>> CALEB: Good afternoon and welcome to Registered Apprenticeship. We're so delighted you have joined us today for an opening discussion of registered apprenticeship: what it is, how to distinguish it from other forms of work-based learnings and the benefits it offers to the stakeholders involved. This webinar is hosted by the National Center on Leadership for the Employment and Economic Advancement of People with Disabilities (LEAD). We're a Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Policy Development Center for the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). Social Policy Research Associates (SPR) and the National Disability Institute (NDI) are the partners operating behind the scenes of the LEAD Center. To insure everyone can participate fully in today's webinar we would like to take a moment to share captioning and housekeeping tips. Today's webinar is live captioned. The captions appear below the slide deck. You also have the option to open the captioning webpage in a new browser if you like. The link is posted in the chat box by one of my colleagues behind the scenes today. Once the captioning window opens on your own system you can adjust the background color, text color and font using the dropdown menus at the top of the browser window. We suggest you position the window to sit on top of the embedded captioning oriented similarly to how you are seeing the screen now. We really encourage you to ask any questions that you have about the content we're going to cover today. At any point you can click on the Q&A button that's located in the webinar's menu bar. This will bring up a Q&A panel where you can type questions for our presenters, and we'll save time at the end for questions and answers. If you are experiencing technical issues or have any questions for the technical support team click the raised hand button in the bar and someone will contact you. To kick off our day today we want to say hello to Rose Warner with the Workforce Systems Policy Team within the U.S. Department of Labor. She is a core member of the team advancing LEAD Center initiatives which actually includes an ongoing partnership with the Veterans Administration on apprenticeship-focused work on the VA's readiness employment program. >> ROSE: Good afternoon everyone. I'm Rose Warner, a Senior Policy Advisor and Caleb went into what that is and who we are. To give you more background, ODEP is the only non-regulatory federal agency that promotes policies and coordinates with employers at all levels of government to increase workplace success for people with disabilities. I invite you if are you interested to learn more by going to our website. Access it at www.dol.gov/odep. Thank you for attending our webinar: Registered Apprenticeship: Job Seekers with Disabilities Please Apply. As you'll learn, apprenticeships are a viable and often underutilized career pathway for people with disabilities. Apprenticeship opportunities are available in a wide range of jobs. Yes, in the construction and plumbing industries, but also in cosmetology, firefighting and I.T. just to name a few. It's a win/win strategy for both employers and apprentices. Over 90% of people who complete their program obtain a job. Employers trust apprentices because oftentimes they're trained by their employees with their specific policies and practices in mind. For the apprentices they can earn as they learn and have job security. I would like to take a few moments to say thank you to Social Policy Research Associates and the National Disability Institute. It is through their hard work that we can hold today's webinar. I would also like to thank our speakers for developing their presentations and taking time out of their busy schedules to be here with us today. Finally, thank you for attending. I hope you find the webinar informative. Let's begin. >> CALEB: Thanks so much, Rose, just a quick moment. I will introduce myself. I am Caleb van Docto with SPR and part of the LEAD Center team and joined today by practitioners in the field. In a few minutes we'll hear from Melissa Stowasser and Mitchell Harp in Charleston, South Carolina. Melissa is the Assistant VP for Community Partnerships and Mitch is the Dean of Apprenticeship Programs. And later we'll be joined by the Adult Programs Manager and Apprenticeship Director Cindy Lennon. Thank you for being here. In addition to hearing from my fellow presenters we are going to cover the essential components of an apprenticeship program, the unique elements of a registered apprenticeship, the benefits, and share how one can locate apprenticeship programs in their region and be able to make referrals. So just to kick us off, let's ask what is registered apprenticeship? In just a few words it is a proven model of job preparation that pairs together two key elements. It is pairing paid on the job training or OJT and related instruction or education. Over time, this pairing enables workers to progressively increase their skill level and wages. Registered apprenticeship is a business model that provides employers a way to recruit, train, and retain highly skilled workers. And it allows employers to develop and apply industry standards to training programs. That increases productivity and the quality of the workforce. As Rose indicated earlier on there is a common misconception that they're unionized and found within the trades. While that might have traditionally been the case there is now more than 1,500 apprenticeable occupations. More than half of them are non-union and they cover a broad spectrum of industry sectors. These include a lot of emerging sectors such as energy, healthcare, transportation, information technology, and manufacturing. So let's get into a little bit of the nuts and bolts. All Registered Apprenticeship Programs, whether they are registered with the National Apprenticeship Office or State Apprenticeship Offices, consist of five core components - direct employer involvement, structured