Shanell Brumfield: Awesome. Thank you, Holly, so much for that overview. You're kind of doing a little bit of my job. I was going to do housekeeping in a couple of minutes.

Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We're really excited for you all to hear from our special guest, as well as my colleagues, both Jennie Mollica and Peter Simon from High Road Alliance. So we're happy that you're all here to join us. As Holly shared earlier, we just wanted to go through a couple of housekeeping items.

Upon entering the room, you all are muted, but we will, maybe towards the end of the session, go into a little bit of housekeeping. So you have all been muted upon entry, and we want to maintain a pretty productive conversation. Holly, if you can advance the slide one more, please.

Yes, so in an effort to avoid a technical issues, as Holly said earlier, we want to make sure that you're all muted upon entry, so that way, we can hear from our guests that we have joining us today and have a really productive conversation. Advance next slide, please.

So you'll also notice in the chat we have my colleague, Nicole Misley, who will be doing some moderating in the chat. Feel free to introduce yourself. Say hello. We definitely want to hear from you, and you want to be as engaged as possible, so feel free to introduce yourself in the chat.

But let's transition to talk about how we will spend our time together today. So we'll start off by doing some level setting, by discussing what is apprenticeship, why equitable apprenticeship is so important, and the investments California is making in expanding apprenticeship. We will also transition into a high-level overview of the wonderful toolkit that was created in partnership with High Road Alliance and the Foundation for California Community College, and then, we will talk to our host that we have today around the work that they are doing around equitable apprenticeship. So we're really excited to have them join us.

We will also have an opportunity to do some Q&A with audience a little bit later. And then, we're going to close out with a few next steps in how you can access the tool, as well as get connected to some of the work that we've been doing around apprenticeships. So we look forward to sharing that information later in the session as well. Next slide, please.

So today, we have with us my colleague, Nicole Misley, who is our apprenticeship coordinator with the Foundation for California Community Colleges. My name is Shanell Brumfield. I am the senior specialist with the Foundation for California Community Colleges.

We have my colleague, Michele Vaughn-Lopez, who is our manager with the Foundation for California Community Colleges. And our small, but mighty team makes up the Apprenticeship Support Network Team, and we help support through technical assistance the California Community College system, as well as the broader apprenticeship ecosystem. We serve, through technical assistance, over 100 California apprenticeship initiative grantees, as well as over 600 partners and counting in the broader apprenticeship ecosystem through TA activities, such as full-day convenings, digital convening, similar to this, cohort calls and peer learning circles, our newsletters, as well as data analysis and so much more.

We're excited to be joined today by Peter Simon, who's the co-founder of High Road Alliance, and Jennie Mollica, co-founder of High Road Alliance as well. And they'll share a little bit more about the work that they've done around equitable apprenticeship, as well as I'll give them an opportunity to introduce themselves in a second. So we will share some of the work that we've been doing around apprenticeship eco-- around the apprenticeship ecosystem as we go through the presentation. But with that, I will turn it over to Jennie Mollica to kick us off.

Jennie Mollica: All right. Thanks so much, everyone, for being here. It's really an honor to present to all of you today. Peter and I have worked together for many years in various roles and just formed High Road Alliance a little over a year ago, with a focus on expanding equitable career pathways through strong partnerships, really focused on pathways leading to high-quality jobs, and really, ensuring access for all Californians. And we believe strongly that the adult education system here has an extremely important role to play in that.

We put some focus on apprenticeship because we believe it's a very strong training model. And again, we feel that the role of adult education is so, so important in this apprenticeship space. So we're delighted to have teamed up with the apprenticeship support network, the Foundation for California Community Colleges.

They play an amazing role in providing support and resources to apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs around the state. And we've had some good thought partnership around the development of this equitable apprenticeship toolkit. So we're just delighted to be able to share it with you today. Peter, do you want to say a word before we jump in?

Peter Simon: I think that we don't need to go on and on. I think we're just really quite excited to share this with all of you with, with the adult ed world. And I'll leave it at that. I think we'll just dive right in.

Jennie Mollica: OK. We have a quick poll on the next slide. And Holly, if you could advance here and bring up the poll. We just wanted to start off today by understanding who's in the room. There are many, many strong examples in adult education of pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs, and there are others of you who may have had no experience in this space. So Holly, if you could-- Holly, if you could launch the poll.

