting Opportunity Youth to Registered Apprenticeships
Learn promising practices in building and growing successful apprenticeship programs for opportunity youth.
Practices & Centers
Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning
Expanding and creating access to high-quality apprenticeship and work-based learning.
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We empower delivery of high-quality, equitable apprenticeship and work-based learning opportunities.
Apprenticeship, pre-apprenticeship, and work-based learning are proven models for supporting economic advancement for workers, but many employers struggle to implement high-quality programs. And despite significant growth in recent years, equity gaps persist.
Jobs for the Future’s Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning is a leader in expanding these proven models to new industries and professions. By supporting system and program designs, we connect a diverse population of youth and adults to quality jobs and enable businesses to develop workers with the skills they need to grow.
Key Initiatives
Scaling Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning
We reach new industries and more workers facing barriers to advancement by designing and launching high-quality apprenticeship and work-based learning programs.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Registered Apprenticeship
We build DEIA into apprenticeship systems and program delivery, advocate for policies that center employer accountability, and offer resources for program design.
Promoting Youth Apprenticeship
By partnering with a diverse network of providers, we create innovative models to engage students, youth not attending school, and underemployed young adults.
News & Ideas
Framework for a High-Quality Pre-Apprenticeship Program: IT
This pre-apprenticeship framework outlines the six key characteristics of a high-quality pre-apprenticeship program with a focus on the IT industry.
JFF’s National Innovation Hub for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Registered Apprenticeship
Registered Apprenticeship has a proven track record of producing strong results for workers and employers.
Featured Projects
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Registered Apprenticeship
Improving Diversity and Equity in Apprenticeships for Manufacturing
Over the next 5 years, JFF will work to provide apprenticeship opportunities in manufacturing to nearly 2,000 women and people of color.
Next-Generation Apprenticeship for Next-Generation Talent
By 2026, JFF aims to prepare 1,000 young people for entry into pre-apprenticeship and Registered Apprenticeship programs, with an emphasis on those from populations that are underrepresented in Registered Apprenticeship.
Youth Apprenticeship Intermediaries
JFF helps schools, employers, and other organizations connect more than 1,400 youth to apprenticeship programs.
Impact Stories
JFF Drives Talent Growth for John Deere
JFF partnered with John Deere to build and deliver a national apprenticeship program for agriculture and equipment technicians and heavy construction equipment mechanics.
JFF's Program Design Framework for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Registered Apprenticeship
We offer employers and Registered Apprenticeship sponsors field-informed program design elements and considerations for building systems, processes, partnerships, and practices.
Making Work-Based Learning Work
Work-based learning helps alleviate a common issue for jobseekers: meeting a "relevant work experience" prerequisite that is hard to gain outside of the workplace.
Team
Vanessa Bennett
DirectorVanessa Bennett is a director at the Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning at JFF. She works to drive equity, inclusion, and access to the workforce for workers and learners from underrepresented populations through policy and…
Krysti Specht
DirectorKrysti Specht is a director in the Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning at JFF, supporting the national expansion of innovative practices that connect education and employment. Her skills and areas of expertise include: Work-based…
Myriam Sullivan
Senior DirectorMyriam Sullivan is a senior director in the Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning at JFF. She works to advance career pathways for populations who are underrepresented in high-demand sectors of the economy. Her work…