and supervised on-the-job training or OJT, related training and instruction or RTI, rewards for skill gains, and a national occupational credential. Employers are the foundation of every Registered Apprenticeship Program, and the skills needed by these employers for workforce success form the core of the model. Businesses must play an active role in building Registered Apprenticeship Programs and are involved in every step of their design and execution. Every Registered Apprenticeship Program includes structured and supervised on the job training or OJT. Companies hire apprentices and provide hands-on training from an experienced mentor. This training is developed by mapping the skills, knowledge and abilities the apprentice must learn over the course of the program to be fully proficient at the job. In order to successfully complete a Registered Apprenticeship, apprentices must master a core set of competencies and document- through testing or observation- that they can perform certain tasks and have mastered specific competencies. A third component of Registered Apprenticeship is that apprentices receive related instruction or classroom style training that complements the OJT. This instruction helps refine the technical and academic skills that apply to the job. Related instruction may be provided by a community college, technical school or college, an apprenticeship training school, or by the business itself. This instruction can be provided at the school, online, or at the work site. In some instances, classroom-based related instruction is provided upfront prior to the OJT portion of the training and in other instances apprentices alternate their RTI with their OJT on a regular basis. The fourth component of Registered Apprenticeship Programs is that apprentices receive increases in pay as their skills and knowledge increase. Progressive wage gains reward and motivate apprentices as they advance through training and become more productive and skilled at their job. And finally, every graduate of a Registered Apprenticeship Program receives a nationally recognized credential, referred to as a Certificate of Completion. This portable credential signifies that the apprentice has successfully completed the requisite training for the occupation. Many Registered Apprenticeship Programs - particularly in high-growth industries such as health care, advanced manufacturing, and transportation - also offer interim credentials as apprentices master skills as part of a career pathway; sometimes this type of credential structure is referred to as being "stackable." Let's talk about the length of an apprenticeship program. The short answer is it depends on the complexity, occupation and type of program that is under consideration. They range in length from one to six years. Majority last about four years or so. During the program the apprentice receives both that structured on the job training and the related instruction. So there are a few different ways an apprenticeship program might determine whether apprentices have gained enough experience to advance. We don't have enough time today to go into the details of the variations, but a common approach is one based on time. Generally speaking, for each year of the apprenticeship, the apprentice typically receives 2,000 hours of on the job training and recommended 144 hours of related classroom instruction. The related instruction is how the apprentice learns the theoretical and other requirements for the job. The related instruction can be accomplished like we mentioned earlier through community colleges or other training providers, in person or online, etc. And additionally, employers can fulfill that related instruction requirement themselves or through the in-house training to insure there is full proficiency in the key aspects of the job. In lieu of time based approaches they can use demonstrating competency or defining tasks and skills or have a hybrid approach that combines the competency and length of time. The essential point I want to make with this is the apprenticeship programs are long-term and require investments from both the employer and the apprentice themselves. So considering the investment involved, why would stakeholders participate? The answer to that is that the skills that employers value and rely upon are changing. They are constantly changing and the nature of what we think of as work is also changing. Even before the past year, impacts of disruptive forces such as automated information or AI, the gig economy, and other forms of automation are reinforcers of what some consider a skill gap in which employers across the country and across the economy are struggling to hire appropriately-trained workers. And those skills shortages speak more to specific issues with particular occupations, such as engineers and tech specialists, etc. We also hear about skill mismatches which are more system problems of, you know, over supply or under supply of workers and where job seekers have been trained with skills that don't match the needs that employers have. An apprenticeship overcomes challenges by enabling employers to direct the training themselves and the skill development of their workforce. And in turn workers receive experience in those market-driven and portable skills that form the foundation of not just a job, but ultimately a career that's in demand for them. So just a little bit more granular the benefits for apprenticeship programs. I want to first speak to the benefits for the apprentices themselves including things like that it's an earn and learn model. The apprentice is receiving wages from day one and gains pay raises along the way as the skill level increases. Starting wages at the conclusion of the training are higher than the average incoming worker might receive. And then occupational opportunities are broad and they can often be matched to interests and experience. So along with industry recognized and portable