Holly Clark: Yes. I'm sorry. I'm trying to get the controls up here that will allow me to. Here we go. Here we go.

Jennie Mollica: Sure.

Peter Simon: There it is. OK. Now, that's-- can they vote on this? Yes.

Holly Clark: Yes, they are voting.

Peter Simon: OK.

Holly Clark: [inaudible] happening. Great.

[interposing voices]

Jennie Mollica: --very helpful. Yeah. Yeah.

Holly Clark: Would you like me to end it now?

Jennie Mollica: Yeah, I mean, just to glance at this, it looks like we are quite a mix in the audience. And this is-- it's great just to know who we are, and we bring a whole range of experience. So thanks, Holly, you can close that now.

And I think we'll go on to the next slide to go over just the objectives of today. We really want to make sure that we begin with some emphasis on the potential role of adult education in California's expansion of apprenticeships. So we're going to give a little context. Shanell and her team are very well-versed in all that's going on in California right now to support the expansion of apprenticeships. And we're also going to speak to, then, what is the role of adult education in that.

Following that, we're going to lead into this overview of the toolkit and ways. It can be used by an apprenticeship team. And then that's going to segue into hearing from panelists how they've identified and addressed issues of equity in apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs. And they have a rich range of experiences themselves to share with you. And then we want to make sure we leave time for questions and discussion at the end. Next slide, Holly.

Peter Simon: OK. Well, under the rubric of just expanding an apprenticeship in California and the role of adult ed, I think-- if you go to the next slide, please. We just want to start with just a very bare bones definition of apprenticeship. And I think maybe all of this, but just so we're all on the same page.

That by definition, an apprenticeship is fundamentally an earn-while-you-learn model, and an apprenticeship implies that you were working, if not all the way almost full-time in your targeted occupation. It's a structured and very regulated pathway which mixes classroom instruction with hands-on on-the-job training. And it leads toward an industry-recognized or union-recognized both certificate or credential.

And importantly, it's very much a formalized partnership between employers, labor, education, and government. And we don't have a slide here, but we're also going to be talking about pre-apprenticeship. And just very quickly, a pre-apprenticeship, which is very relevant to our discussion today, is-- it can take different forms, a form of scaffolding and preparing people to be successfully enter into an apprenticeship.

A registered apprenticeship of one that is formally linked. In other words, if you complete a registered pre-apprenticeship, you have access immediately into the apprenticeship, so there's different kinds of pre-apprenticeship programs. Next slide, please.

Now who-- is this-- Shanell, were are you going to speak to this or are we just--

Shanell Brumfield: This was actually Jennie.

Jennie Mollica: So just to frame the situation in California right now, the governor announced a while back the goal of having 500,000 active apprentices in California by 2029, which represents a huge increase over what we have now, which is currently much closer to 50,000, if I still have those numbers current.

What we're emphasizing here today is that to reach those goals will require opening the doors to apprenticeship for a much more diverse group of participants, a much broader group. And that should lead to a diverse workforce as well, and real opportunities for Californians to achieve the good quality jobs that apprenticeships can lead to through this earn-and-learn model.

We also think at this moment in time about the post-pandemic economic recovery. The need right now that's especially great for upskilling, for adapting to changes in the labor market, and certainly to re-employment. And recognizing-- and we left it out of this presentation, we put it in others, the data showing the inequitable distribution of the impact of the pandemic on our communities really calls for an emphasis on equity in investments in the training and employment opportunities that we support coming out of it.

So as an opportunity to address historic marginalization of certain California populations, and to seize this opportunity to have a more equitable recovery, apprenticeship presents itself as a huge opportunity with a lot of support at the state level. Next slide.

Shanell Brumfield: Thank you, Jennie. And tying into where we're at as far as pandemic and thinking about the investment in apprenticeship, what we've seen over the past few years is a significant investment from multiple sources. So on the screen, you'll notice just a few-- this list is by no means exhaustive, but one funding stream is the California Apprenticeship Initiative which is Prop 98 funding, and it's administered through the Chancellor's Office.

So I would say, over the past five years, there's been over $75 million invested in the California Apprenticeship Initiative, and there's actually a current RFP that's out right now for pre-apprenticeship, apprenticeship, and enhanced OJT through that bucket of funding Additionally, we've seen federal funding from the US Department of Labor through the AAI grants to help support the expansion of apprenticeship.

