Narrative: b. 2.

Under WIA, many local workforce investment boards were reluctant to support registered apprenticeship with workforce funding for a multitude of reasons, including concerns regarding perceived performance implications. With the new provisions in WIOA that clearly support the expansion and incorporation of registered apprenticeship as an evidence-based approach to workforce development, the State of Louisiana sees this as an opportunity to create a new statewide vision that supports substantive partnerships between LWDBs and registered apprenticeship program sponsors. Aligning registered apprenticeship opportunities with WIOA service design and delivery in a holistic and comprehensive manner, however, will take time and a great deal of education. Further, policy development at the state level is needed to clarify broad parameters within which local staff can operate in order to achieve the high ROI that studies clearly indicate registered apprenticeship yields. Looking forward towards the next several years, we envision a workforce development system where more LWDBs and One-Stop operators are more knowledgeable and involved in supporting registered apprenticeship programs, including: the provision of assistance with screening and testing potential applicants for registered apprenticeship programs; making well-informed and appropriate referrals to available registered apprenticeship programs; encouraging the development of pre-apprenticeship learning opportunities for WIOA participants who are not yet ready for a registered apprenticeship program; providing supportive services to enable apprentices to fully participate and complete their programs and supporting apprentices throughout all or part of their program using WIOA funds to help defray the costs of OJT and the provision of required classroom training. Getting to this point will be a statewide endeavor that fully utilizes the State Apprenticeship Director, in addition to staff from USDOL’s Office of Apprenticeship in Dallas. We are committed to developing better partnerships between registered apprenticeship programs and our statewide workforce system by using the new elements within WIOA that provide better opportunities for building relationships between them. The State is also focused on expanding registered apprenticeship opportunities throughout Louisiana. Although building and construction trade programs have been and continue to be the backbone of registered apprenticeship in this state and across the country, we are working to develop new non- traditional programs in industries such as health care, advanced manufacturing, and Information Technology. 2017 brought progress in some of these areas with the registration of two medical billing and coding programs and a LPN programs. The apprenticeship division continues to encourage new and currently existing programs to take advantage of partnership opportunities with our workforce system and has played an active role in discussions regarding Eligible Training Provider List (ETPL) policies and procedures as it applies to registered apprenticeship under the new WIOA regulations; as well as discussion on how to get apprenticeship programs to better utilize the IWTP..