credentials often college credits or degrees can be accomplished simultaneously. Finally, apprenticeship applies multiple methods for learning concepts. For example, academic or hands-on learning which reinforces existing best practices in educational settings for diverse learners. Further, the model incorporates a built-in mentorship system which offers the apprentice professional support not always available through other worker training models. A little bit about the benefits for the employer. It helps businesses develop highly-skilled employees. Apprenticeship programs also reduce turnover rates, increase safety and productivity and lower the cost of recruitment for employers which is big. The specifically designed training meets the industry standards and it is tailored to the specific needs that the business has and results in this highly-skilled workforce. Employers also benefit from a high return on investment as 91% of apprentices that complete an apprenticeship are still employed nine months later, and higher safety that may reduce worker compensation costs, due to the program's emphasis on safety training. In addition several studies have been completed to look at qualitative and quantitative positive return for employers. The link will take you to more information on this. Finally, the systematic approach to training ensures employees are trained and certified to produce at the highest skill levels required for the occupation. In addition to the benefit to the apprentice and the employer, registered apprenticeship can also be an excellent strategy for VR and other workforce programs to meet their employment outcomes, suitability requirements and it can reduce the return of individuals to the program for additional services. Intrinsic to the apprenticeship model is partnerships that leverage services and funds. This can reduce direct spending for the program and allow for shared costs with the employer, the training provider and the workforce system through other programs and services available to the customer/consumer. Apprenticeship leads to higher wages and is an earn and learn model that is a job from day one, giving apprentices wages while training and reducing reliance on student loans. Apprentices can support themselves and their families while learning a self-sustaining career. Due to the hands-on experience from the start, apprentices realize early on if the job is the right one for them. This helps to provide a higher level of job retention and promotes a greater level of program and job satisfaction. With the higher wages and higher level of job satisfaction, it is less likely that individuals will need to return for additional services thus reducing program recidivism rates. Given the employer investment and role in the process, apprenticeship can enhance engagement with employers, build relationships that can be future forward with opportunities for others to come behind as success and trust has been built. A high level of preparation through assessment, career counseling, matching and through partnerships and communication through the process, facilitates ensuring the apprenticeship meets suitability for each individual and promotes success and reduces any possible negative impact on the consumer's health and wellbeing. The Fitzgerald Act, also known as the National Apprenticeship Act, officially authorized and established the national apprenticeship system. This Act gave the U.S. Secretary of Labor authority over apprenticeship programs, established an office of apprenticeship within the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), and provided for the recognition of state agencies to register and administer apprenticeship programs. This map shows which states run their own recognized state apprenticeship operations and those who belong to the broader Federal apprenticeship system. The link from the map provides a list of contacts for the apprenticeship office in each state. Just as a quick note: there are a few states such as California where I'm based where there is both a federal program and a state program. There are a couple of different ways that programs can register their apprenticeship program. And the last thing that I want to say before we turn it over to our friends at Trident Technical College, what makes apprenticeship unique compared to other types of programs. The apprenticeship is organizationally responsive to economic changes. Many employment training programs are about developing skills that employers might need in the future. They're inherently based off an understanding of skills needed previously. However, apprenticeships are doing and learning the work that employers need in the present moment. Apprentices are moving at the speed of business and in doing that they are building to future workplaces and the future work processes. So with that I want to turn it over to Melissa and Mitch to discuss how Trident has helped develop apprenticeship programs in their region including everyone and people with disabilities and share examples of how apprentices with disabilities found success. Melissa. >>MELISSA: Good afternoon, thanks, Caleb. Delightful to be here to share with you some of the work we've been doing in the Charleston region. I want to give you a little history about how we were able to get moving and get started with this. We have been as a college engaging with employers for over 40 years to do isolated apprenticeship programs. But in 2007 our very visionary president decided that she needed somebody whose role in the college was to really work strategically with companies within our region to build their own apprenticeship programs primarily for adults. And Mitchell Harp, who will talk to you in a few minutes, is our Dean of that division and works with those employers to build those relationships. We also have another unit in the college that was very K-12 based working with the public school systems to build seamless educational