Also, there is SNAP E&T funding that now can help support some training aspects of workforce training programs, and also philanthropic funding from foundations such as Irvine towards really getting the economy and getting people back to work. Through the past couple of years, we've seen definitely a significant investment in earn-and-learn strategies and really focusing on developing programs that connect theoretical learning to actual hands-on on-the-job training.

So we'll share a little bit more about some of those investments later in the session, but we just wanted to share a few that come to top of mind and give you a sense of the fact that apprenticeship is starting to be in the forefront as far as a really strong work-based learning strategy that gets folks skills and connected to career pathways with livable and sustainable wages. Next slide, please. And I will pass it back to you, Jennie.

Jennie Mollica: Sure. Yeah, thanks for that overview, Shanell, it's clear there are resources in California right now. And those resources don't need to only go towards supporting the core classroom training. They can go towards so many different needs that can be addressed in a really comprehensive apprenticeship program.

And one of the ways we think of that is that programs need to be addressing barriers that could prevent some Californians, some workers from taking advantage of pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship program. And so how can we address those barriers? How can we identify and address barriers to individuals accessing these programs, being accepted into them, being integrated into them and growing in their careers through these programs?

And so we look-- we looked at developing this toolkit how an equity lens could be applied to really every aspect of program planning, the design, everything-- start to finish, not simply an outreach strategy, for example. And it's this intentionality that we really tried to promote through the toolkit, with the belief that it's with intentionality that we can really create a more level playing field in this apprenticeship space. Next slide, please.

Peter Simon: OK, I think this-- so how is this all relevant to adult educators? And we think it is quite relevant, both in terms of just presenting these opportunities-- again, the moment that we're in with the post-pandemic recovery with a record number of people unemployed, and I think we all know, if we work in adult ed, that the people most impacted by the pandemic and the unemployment are people who fit the profile of adult ed students and many of them are your students.

I can't emphasize enough the next point, which is, it's not just about-- we're not going to just be talking about you starting apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship, but how a lot of the toolkit addresses how you partner with others in the community and industry. And adult education folks have a tremendously important role to play as partners in developing these programs.

You'll see, when we get into the toolkit, that there are sections specifically designated to help you design pre-apprenticeship and questions you need to ask and resources you need to gather. But also, pre-apprenticeship is one of the program areas designated in AB-104 that funds CAEP.

And we are approached all the time by people saying, we'd really love to start a pre-apprenticeship, but we're really not quite sure where to start. Well, we're really hoping that this toolkit will be a valuable resource in figuring out how to proceed, because we've really gotten down to the nuts and bolts, questions, issues, resources you'll need to get going.

And importantly, in terms of access and scaffolding for people to get into pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs, the whole approach of integrated education and training of linking ESL, basic skills, and importantly, high school completion to career training, that's a key role of adult education. Next slide.

Jennie Mollica: Thanks, Peter. I love to hear that shout-out to adult ed. And it's appropriate as we launch into this overview of the toolkit. And just want to remind people that not only these slides, but the PDF of the toolkit as well as an accompanying workbook that's a Word document are available through the CAEP Summit Agenda. You can click there to access the Google folder that holds all those. So we hope you'll do that.

They're also available on the California Apprenticeship Initiative website of the Apprenticeship Support Network, and we're going to be sharing that link in the presentation today. So with that, let's jump in. I'd like to see the next slide, Holly. This slide shares with you a framework that is really at the heart of the approach to the Equitable Apprenticeship toolkit.

You'll see tools that touch on each of these five little areas that are around the circle here. The toolkit-- I'm sorry, the framework its intentionally a circle, because we see it as a process of continuously looking at an apprenticeship program and all that is around it, at looking holistically, not just at outreach and recruitment, not just at the pre-apprenticeship that might be built, not just at the apprenticeship itself, but every aspect of creating, building and supporting, and growing and improving an apprenticeship program.

So that's what we try to represent here. And then in the center, you see the apprenticeship itself. And really, not just-- it seems funny to say it this way, but not just any apprenticeship, but an apprenticeship that truly could be described as equitable as well as industry-driven, worker-centered, and community-oriented.

So being able to really say that there's been intentionality behind creating it in that way. And if you go to the next slide, Holly, there are just a few points here. I think we wanted to emphasize that the toolkit, then, by addressing the five areas around this framework, guides an approach to identifying and addressing issues of equity in every aspect of the apprenticeship program. And each of these areas is an opportunity for your team to focus on ways of addressing issues and making a difference.

