Debi Pezzuto: Hello. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Debi Pezzuto from WestEd, and I want to welcome everyone. Thank you, again, for joining us. We're really excited to have you here today for Designing Pre-Apprenticeship Operational Models and Program Delivery Options or Considerations. This is the third webinar in a series about understanding and delivering pre apprenticeships. And today, we're going to build on what we learned on Thursday, when we discussed the importance of workforce connections and all of the possibilities in pre-apprenticeships and apprenticeship programs by discussing the strategies for building pre-apprenticeship programs.

Before we get started, we'd like to thank the Chancellor's Office, CAEP team, Gary Adams, Mayra Diaz and Cora Rainey. And the folks from CDE, Carolyn Zachry, Diana Bautista and Neil Kelly, who support this type of work to ensure quality education, adult education, across the state. We'd also like to thank the Chancellor's Office Apprenticeship Program lead, Sabrina Aguilar, for joining us today and supporting apprenticeships throughout the state.

And we'd like to thank SCOE TAP for the support they provide for us in the field and for helping us monitor the chat and do all the things today. So thank you all. Now, before we dive in, I'd like to introduce our team of presenters. We are from WestEd, as I said before, where we provide professional development and technical assistance to California adult education programs. I'm Debi Pezzuto, the Senior Program Associate for Adult Education, and I'm joined by my colleague John Brauer, Senior Program Manager for Workforce and Economic development.

And imagine Megan McBride is here with me. She's the senior program manager for Adult Education. She wasn't with us today, but she's with us in our minds.

[chuckles]

Throughout today's presentation, I'll be monitoring the Q&A. And then if there are any questions that should be answered by John, I'll pause him and ask him to answer live. If there's anything that I can answer in the chat, I'll go ahead and do that, or in the Q&A, excuse me, I'll go ahead and do that. So please just add your questions to the Q&A. And John will pause periodically to address any questions that come up as well.

All right. So leading our Pre-Apprenticeship webinar series is John Brauer. John brings over a decade of expertise in developing pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs across the various sectors and regions in California. Prior to joining WestEd, he served as the Workforce and Economic Development Director at the California Labor Federation for 11 years and spent another 11 years on the California Workforce board. His extensive experience makes him an invaluable guide as we explore today's topics. Take it away, John.

John Brauer: Thank you, Debi. And it was actually the same 11 years. So--

[chuckles]

--there. So I'm hoping-- let's see if we get to-- folks are able to see the slide to get started. So my goal today in the presentation is, frankly, just-- we've given you a lot around the terminology, basic structure of apprenticeship within the Division of Apprenticeship Standards and roles, potentially, the different pieces of the puzzle play to explain the difference between apprenticeship, pre-apprenticeship and job readiness in terms of what you're thinking.

And particularly, thinking about, again, just a quick reminder, thinking about the difference between pre-apprenticeship programs, which are formal, apprenticeship readiness programs that have an MOU and a relationship with registered apprenticeship programs in the state of California, particularly those that are registered by the Division of Apprenticeship Standards versus job readiness. Programs, which are more informal, may have varying degrees of length, as well as a curriculum that's kind of created inherently as opposed to apprenticeship readiness programs in general.

And just, again, so that folks, later, when you want to look at this, particularly on the job readiness piece of this equation, it may be a real inclusionary tool for you to bring in particular populations of learners and community members through your adult Ed programs or your community college partnerships. And as I said earlier, or last week, should I say, it may be the place that you want to start. That Rome and pre-apprentice programs were not built in a day.

And for some of you, the idea of starting with a job readiness program that leads and becomes a formal pre-apprentice program, may really be the strategy that you may want to consider and build off of going forward. I think the really big consideration for you all in designing these and beginning to take this on, is sort of, what partnership role do you want to play in this equation, particularly, starting with the consideration of the intermediary role?

Do you in fact want to be that entity that is the convening, coordinating or administrative entity in this particular equation? Do you have the capacity to take that on? Does your institution-- are you able to engage and coordinate the partnership with stakeholders, including industry? Are you able to do that initial and ongoing convening? Are you able to engage all of the stakeholders that you've got as partners, as champions, in terms of helping to establish program goals, creating programs, success metrics and benchmarks?