pathways for high school students since the 90s. When Mitch was approached by one of his German-based companies about the concept of doing a youth program, he reached out to the other division and the two divisions worked together to create the Charleston Regional Youth Apprenticeship Program. However, we didn't do it alone and that's why you will notice that it doesn't have Trident Technical College's logo. Because it is not Trident Technical College's program. When we built this program, we built it as a regional partnership. A collaborative partnership that came together to move this in a strategic way with everyone engaged in the same body of work. Of course, as Caleb has already pointed out, you can't have apprenticeships if you don't have employers. The employers are the critical driving piece for this and are really engaged in this educational component. When we started constructing this Mitch was really, really wise and so he talked to that one company that had approached him and asked if they would be willing to do it as a sector partnership. He knew if we built a sector partnership strategy it would be much more sustainable over time. If one company couldn't hire one year the program would be able continue to go forward because we had other companies in the same sector. The employers are a real critical piece. Mitch will talk more about what they do in a little bit. We're blessed in our state to have an organization called Apprenticeship Carolina. Apprenticeship Carolina's role is to serve as a statewide intermediary to really move apprenticeships forward. When we get those employers interested in doing this, they make it very easy for them to register these programs with the USDOL and provide that interface for them and they also provide support for us at the college level. Then if you'll see in the center on the left-hand side there, the Charleston school districts. There are three different counties and four different physical school districts plus a statewide charter school district and they're critical partners. They do a lot of work in terms of educating the population about what apprenticeships are, assisting the students in getting engaged, recruiting those populations of students, and are really integral in ensuring their success. They are critical in terms of helping us to really serve a diverse population of people within our region. And then the next two partners you see there, the Charleston Metro Chamber and the Daniel Island Rotary Club are an example of our philanthropic donors. We realize if we wanted to build this program and make it equitable to ensure that every student could participate, that we needed to eliminate barriers. One of the barriers in our region was that duel enrollment was not paid for by the state. If we wanted to ensure equity we needed to make sure those expenses were covered. We have grants and philanthropic organizations that pay the educational expenses for the students so they receive this education free. Trident Technical College works to keep it all together in order to design a program that really meets the critical workforce needs that are in our region right now and enables us to mentor that next generation of employees for the region that live within our community. So we provide the job-related education. Caleb has referred to the RTI, the related training and instruction for the students. So the students are enrolled in the very same classes that our adult population is enrolled in in those career-specific areas and we also serve as the local intermediary. We move this forward, serving as the hub and wheel to keep it moving in a structured way. In that capacity we have two different divisions in the college. One of those I'll talk about first is the Division of School and Community Initiatives. They engage with the K-12 partners to build robust programs that are available to a wide array of students. In doing so, they recruit the students at the schools and we host an information session once a year where folks from the community come to learn about it. We have now grown to the point where we'll have over 1,000 people showing up for that information session. So this past year two of our separate school districts reached out to say they had hearing impaired students interested in enrolling in these programs. So we immediately hired an ASL translator and had an ASL translator at that event. Since then we did have one of the young men apply for an apprenticeship and was hired by one of the automotive companies and we've been working with them through the Division of School and Community Initiatives to make sure accommodations are made and needs are being met for the RTI. Mitch and his team are working with employers to do the same. With that I'll turn it over to Mitch. >> MITCH: Thank you, Melissa. As she said earlier, I oversee the Division of Apprenticeship Programs and our primary role is to work with those employers in the Charleston area. In South Carolina we run an employer-sponsored program meaning all our apprenticeships are USDOL registered. The employer owns the apprenticeship, not the college. As an intermediary for those employers I have a team of four individuals, consultants, who go out and educate the employers on first of all how to run an apprenticeship program but also what we do is reinforce to them that we won't leave them. Once the program gets up and going we'll do everything from helping them design the program, help them recruit students and help them manage it. We even help show them how to award credentials at the end. You could say we're one phone call away from any sort of help they need when running the apprenticeship program. As Melissa said earlier our visionary president back in 2007 when she created the office I do think she had that in mind. Since then we have worked with over 200 local companies here in the Charleston area to help them start apprenticeship programs and offer opportunities for people