So the toolkit is designed for use by a team that's already engaged either in creating or improving on an apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship program. And going through a process of identifying issues, identifying solutions, trying things out, learning what works. So creating that kind of cycle.

I see a question-- I'm not seeing the toolkit in the Summit Resource area. Is it there now or will it be later? I clicked on it yesterday, so I believe it's there. If you go to the agenda, Anthony, I think you'll find it there, but we'll make sure you get the link. Maybe we could even pace now the link to it in the chat box there because I think people will be curious to see it. We can go onto the next slide, though.

Peter Simon: All right. So I think we've covered some of this, but just to reiterate, that our idea here is the toolkit is at all stages, and it's not a OK, we finished that stage, now we'll move on to the next stage. I think the classic example is existing programs that continue to get additional outcome data can use that data-- and when you start looking at our information-gathering tools, and say, OK, how are we really doing? Are we really meeting our objectives or not? And that can help refine other things you need to do.

And again, the toolkit is designed to be used by a team of partners, not one entity, not just an adult school, but an adult school working with an array of partners. And the fundamental rubric of this toolkit is that information-gathering informs action planning. But again, it's a circle and you take action, you reflect, you get more data, you refine your action.

So if we go to the next slide, we'll actually get into-- this is a quick snapshot of the 14 tools that are in the toolkit. I'm not going to read this list to you, but you can see just reading this how we've approached this. And in a way they're sequential, but it may be that certain tools are going to be more valuable into where you are. You don't necessarily have to go 1, 2, 3, work your way through. We do think that the information-gathering tools, if you're getting started, are where you're going to start. But it's also as you're forming partnerships as well.

I want to just say that if you could go to the next-- so there are certain common elements in these tools. So it's not just filling out boxes. But we start out each information-gathering tool with a guiding question, and we'll give you an example of this in just a minute. But then we also then go, before we dive in, we say, here's some things to really think about in this area.

And in each tool, we have a separate section just to make sure that we stay focused we're calling a key equity perspective on this particular aspect. In all of our tools, you'll see, when you get into the toolkit, is filled with hyperlinks, and we've linked-- this is where-- it wasn't just Jennie and I-- Jennie and I were working with a whole constellation of partners and people who are experts in different areas. And they've all contributed different resources that we put into this toolkit.

So each tool has both resources, and some of the links are examples of people who've done really good work in this particular area, and we're calling it examples for inspiration. Each tool has a table in the toolkit, and this will be in PDF or online, but there's also, you'll see when you get into the resource as a companion as Jennie mentioned, in Microsoft Word, we're calling it the workbook.

We consciously did it in Word so that you could both customize that table to your specific needs and you can easily populate and share it. And then each tool closes with the reflection question, the things to furtherly ask after you've done the information-gathering. Next slide.

The action planning tools are similar, but they look a little bit different. And instead of a guiding question, we start out with a definition of a problem to address. Again, things to consider. And then opportunity, what are the opportunities to address specific inequalities or barriers? Again, examples for inspiration and reflection for action.

Then we have, you'll see when you get into it, what we call action planning tables, which breaks down what you're going to do. And I think you're probably all familiar with this kind of format-- what you're going to do, who's going to do it, by when? And then closing, again, with a reflection question. Next slide, please.

Jennie Mollica: Thanks for that overview, Peter. I think this is an attempt to describe something which hopefully you'll--

Peter Simon: You'll see.

Jennie Mollica: --pick up a copy of and look over where you will be able to access it there. Thanks for figuring that out for us, Anthony, it's actually in the Agenda area of the website. But I also see-- I'm appreciating Diane's question in the chat box, and encourage any of you to enter questions, we're really happy to answer those as they go along. But the question about how these tools could help a regional effort to bring about more equitable access to apprenticeship programs.

And I think you can begin to see, as you look at this list of tools, how regional partners involved in programs could come together and say, well, let's do some information-gathering. Let's see, does the participation in our apprenticeship programs, in our pre-apprenticeships really reflect the demographics of the community? And do the workplaces that we're placing people in, are they really reflecting the demographics of the community?

And what are the entry requirements for our apprenticeships and are those really equitable? Are they shutting anyone out in ways that are not necessary? Are there ways we could address that? What are the conditions like that might support some really thoughtful ways of addressing these inequities?