Being able to identify stakeholders return on investment. Why is everybody there? What are they going to get out of it, or need to get out of it? Not just you in terms of the outcomes you may have for your students, but for industry. It may be access to a potential pool of workers and learners for your community based organizations. They may have outcomes for community access and equity challenges, as well as access to a labor market and an ability to work with you all.

The ability to create and establish MOU and agreements amongst each other that solidify the partnership in some level, or formalize it in some level. And the ongoing communication, which can be daily, weekly, and really having that capacity. So whoever is able to take that piece on, and it may not be you, but it may be one of your other partners, meaning a community based organization, if you're an adult Ed program, you may want to see if the community college can do it.

Maybe your local workforce board is that entity, or somebody else from the regional consortia can take that piece on. But determining who's going to play that intermediary role, that coordinating, convening and administration piece, I think is really important for folks to identify first and rather than just jumping right into the equation. And then starting to identify the next big thing, as opposed to just jumping in straight into the curriculum and the activity, I start with the jobs and the occupational demand.

And I believe that that's true for both, pre-apprentice programs and understanding where the apprenticeship programs are going and they're tied to industry. But also, frankly, the job readiness programs in the equation. I will include in the toolkit piece that Debi and Megan and CAIP have for you, is some things that you need to think about this in terms of what occupations and careers are you preparing your students to enter, and what that analysis may look like?

So starting with just basic, looking at what existing apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs already exist in your region. You may already know that through your CAIP work, but really a good place is to revisit that, to look at their capacity and what they are already doing relative to learners and workers in the community. Basic LMI analysis, and whether you're using your center of excellence, the local workforce board or other folks to give you a really idea of some of those occupations and careers-- occupations and sectors, I should say, that are priorities in your region.

And that the other places you can look beyond that is, obviously, also California Jobs First. There are industry associations, so once you've identified some of those priority industries, you'll often find that industry associations, themselves, also have analysis that you may want to ask out and reach out to, as well as industry publications that they may have put together. Another aspect of this work on this sector and occupational demand to really think about is not just think about these as one-off occupations within a sector.

Are there the possibility to create lattices, ladders and lattices of occupations or careers for your students and learners in that equation? Again, that's done with your stakeholder partners as well. Are there other partners that can bring potential investment into the equation or analysis into this? And some of these are at the state level, the Chancellor's Office, and again, the centers of excellence. The California State Workforce Development board is making investments in education and workforce on an ongoing basis.

Within the state's labor agency, the Department of industrial Relations, the Division of Apprenticeship Standards, the Employment Training panel, are making investments in different occupations and different sectors that you should make yourself aware of and at least go see. GoBiz, which is the Governor's Economic Development arm, plays that same role. They also have, within the Governor's Office, the California Office of Planning and Research.

There are initiatives going on in the state around health care. HCAI, which is the Department of Health Care Access and Information. The Energy Commission is doing quite a bit around transportation and energy generation and storage. You have also initiatives that may be of value to program for things like CalWORKS and CalFresh as well that should be part of your consideration in it.

And so who can do this analysis? You may not be able to, but again, some of your stakeholder partners in that equation, and some of those, again, I've just listed there. For me, the next step out of that particular analysis prior to the curriculum and training development is really cultivating and identifying your industry champions in the work that you're going to be doing.

And a really important piece of this is, again, who amongst all of you has the capacity to engage industry? Who may have the credibility to bring them to the table? So if you're not traditionally engaged in a particular sector or with a particular set of industry, you may want to partner with California Jobs First or your local workforce development board, or leave it to the larger consortia, strong workforce consortia, or somebody else who may already have that industry engagement to bring them to the table.

One of the ways that I also think is really important as a really first step is putting together and conducting, as part of that engagement prior to your training and curriculum design, is going through with industry, some kind of regional sector needs assessment or occupational needs assessment.

Asking them, frankly, verification on industry skill needs, changes in existence of work processes that may get incorporated into your program, changes in technology that may be coming up, changes in mandates and requirements for the industry, as well as just the overall occupational demand, if you will, in the equation.

Debi, I know I'm rolling through this. Are there particular questions that we've got at this point?