in Charleston. Back in 2013 when I was approached by the employer Melissa talked about to start the youth apprenticeship program we had never one done before. We had to design the program. But when we put the program together, we wanted all students who complete the program to achieve four things. First of all, we wanted them to get a high school diploma. They were in high school when they started the apprenticeship and wanted them to get a certificate from Trident in a career-specific field that the apprenticeship was aligned with in terms of the employer. We also wanted them to get a national credential and we made our programs USDOL registered and two years of work experience at the end. Many of our young people at the end stay with the employers and are career professionals and go off to four-year colleges. It's a great program that allows a young person to not only get a quality education but also national credentials and work experience. >> MELISSA: Since we started the program in 2014 we have grown exponentially. We started with one pathway that year in industrial mechanics and we had 13 students employed at 6 companies. Since then it has exploded. I have last year's numbers up here and this year's numbers up here so you can see even in the midst of COVID we're still able to make some pretty significant progress. In 2019-2020 we had 18 occupational pathways for students across nine industry sectors. We have over 180 companies that registered with youth apprenticeship programs and 118 apprentices last year. This year we have 106. So we had a cohort graduate and still were able to get 40 some students hired in as apprentices this year even in the midst of COVID. The young man here is one I want you to note: Nicholas Brennan. He is a rock star at Trident Technical College. He has saved my life more than once I'll tell you that. Nicholas came to us from Voc Rehab and was a youth apprentice in I.T. The college is also one of the employers, we hire apprentices as well. Nicholas was hired at the college. When he first came in to be with us he struggled because he is autistic and he had difficulty looking us in the eyes and having any kind of conversation with us whatsoever. Now I'm happy to say he is a graduate of the program. He continued to complete his Associate degree in networking at the college and is a full-time employee of the college. When I say he saved my life, I literally have picked up the phone in a panic, got Nicholas on the help desk, he asked me all the questions he needs to ask and then repaired my computer remotely or came to my office and fixed it so I could continue to do my job. He is just a blessing to us, Nicholas Brennan. We have stories like that for all of our students and all of these pictures are examples of the student population. It's a very diverse population. Some of them have physical disabilities or academic disabilities of some sort. But they are able to succeed because we have these teams that really embrace them in every possible way and make sure the accommodations they need are met so that they can continue to be successful both at work on the job. These are the industry sectors. You can see the breadth of the occupational opportunities that are provided to the students. Again, we did not target any particular population when we put these together. But all populations of students are welcome and recruited by our K-12 partners and by the community to participate. That's a basic general overview. Mitch and I are more than happy to answer any questions later or to have you contact us at a later time if you would like more information. With that, I will turn it over to Caleb. >> CALEB: Thank you Melissa and Mitch. I appreciate all the information that you shared. I want to turn now to our friend at Able-Disabled Advocacy, Cindy Lennon. >> CINDY: Hi, everyone. Our apprenticeship program is not at the scale of Trident. We are a small, nonprofit organization in San Diego and our focus is vocational training. We serve persons with disabilities, Veterans, high school drop-outs and others with barriers to employment. We've been doing this for about 40 years. We have a national reputation with the Department of Labor and we have received quite a few grants from DOL to do our workforce program. Back in 2008 we received a national award from the Department of Labor, the President's Freedom Initiative and I was able to go to Washington as part of that. We've been involved with persons with disabilities for quite some time. I wanted to mention that Able-Disabled Advocacy is an employment network and we have a Ticket to Work Program. We serve those individuals who receive SSI and SSDI and want to become employed and support themselves. We have been an employment network for 11 years. We don't have a big Ticket to Work Program, just one part-time staff member that works with our ticket cases. But in the context of this discussion, that counselor does screen our Ticket to Work cases for our apprenticeship program and we have had a number of people who are in the ticket program who have gone on to enter our apprenticeship program and get their job skills and that has worked very well. So we only have one occupation, a very different model. It is a Computer Support Specialist. You heard about how important employers are in apprenticeships. When we asked our employers what do they look for when they are hiring I.T. folks these are the things we heard: we want folks with college degrees, I.T. certifications, and experience. So with our apprenticeship program we can do the I.T. certifications and experience pieces. We aren't an accredited college so we aren't able to provide that but able to launch people into careers successfully and with our Department of Labor funding as an AAI grantee we could offer that at no cost to those who are enrolled. Here is a model of what our program looks like. It is 18 months long. We are one of those programs that uses front-loaded training. We