And then, using the action planning tools as that regional team, to start to tackle some of these things. To say, well, what would it look like to provide different support services? What would it look like to shape a pre-apprenticeship? What would it look like to restructure our entry requirements a little bit? So hopefully we can bring that alive for you with this little example.

We have a slide here now as we're going to walk you through some elements of this action planning tool. This is deep in the toolkit. It's on page 40, I think. Hopefully at this point, your group would have done some of that, looking at data on the community, on the apprenticeship program, or on the employment in the sector, and have decided, I think we're ready to make some changes to our apprenticeship program, either the classroom training, or on-the-job training. And we're ready to look at this problem definition statement.

So what are the inequality inequities or barriers to retention and success in the program that we've identified that we could address in some way? And let's embark on that. So beginning with defining the problem and being clear as a group what those inequities are that you're setting out to address.

And then on the next slide, I'm going to quickly go through some elements of what you'll find in the toolkit if you navigate through it to this action planning tool number 6. And I think I was going to go over this one, too. OK. So what you see here is just a piece of the table that we include with links to resources.

So if one of the issues identified by your team is that there are many members of the community who just are shut out of this program because it requires a certain level of English or a certain level of math, or in many, many cases, the apprenticeship requires a high school diploma, what can we do about that if we want to serve these community members? Well, here are just a number of links and resources that you might want to explore as a team or as a leader of this effort that could inform your work. Next slide.

Peter Simon: So we, again, in each section we really try and include some examples of here are some folks who are doing this work pretty well. And in this case this is a hospitality training academy down in Los Angeles in the culinary sector. And they, in fact, are partnering actively with an adult school to provide adult ed students using an integrated education and approach, co-teaching, to really provide those basic academic and soft skills to get ready and to actually earn an industry-recognized credentials even in their pre-apprenticeship, and it leads to really good unionized jobs in the culinary sector.

And the other one is an example, which I think a number of you are probably in that kind of environment, which uses a-- in this case, a bilingual classroom with their apprenticeship because they're working in a primarily Spanish-speaking environment, which there's many examples of that as well. Next slide, please.

So this is-- again, if someone-- in the example we're using, and let's say that they've narrowed it down to addressing those barriers, then these might be some of the questions that they would whittle it down to a reflection of what they need to do, which is, which of these opportunities best address the barriers and inequalities we've identified? Which of these opportunities will we pursue? And what partnerships do we need to have in place? I mean, that's a lot of work there, 1, 2, and 3. That's enough.

And hopefully this gives you just a little glimpse. I think that you will find, when you, after this session, pick up the toolkit or access it online, that we've really tried to make it as user-friendly as possible. So that was our goal, and we're certainly going to refine it as we go, but we put a great deal of effort and had lots of people look at this to say, does this work? And so we've made a lot of changes from when we first started doing this. So hopefully this gives you a little glimpse into how you use this toolkit.

Jennie Mollica: Mm-hmm.

Peter Simon: On that note, we want to shift gears.

Jennie Mollica: Peter, there's a question in the chat box, actually. I'm super excited to launch into this panel, but Ivan poses a really important question in the chat box. I thought maybe we could touch on that and then and then jump into the panel. Although actually, our panelists might have some thoughts on this one as well. So Ivan poses what he calls a real equity-related question, which is, have any apprenticeship programs you know about found creative ways of involving undocumented students in apprenticeship programs?

And this is a question we've heard again and again. It's a really important one, it's important for California. I think one thing that strikes me that's different about apprenticeships compared to the many job training programs is that the apprenticeship is a job. So it depends on that employer's ability, willingness, openness to hire an undocumented student.

There's certainly, certainly are many examples of pre-apprenticeship programs, adult education programs that are preparatory that can work with someone on building skills they'll need for a future-- a future work opportunity or even building toward work authorization, but what distinguishes the apprenticeship is that there needs to be an employer there ready to hire that person for them to become an apprentice, and that's certainly one of the challenges in working with undocumented students.

I don't know-- I know there are probably others on this call who have grappled with this same question and maybe it can come up with our panel. Peter, do you have anything to add to that one?

Peter Simon: No, no, I think you did a good job. It's a huge question. Who are adult ed students in California? A large number of them are undocumented students. So that's always the huge question in the room. I do think that with our panelists, we've chosen these panelists because, one, where from different angles, they're actually putting into practice a lot of what we're talking about.

