Located in:
- Program-specific Requirements for Adult, Dislocated Worker, and Youth Activities under Title I-B
The Unified or Combined State Plan must include the following with respect to activities carried out under subtitle B—
b. 2. Registered Apprenticeship
Describe how the State will incorporate Registered Apprenticeship into its strategy for service design and delivery (e.g., job center staff taking applications and conducting assessments).
Current Narrative:
Registered Apprenticeship is integral to Oregon’s workforce and education system. The registered apprenticeship system consists of multiple stakeholders, including the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC), Oregon Employment Department (OED), Oregon Department of Education (ODE), Oregon community colleges, union and non-union training centers, and industry. HECC, BOLI, OED, and ODE work together on an inter-agency apprenticeship team to support and collaborate on various work efforts related to improving the registered apprenticeship system.
Over the last year, the inter-agency apprenticeship team worked together to create a draft strategic plan that prioritizes equity and access to the apprenticeship system. The team is now going through an action planning process to identify the milestones they would like to achieve within the next year, to realize the vision of the strategic plan. One of the milestones agreed upon is to create structure and guidelines around how Oregon invites other organizations to be part of the apprenticeship grant application processes. The hope is that guidelines will make grants more accessible to organizations that may have previously been unable to present a sufficient grant application within a condensed timeline.
Oregon has also increased the training resources it has available for community partners, businesses, and employers that are interested in pursuing registered apprenticeship. The Oregon Apprenticeship website now has multiple guides available on how to create and maintain a registered apprenticeship program. The website also contains several explainer videos for job seekers and businesses around registered apprenticeship. The intent of the guides and training videos are to create shared understanding for customers around how to navigate the registered apprenticeship system.
The Oregon Employment Department (OED), in conjunction with the Apprenticeship Training Division (ATD) of the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), has worked over the past several years to train staff and workforce system partners on the basics of registered apprenticeship. Registered apprenticeship training is now offered to every new WorkSource Oregon staff person as part of their onboarding process. This training gives staff a foundation of registered apprenticeship knowledge and the tools to assist a job seeking customer in navigating the registered apprenticeship system. Apprenticeship connections in WorkSource Centers are primarily focused on how to connect job seekers to registered apprenticeship programs. While this is an important component of offering apprenticeship services in WorkSource Centers, OED will work to increase the registered apprenticeship connections WorkSource can offer to businesses.