refer to it as the pre-apprenticeship parts. People aren't working at that point. Our pre-apprenticeship training consists of obtaining their A+, Network+, and Security+ certifications. We felt it was very important to tie our training to industry-recognized credentials because we're a very small organization without a big footprint and a lot of companies haven't heard of us. So that has worked very well. Once they do that, and that part takes about six months, they begin working and they will work for 12 months before we complete their apprenticeship. So the related technical instruction, as I said, is the certification. Each one takes a couple of months to do. Once people are working, we do offer some additional I.T. certifications, Linux and Cloud plus that people can do on an independent study basis and we have evening classes also for the people in our program. One other thing I wanted to mention is we're able to customize training plans especially if one of our employers says, "I need people that have Security+" for example, which is sort of a big thing in our region. We can customize and go right to what those companies really want their folks to have. We also customize printing plans if people come in with previous work experience or they have some education. You might be thinking of apprenticeships as for youth but there is no minimum age for people to be in an apprenticeship program. My oldest apprentice is age 67. The work process is the DOL term for on the job learning. We have 2,000 hours covering those four basic things: basic foundations, computer basics, security basics and demonstrating learned competencies. So that's the on the job part of the apprenticeship and usually takes about one year. So I wanted to talk a little bit about our priority to serving persons with disabilities. Veterans and women are the other two groups we targeted for our apprenticeship program. But serving individuals with disabilities is a core mission of Able-Disabled Advocacy, our nonprofit. We've done it from the beginning. Like I said it was over 40 years ago. If you're thinking of trying to maybe make your program more inclusive you might be wondering where am I going to find those individuals with disabilities? In our region 17% of San Diego county are persons with disabilities-they're everywhere. When we recruit folks for our apprenticeship we go to community-based and faith-based organizations that serve people with disabilities. That's one idea. 211 is the local resource directory and some people find us through 211. Of course, we're working with the One-Stop Career Centers and do presentations there all the time. We network with the veteran representatives. We have a lot of Veterans in our program. Some people find us on Google searches. Quite a few found our apprenticeship programs through the state list of apprenticeships by county. And then sort of particularly for our folks with disabilities we'll work with state vocational rehab and try to see if we can get some of their clients into our program. Here is a group of Veteran organizations that we work with. We are a member of the Veterans Coalition in San Diego. We're a big military community and there are so many jobs in DOD because of particularly the Navy presence but it's not the only military presence we have in our region. We've tried to tie our program in with the local conditions, so veterans are very important. Half of our apprentices are veterans and that probably would also account for why we have a wider range of people of varying ages because we have veterans getting out of the service; they may have served one term or 20. We also go to colleges to recruit folks. We can go to the DSPF offices, we network with Veteran Centers if they have one on campus, we talk to the career services folks. We are trying to get them and encourage them to refer people to our program and the workability programs on campuses, either the community colleges or four-year degree programs, are all persons with disabilities who have attended college and are trying to get into their career field. Another thing that we do is we attend a lot of campus job fairs just to promote our program. It is free training so that works well. One last thought that I wanted to say. Just like you heard from the other program, we look to include persons with disabilities. Our program is not an entitlement program. Our persons with disabilities have to go through the same assessment process as everyone else but we have managed to find quite a few: almost 50% of the people in our apprenticeship program are a person with a disability. We are looking to provide accommodations if needed for people who are in our turning program and we have done that for some people. And the other thing that sometimes we get involved with, because we require our people to take I.T. certification exams, is if we have someone who needs testing accommodations we do help coach them so that they know how to apply for that accommodation and get that in place before they take their exam. That's a little bit of how we assist those special participants in our program. >> CALEB: I really appreciate you sharing the really excellent information regarding Able-Disabled Advocacy and kind of addressing some key constituencies and populations that are often underrepresented. As we transition into the Q&A portion of our session today I wanted to make sure to share a few of the resources that might be of interest. There is a lot of information out there about apprenticeship and we have a collection. Again we'll be posting these slides and they'll be up next week at leadcenter.org. I will share that information at the end of the session as well as to where that is so you can find it once we have these posted. But this is a good collection of starting points for finding information about apprenticeship whether you are just looking to learn more about inclusive apprenticeship models, thinking about wanting to start