Even if they're not yet using the toolkit, I think they exemplify approaching pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship with a lens toward equitable access, and also, partnering with adult ed institutions to make that happen. So we're really excited about hearing from the panelists.

We will have time as we go and at the end for you to interact with the panelists. We really have tried to leave enough time for a dialogue here. So I'm just going to ask the panelists-- can you go to the next slide, please-- to introduce themselves. We might as well go in the order here. Holly, could you start?

And I'd like to panelists, when you introduce yourself, to just introduce yourself and your pre-apprenticeship or apprenticeship program, and specifically how you focused any needs-- on any needs that have been addressed around equity issues. Please, Holly.

Holly Correa: Sure. Thank you, Peter. I'm Holly Correa, I'm program director in the Ventura County Community College District. And we have a couple different apprenticeship projects. One of them I can share-- we're going with the first question, Peter? Would you like me-- OK.

Peter Simon: How are you-- introduce-- yeah, introduce your program.

Holly Correa: OK. So we have an agriculture supervisory leadership program. And Ventura County has an enormous ag industry and really committed growers and organizations like the Farm Bureau, the Farmworker Resource Guide Group, and we also have a Miracle Group that a lot of the industry came together to form this coalition.

Because it really came from an unfavorable survey that was taken probably in about 2015 or 2016. They interviewed-- an outside agency interviewed a lot of agriculture employees. And when the results came out, everybody was concerned because they were not reflective of how the employers felt that they were doing.

And so it really became like a cause for conversation, and really they broke it way down and discovered that most of what would be perceived as negative feedback was centered around communication or lack of that. So the Miracle Group took the initiative and came up with a program to address not just the ag employers concerns that were arising, but also the employees.

And so they came together and they formed an opportunity for employers to participate in an agriculture supervisory leadership. So frontline workers who are the middlemen between their employer or supervisor and actually the ag employees who are working in the fields or running the farms.

And so it was intended to be a supportive piece so that the frontline supervisor would not just have information on important things like pesticide management or water treatment and those types of things that are issues that come up in the field, but they also wanted to address employees' concerns about whether they had questions on their payroll or family leave, insurance, liability.

There were so many things that were not getting communicated throughout that process. So initially it started in contract education, and the farmer-- the growers paid for this education program, and it was founded at Ventura College. And since then, we've been fortunate enough to work with people like Shanell and everyone at the foundation in our CAI Initiative, and we received funding to develop this apprenticeship program.

So it's really a pre-apprenticeship hoping to move it in that direction, but we've done a lot of work around-- it is taught in bilingual instruction. We've marketed it to Mixteco, which is just a spoken language, it's not a written language. So we had developed videos and marketing endeavors to really try to address some of this equity gaps that we saw. I hope I'm not talking too much.

But at any rate, that that's one of our-- it's just a real beautiful program and an experience that's making it a very positive impact in Ventura County.

Peter Simon: Thanks. We'll give you a chance to talk about it some more--

Holly Correa: Sorry.

Jennie Mollica: That's a great overview.

Holly Correa: I get overly excited.

Peter Simon: No-- that's why you're on the panel, Holly. We love your excitement. Matthew, could you say a bit about your program, yourself, and how you're identified issues of equity that need to be addressed?

Matthew Oberlander: Yeah, definitely. Thank you, Peter. Thank you for inviting me. It's an honor to be here this afternoon. Yeah, my name is Matthew Oberlander. As it says on the slide, I'm the Coordinator of Curriculum and Instruction for the Division of Adult and Career Education, which is part of LA Unified.

And we were asked to think about the origin story of our programs. And so long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away, we at LAUSD, we have been the lead educational agency for apprenticeship programs throughout California for decades. So we have about 40 apprenticeship program sponsors.

But more recently, we really have focused on four main elements of our program and two key shifts that have guided our efforts to align apprenticeship programs with our equity mission. So those four key elements are our apprenticeship programs, our pre-apprenticeship program, our CTE program, and our Integrated Education and Training program or IET.

And then the two key shifts have been around culture, which is very powerful and sometimes difficult to shift, and structural, meaning where are there gaps and what pieces do we need to create to fill those gaps? So just in a nutshell, our apprenticeship programs, like I mentioned, I've been around a long time. We have a lot of partners. We really have been recently working to shift the culture in our apprenticeship programs so that there is more of a value on these equity ideas and more of an equity lens applied to decision-making as Jennie and Peter mentioned.