Debi Pezzuto: No, nothing in the Q&A yet. We've got some links in the chat, but no questions yet. So if anyone has any questions, please just put them in the Q&A. I'll take a peek and ask John to pause. Thank you.

John Brauer: OK. Again, I just think that one important piece to think about as well. A lot of successful partners have one industry entity that coordinates and takes on that kind of lead administrative roles. Many pre-apprentice programs have advisory committees or steering committees that get formed out of the equation once you've identified those champions.

Creating a place much like an industry advisory committee already does in the community college system to address implementation issues, help coordinate those roles, specifically, and ensure the program's value to industry and job seekers. So it really can be a place to have them to continue to be engaged, if you will. And I think you're looking for, over time, a level of cultivation that can help you benefit by greater investment by industry in the equation.

You may start with the idea of having them verify certifications, credentials, curriculum and training requirements. You may also then move from there to asking them to provide industry awareness opportunities. Maybe that's a tour of their facilities, or to have somebody from the industry come and speak to your classes and talk about the work and the occupations.

It may be asking them, over time, to both create work based learning opportunities and/or financially to support those kind of work based learning opportunities. But again, those kinds of things may take some time for them to get-- to see some real value and feel like they're a participant in creating and maintaining the program before you ask for any and all of those kinds of things. But at least starting with what they need is a really good place to start in that equation.

It is important for industry, even though they may not be involved in it on a day to day basis, to just have conversations with them on the structure and governance of the program, so that they know who's going to be engaging them, how the program will have some sustainability. They may have some thoughts about how to engage them and their fellow industry partners in an ongoing way.

And the ultimate piece of this is folks feel like if they're-- like on the curriculum and training side, if they're being considered earlier rather than later, they may have-- it will help you get their buy-in as you bake the program forward with their support and the equation. And then the next piece in this is the curriculum and industry requirements having gone through that LMI and the industry engagement and industry needs assessment process, is where you're clearly taking both sides of the equation.

All of you on the right side there, in terms of adult Ed and community colleges or the high school or community based organizations that you're a partnership with, and going back and linking, again, as we talked about the last couple of times, linking those career pathway pieces into the industry requirements. And so, again, the intermediary role or the ability to convene those two is really important. And it may or may not be you, but both sides of the equation, in this particular step, should take place.

So don't automatically have something that career pathway piece then reaches out to the industry requirements side of the industry demand side and just as a verification. Try and bring them in to help you start cooking this from the start and designing it from the start. Next piece is, obviously, the student learner support piece out of this. And for you all, again, I think this is for particularly engaging and providing access for learners.

What are those basic needs that you think you're going to need to provide and cover for them to come into the program and stay in the program? And one of the things that, when I've designed a pre-apprentice program or a job readiness program, that you're trying to be clear about what the purpose of the program is. For some folks, that may be basic career awareness, and not everybody, before coming into the program, is going to know whether they are interested in the occupation or the sector that's involved.

For other folks, they may have an immediate idea of why they're there. My take has been to really engage them on an orientation process. And that, frankly, their motivation to learn and to participate should be probably the single greatest consideration for them participating in the program. So as an example, and I saw somebody from the Carpenters Union signing in, I used to have a pre-apprentice job training program for the building trades, and folks said that they wanted to be a pile driver, which is a subset of the carpenters, but they would come in and say, I didn't want to--

I didn't want to work outside. I don't want to show up at work at 7:00 AM. I don't like heights. A lot of things that, in the nature of the work, are just not going to be fit. But for other folks who, other than maybe having the basic requirement for a GED or a high school diploma, who were able to-- and really interested in participating in the program. And some of those basic requirements are obviously what need to be met during the course of your program, too.

So a GED or a high school diploma for many of these sectors may or may not be important in knowing that early on. I don't have a particular recommendation for you in terms of-- but I think as you start to consider your budget considerations in there, what can be covered by ADA or apportionment? And what other resources do your partners bring into the equation?

I'm going to switch really quickly, if I can do this. Let me try this. Hold on one second. I'm going to move my share. And we're where? Here we go. So some of those areas of consideration-- just making sure you're not sending me messages here. --are obviously, the salaries and benefit pieces of this. Travel, both to engage your employers, but also your recruitment and outreach pieces.