a program or link up to a program already operating or find one and becoming an apprentice yourself in a way. This is a good starting point. A lot of these resources are collections of multiple resources, so these aren't just four these are actually 15 or 16, just enough to get you started. One in particular is there is currently an ongoing effort within ODEP. They have an Apprenticeship Inclusion Models Initiative working with pilot programs that are specifically taking existing apprenticeship programs in healthcare, in I.T. and in manufacturing and making adjustments or updates or alterations so that they ensure inclusivity of people with disabilities and then translate those learnings to other programs so that other apprenticeship programs can learn from and think about how they go about insuring that their programs are inclusive. Anybody who wants to participate including people with disabilities. Let's spend a few minutes with questions and answers. I have seen a bunch of questions come in so we're going to get to as many as we can here in a few minutes. If we aren't able to get to your question, we'll follow up with some responses and also share those along with the slides as well. So if you think of something along the way or even if you think of something after feel free to drop it into the Q&A. The first thing I will ask will go to Mitch. Maybe to everybody but at least to Mitch to start with. That is, how do you convince employers to start an apprenticeship program and employ individuals with limited skills such as folks with disabilities and especially when you are working with youth, since a lot of your programs you spoke about the youth program? >>MITCH: Really it sort of goes back to what we discussed in our presentation and the role of my division. Also, many of the things you talked about in terms of why employers do apprenticeships. When we educate an employer, we educate them on again back to what an apprenticeship is and also that we'll be there for them throughout the process. We also talk to them about students that we have that have limited, you know, skills or disabilities. We talk to them about the partnerships we've established in our community like with voc rehab. If there are issues we can actually work with our partners at vocational rehab and collaborate together collectively to address the issues that the apprentice may be having. We've had apprentices as Melissa mentioned earlier in automotive. We've had a person with a disability in healthcare, I.T. and even engineering. So various different industries for that. It is all based on, you know, calming that employer and letting them know they won't be on their own. They have experts in the field. Locally at the college who can assist them every step of the way. >> CALEB: Thanks. It sounds like in that role of an intermediary where you are coordinating partnership it emphasizes that apprenticeship programs are contingent upon and benefit from the network of partners that contribute, whether it's through recruiting or providing supports and there is all sorts of different configurations how folks can do that. Cindy, I wonder if you had any thoughts as well about that question itself. Can you speak to how you speak with employers about starting an apprenticeship program that serves folks with limited skills or disabilities? >> CINDY: In our case the majority of our apprenticeship training is done up front. So one of the things that we can go to employers and since we tie it to industry-recognized credentials, I think that's a big selling point especially for our DOD employers. Those jobs require those credentials that we train for. We have something very valuable to offer those companies and I think that's really helped us quite a bit. >> CALEB: Thanks so much, Cindy. Let me ask-let me bring Melissa in quick. This next question came in, someone asked: I work with students and young adults with disabilities. Apprenticeship is a great option for some of our students to find career paths. What are some of the things that high school administrators and staff can do to promote apprenticeship options especially those who don't fit into the traditional boxes? You have some familiarity with the K-12 system and partners. >> MELISSA: One of the things is engage with our K-12 community. We host school counselor lunches and have 180 school counselors here over a couple of days where we provide all the ideas and the information to them. But the other beautiful thing about South Carolina is that in 2005 a piece of legislation was passed. The Education and Economic Development Act. And part of that Act required the schools to start really doing career exploration for all of their students as early as elementary. They do awareness in elementary, they explore in middle grades and then they actually do educational opportunities in the high schools. So as a part of that, the school counselors are required to have an IGP session, an Individualized Graduation Plan where they sit down with students and families starting in the eighth grade. So our counselors are so engaged in this that in the middle school they are putting the apprenticeship brochures in the hands of the students who have interests in these careers and they are talking about it as early as the eighth grade. And then they are beginning to build out a career pathway that says if you really want to go this route and interested in apprenticeship as part of the piece here is how you would map out your high school career. Apprenticeship becomes a piece of that conversation. I think that structure has really enabled us to make this into the life space of every student that goes through the schools and then they can determine whether they want to do this or not. Then again on top of that we have big information session where everybody is invited to come and we get over 1,000 people and we're seeing more and more of those students who do have some sort of disability and their