For pre-apprenticeship, we've really created a program that is focused specifically on serving underserved populations. It's built around the multi-core-- Multi-Craft Core Curriculum, or MC3, which is developed and approved by the building trades. And we recruit specifically from certain underserved communities based on demographics and based on socioeconomic status.

And then our CTE program, we've developed a new course, which is called Construction Essentials, which is very short-term, very basic, and really is a preview for our MC3 pre-apprenticeship class. Again, the pre-apprenticeship program, this new CTE course, they're about creating new access points. Like Jennie said, we really want to have as many access points as possible.

And then finally, we have an integrated education and training program which provides an access point specifically for English learners, and we've designed those courses to be co-taught with the CTE teacher and ESL teacher in the classroom at the same time. And one example of our IET program was mentioned earlier, which is our partnership with Hospitality Training Academy.

Peter Simon: That's you guys, great.

Matthew Oberlander: That's us, yeah.

Peter Simon: Thank you. Thank you, Matthew. And Will, please.

Will Scott: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for having me. I'm Will Scott, the Apprenticeship Program Administrator for the BYD-SMART Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee. For those of you who don't know, BYD, which stands for Build Your Dreams, is the largest manufacturer of electric vehicles in the world.

So it's a Chinese-based company who opened up a manufacturing plant for their electric buses and batteries in the city of Lancaster, California I believe back in 2014. They came here nonunion, was really working with an immigrant workforce, Chinese nationals with visas. And word got back that working conditions weren't very good in the plant.

And so the unions decided to step up and try to organize the plant. And my union, the Sheet, Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers Union, was chosen out of the group of unions to try to organize this manufacturing plant. I'm out of Local 105 here in Glendora, California. So we went on an aggressive organizing campaign with the coalition of community-based organizations. Jobs to Move America led that coalition.

So between our local union and the coalition of CBAs and the CBOs, we were able to organize that plant and get a contract. Along with that contract came a community workforce agreement which BYD had pledged to do certain percentages of hiring from underserved communities out there in the Antelope Valley, formerly incarcerated, transitional youth from out of [audio out]. Sorry about that. And so-- and some other underserved populations.

So we organize the plant, and then they decided to start an apprenticeship program. So we've been running this apprenticeship program for the last three years. And we recently have just started a pre-apprenticeship program to address some of those equity issues that make sure that people are getting opportunities to great careers there at the plant and getting in line-- in the pipeline for unionized careers in the manufacturing industry.

Peter Simon: Terrific, thanks. Jennie, do you want to ask the next question?

Jennie Mollica: Well, yeah. I mean, it's-- I love that the work you're doing is already incorporating pre-apprenticeships and apprenticeships. We could come at this from so many different angles learning about the work you've been doing. I think our next question was what progress have you made in addressing equity issues?

And I think many of you-- or the three of you touched on that in some ways in your first response. So I might tweak that question just a little bit to say, what progress have you made and then what are the opportunities you see to address equity issues in the future? Because I think that's one of the things that we're looking at.

And so if we could ask you to talk about equity in the context of your programs, whether you want to focus on past or future in the context of your program, that would be great. Maybe we can go back to you, Holly.

Peter Simon: And if I could just interject for a second. If you have some examples that can speak to the Adult Education Office group here with us now, I think that will be built-in, but I just want to highlight that.

Jennie Mollica: Mm-hmm.

Peter Simon: Please, Holly.

Holly Correa: OK, sure. Well, it's funny. A few-- a pre-pandemic CAEP Summit, I sat in on a presentation where they mentioned 92% or 94% of adult learners have access to a smartphone. And that's one of those things that really resonated with me. And part of our partnership for our ag supervisory actually addresses digital literacy, and I think that divide has become very apparent with our pandemic that we've all experienced.

And so a lot of our curriculum shifted. We were teaching how to get an email, how to send and receive email-- all of those things that are communication pieces that are helpful to adult learners. I know that so many of you guys on this webinar are very familiar because your ESL teachers do that all the time.

But I feel like that's an area that we've been really mindful of, because not everybody does have access to technology, nor do they have the skills. So we keep trying to address that. And then there was another area-- oh Yeah. So we also have been fortunate enough to build out a pre-apprenticeship and an apprenticeship in CNC manufacturing.