Operating expenses, you may or may not have the school and facilities pieces. Your communication strategies and abilities, that may include, obviously, your website or social media and other pieces around that. I think furniture and equipment is a really big consideration for some sectors. And, again, whether you have it or your partners have it and/or whether industry is able to provide it for you around it.

The other big pieces in there are, obviously, support services. For folks, that could be transportation. Equipment in my day was also a big one for folks. So basic stuff like steel toed boots or other things like that. And monies for work based learning or vouchers or stipends for folks to participate in are, obviously, there. And we'll put this in the folder as well for this as we move forward here.

Kind of back to this equation. Hold on. Stop share. Let me get myself back to this. I'm trying to do too many things at once here, folks, and I apologize.

Debi Pezzuto: And there are no questions right now, John. So you're doing great. Keep going.

John Brauer: OK, we are. In addition to those considerations, and I shared this with folks last time, is really exploring what funding you're able to access as part of this engagement. And, again, I gave you the DIR because I think this is one really good place to stay up to date around what monies are available to support your programs in this equation.

But you've also got beyond that, again, to go back to those other initiatives I led you on earlier would be really important. So again, finding out beyond even what you see here. See what may be listed by the California Workforce Development board or the various labor agencies that I talked about beyond the employment training panel. And EDD, in particular, has quite a number of initiatives during the year.

And those other sub departments that may not be in here, the Energy Commission or HCAI or whomever else in that equation. And then-- let me go back to shut that piece down. Is really starting that engagement with DAS around the program administration registration. And this is going to take some work for you all. So somebody in your end-- whoops! --who is going to have some ability to work on doing the registration of your training and curriculum requirements with DIR-- I mean, with DAS.

DAS has apprenticeship staff who their sole job is to help you do the registration. One of the things I would say in this equation, I would ask you to do, is really make sure that you are incorporating the work processes and the skill sets that you got from your early industry demand and labor engagement.

Sometimes because agencies, whether it's DOL or DAS, are doing the registration with folks, they tend to take something that's already been there and immediately copy and paste it in the creation of it. And it doesn't always incorporate the work processes and standards that may be needed by your regional employers and verifying them.

It's not going to put you in conflict, it just won't be the most up to date in that particular equation. And so going to DAS would be my suggestion in terms of starting to familiarize yourself with the forms, the registration requirements, and working with DAS on getting yourself registered in the equation. So Debi, I kind of did this to-- thinking people were going to have more questions and really be wanting to talk more about walking through this stuff as opposed to leading them on an hour long-- another hour long process.

So I don't know if we want to open it up and go to there and some equation about specific questions folks have.

Debi Pezzuto: I don't-- I have someone-- Oh, here we go. Questions are coming in now. That's good. Janice Farah just kind of commented in the Q&A. Career awareness is huge. So many interesting jobs out there in emerging industries. The activity of career exploration, however, differs greatly depending on agency. Last spring, we gathered counselors from the regional COECC adult school and WDB and found that they all use different approaches and software tools.

How confusing for a student who might have done a little exploration in high school now is finishing up their diploma GED in adult school and is trying to decide between CTE apprenticeship training to transition to college. So that can be very confusing. Susan Ryan does have a question. Are there different estimated timelines for DAS approval of pre-apprenticeship versus apprenticeships?

John Brauer: The DAS, I don't know if there's anybody from DAS on there. My general take is that the pre-apprentice piece, if you are, again, to go back to the first webinar that we did, they are wanting to make sure that you're, in your pre-apprentice program, meeting the strategies and goals of pre-apprenticeship, which are pretty basic and broad. Let me pull those pieces out real quick.

And so once you've got the MOU, they really are ready to rock and roll with folks. But under pre-apprenticeship-- hold on one second because I have not memorized it, and particularly after being under the weather for a bit. So their main piece for DAS is they just want the evidence that your-- the apprentice programs support pre-apprenticeship through an MOU. That there's an ability to give priority but not guarantee to pre-apprenticeship graduates for acceptance into the program, again, within the MOU.