parents come so that we can at that event let them meet the employers and have them reassured and ask their questions on the spot before the student goes. >> CALEB: Thanks so much. And this feeds into another question that came in. I'm going to let this be open if anybody wants to take this. I might have a couple of ideas as well. A two-part question actually. Cindy noted apprenticeships are long training programs and they have a lot of requirements and components. There are a couple of challenges for people with disabilities, one being that support from vocational rehabilitation might not line up and related instruction from community college that is not always work-based in nature and often people with disabilities can have challenges to be successful, I suppose, in the community college setting. So are there any particular recommendations for overcoming these kinds of barriers for folks with disabilities considering that they are underrepresented in apprenticeship? I have a couple of ideas about that but I want to give others a chance to respond to that if anybody had any thoughts. >> MELISSA: I can just say that at the college we make accommodations for our students and since they are enrolled in our classes it is incumbent upon us to make sure that happens. But particularly in the apprenticeship program we have a youth apprenticeship coordinator and specialist who work with the students and parents to identify their struggles and to assist them in getting what they need. So we have a team that's working directly with that student to make sure those needs are met. Then we have a team on Mitch's side of the house who are working with the employers so that when the struggle happens with the employer they are contacting Mitch and Mitch is helping them work through the accommodation needs. >> MITCH: Another comment in regards to the question would be that again when we sit down with that employer, we're identifying the competencies they want them to learn and work through that when the apprentice comes on board. The voc rehab not lining up with the on the job training the employer offers goes back to communication with the employer and setting up what is necessary for the apprentice to be successful. >> CALEB: Thanks both. I think I would add to that as well is that it's sometimes a little bit of a tricky thing. An apprentice is hired when they become an apprentice as Mitch referenced earlier. They are employees of the company while they are in training. And so the requirements for voc rehab is employment and frequently consumers will be considered successful when they achieve employment. However if they're employed they are still in the training program. That takes coordination with the voc rehab counselor. And as Mitch and Melissa referenced, it takes a coordinated effort between the parties that are involved in the apprenticeship program to assure those supports continue. The other item I wanted to mention-in terms of other barriers that come up related instruction and otherwise-is that more and more we're seeing across the country the emergence of pre-apprenticeship programs. I want to put a capitalization to those. There are states, actually in California recently, for example, that established a Registered pre-apprenticeship process for organizations to develop programs. Part of the requirements to be at an actual formal pre-apprenticeship program is to have a direct linkage to an apprenticeship program itself. It needs to feed into somewhere. So, if there are barriers that are anticipated in an apprenticeship program it might be that an individual needs to build or develop some additional skills or training before they're prepared for that. And pre-apprenticeship programs that have links to apprenticeship programs can be a way that that happens. >> MELISSA: I'm glad you mentioned that, Caleb. We're in conversations with our K-12 system and the college about possibility of building registered pre-apprenticeship programs for 9th and 10th graders so that we can attract more students in who can get a taste of what it is before they actually apply for the registered apprenticeship program for youth. That way the students can say yes, I can do this or it is possible for me as opposed to being fearful that it is not. >> CALEB: Wonderful. Thank you. There are several other questions that have come in that are all really good and I'm kind of salivating to be able to answer them but conscious of the time. I think we're going to capture the remainder of these questions, if you have others feel free to drop them in and if you would like you can also email us afterwards as well if you have questions that you think of later that you want to respond and we're going to answer these and then post them with the slides as well for folks. So just as a final word here feel free to sign up to receive information, notifications and newsletters. This is the website for the LEAD Center. It is where we have just an abundance of resources not just about apprenticeship but about all sorts of things related to disability and work and inclusion, and the reason why I get up every morning is an idea of an inclusive and welcoming world. A lot of wonderful resources can be found here. You can find the webinars themselves on the main page. There is a link for where webinars are. If you go to the archive section we'll post the link in the chat. It's been in the chat a few times. Slides, transcripts, recordings will be found in a webinar archive where you can find this presentation and others up and available by next week. And with that I want to thank our participants and our presenters Melissa, Mitch, Cindy, and Rose as well as my colleagues in the background that have been lending a hand. Thank you all so much. You should as you close out, receive a pop-up window for an evaluation and we would really appreciate any feedback you can give as you depart today. Hope everybody has a wonderful rest of the week and thanks so much.