But while we were doing that, we noticed that our students, who are very busy, as you all know, don't have a lot of extra time to get assistance with things soft skills. They refer to resume writing, interview strategies, and communication techniques.

So what we did was we worked with our Career Center at the college, and we actually pushed in that element into our apprenticeship course so that while they were learning manufacturing, they were also having an opportunity in time, in class-- so they didn't have to make an extra appointment or come back to campus if it was too difficult, and we really knocked those things out during their regular study time.

And we found that to be extremely helpful, and we also did bring employers who are ready to hire people in right at the end of the class to have an opportunity for actual real interviews. So that was one thing that which-- we've tried to really meet the needs of the students who don't always have access to those wraparound services, because they do take energy, time, and additional resources on their part. So those are two things that I can think of that we can continue to work on.

Jennie Mollica: Great, great. Matthew.

Matthew Oberlander: I think in terms of where we've seen the most success, I just want to expand a little bit on the pre-apprenticeship program that's designed around the Multi-Craft Core Curriculum. I wanted to also mention that it was done in partnership with the LA Orange County Building Trades Council, and I would just really emphasize that partnerships are really key in all of these different attempts and efforts to advance equity and enhance these programs.

It also is funded through the High Roads Training Partnerships Program, which is kind of a set of state funding that's specifically designed to create access points, essentially, for underserved community members. So I think those are really key parts of the design of that program.

And one of the other things is we really are trying to think about it through a different lens, meaning we want to try to help everyone who's part of that program value diversity, value nontraditional perspectives, and value bilingualism as assets for employees, as things that you really want to have on a team and want to invest in. So that's been an important part of it, too.

In terms of the future, it seems like there are maybe three things that have helped in the past and may help in the future. One like I've mentioned a few times is just cultural-- focus on shifting culture and on values in an agency, and in places like apprenticeship, spaces like apprenticeship where they're the values are very traditional historically and have-- can sometimes require time in terms of change.

One of the things that we've done is we've partnered with CALPRO, which is the state professional development agency, to do equity training for all of our staff. We also have at our district diversity, equity, and inclusion training. We have racial justice training. And all of that has been connected to what we're doing in apprenticeship so that we can all share the equity perspective that was talked about before.

And that's really important, because you sometimes have to go above and beyond when you're making changes. You have to put in a little bit of extra time, that you have to expend more resources. And sometimes when you feel like you're doing it for a purpose that aligns with your values, it can be very, very powerful.

So values and culture, I think, are important in terms of the future. And then partnerships, like I mentioned, are really, really critical. Having trade unions as partners is key even if you are not an apprenticeship program, but you are just a CTE program that somebody wants to evolve into apprenticeship program or you're an IET program, that's a great thing to have.

And then partnering with trade-- I'm sorry, training providers like we did with Hospitality Training Academy, that's very important. And then just those partnerships between, for example, CTE teachers and ESL teachers, which are formed through IET, can really set the stage for a change in the way English learners are viewed when they reach the CTE program or when they reach apprenticeship programs.

And then the last one, which is not something we love to talk about in public, is funding, money, resources, those really are helpful. So like the High Roads Training partnerships-- any time the state can really promote and support these efforts with funding is really appreciated, and really goes a long way, because there's a lot of design work that has to happen, a lot of curriculum development that might have to have to happen, a lot of PD that might have to happen.

And if you're doing IET, you're doing two teachers at once, so the cost is a little bit more per student in some ways. So those are some thoughts in terms of the future.

Jennie Mollica: Mm-hmm. Great, thanks. Will, turn it over to you.

Will Scott: Wow. Yeah, I sit in a little bit of a different wheelhouse when it comes to the adult education world. As an apprenticeship program, established apprenticeship program, we have those entry requirements, those application requirements. And we have some testing that we do after people have gone through their application process.

And keep in mind, we have a single employer, and it's a very large employer. That plant employees, when we first got started, they were up to 800 workers n that plant. And so the need for the apprenticeship program actually came about because this plant sitting in the area that it is, unfortunately, it's an economically depressed area where there just wasn't a very large population of high-skilled workers.

And so once we organize the plant and the plant started to grow and they started bringing on new workers, there was a lot of turnover. People in the region, a lot of them who were applying, actually, just didn't have employable skills. They didn't have the soft skills, I don't know, to maintain employment, let alone the hard skills.