That there's a general commitment as to the number of pre-apprenticeship graduates that, generally, may be accepted into the apprenticeship program. So they're looking a lot more at what the MOU with the apprentice program or programs looks like. They want to make sure that you've got the basic elements. And these are laid out in Labor Code, just so folks know, that on some level, you're pre-apprentice program is training and curriculum based on industry standards and approved by the documented registered program.

Again, if you're working with the apprentice program to create that, then you're already starting in that direction. You don't have to do that, obviously, on a job readiness. That there's really strategies, and the purpose of the pre-apprenticeship program to provide opportunities for underrepresented, disadvantaged or low skilled individuals. So that you're kind of demonstrating that that's a focus, and who's going to ultimately benefit in terms of equity and access if you will, in establishing the pre-apprentice program.

That you've got strong outreach efforts that you're going to undertake and be in place. So they will be asking you that. What education and pre-vocational services you're going to offer to help meet that? And that may be including things like career awareness and industry awareness. It may be job readiness courses or activities that you've got. Are you doing ESL or ELL activities within your pre-apprenticeship or program?

If that's the population of folks you're trying to serve, is adult basic Ed in the room, which you obviously are in there. Are there other pieces around specific industry gaps? I would say. So, particularly, in a number of areas or a number of sectors, things like math tutoring or math remediation or skill building in mathematics are something that are incorporated, as well as things like financial literacy seminars.

So you could have industries that are seasonal, such as the building trades or some others, and the ability of providing some financial literacy in a pre-apprentice program may be really important to them. And then they do just generally want to know what support services are being facilitated within it for learners, and are other physical preparedness aspects to the work?

And then frankly, the health and safety of those in the training program, pre-apprentice program. So are you doing-- are you both practicing it? Are you also offering things like Osha 10 or utilization of PPE or things like that? So those are some of the basic things. And/or are you offering the real opportunity to provide hands on training? Do you have a simulated lab experience or volunteer opportunities or work based learning opportunities that start to simulate industry and occupational conditions and part of your consideration in that as well?

And then sustainability is a sort of all encompassing all the question they always seem to ask.

Debi Pezzuto: Thank you. Sounds good. I apologize I have my camera off, John, I'm having some connectivity issues here in a hotel in San Diego. So--

[chuckles]

John Brauer: No problem.

Debi Pezzuto: But we have a few more questions. Susan Ryan has a follow up question to what you were just saying. Do you know of any pre-apprenticeships that have met those criteria, that have taken longer than three months to get DAS approval?

John Brauer: I don't, but I'm not all-knowing in that situation. So I did see something from somebody, and I don't want to put anybody on the spot. I did see, maybe, from one of our co-panelists or someone, that they had engaged DAS around responding to folks. But I have not heard of that. And if that's an issue for somebody, we can, certainly, help. And I assume also, Sabrina Aguilar and CAIP TAP, between us, we can help maybe get some response from DAS on that. But I have not.

Debi Pezzuto: OK. Thank you, John. Another question. Has any college designed a streamlined enrollment process for apprenticeship through their community college LEA? One that creates a pathway through CCC apply? And maybe you're not all-knowing, so maybe if you've heard of that.

John Brauer: I'm not. If there's somebody else on this call, I have not heard of that at this point.

Debi Pezzuto: And then we did have two requests to see a few slides. One is, can you show step 6 one more time?

John Brauer: Yeah.

Debi Pezzuto: And then--

John Brauer: OK.

Debi Pezzuto: OK.

John Brauer: And that one-- And that is-- oops!

just wanted to make mention, I know that, John, you've invited some of the attendees to feel free to chime in. So those attendees that are feeling like you would like something or have something to share just to raise your hand, myself or my colleagues on the call, Holly or Fabiha will enable your audio so you can come off of mute.

John Brauer: I'm just trying to make sure. I'm having trouble figuring out what I'm sharing. And so that slide, the funding and a resources was a link to the Department of Industrial Relations. And for those of you who may have missed it last time, there's both apprenticeship specific funding, there's what they call apprenticeship adjacent funding. And again, your local strong workforce programs.

I have found that-- particularly, figuring out a way to access maybe your regional strong workforce allocations and, obviously, competing and applying for those. Have been in the most successful in that, but a whole variety of those pieces. And then the third category, they've got are, and I mentioned this, it's just-- and you guys are in there frankly, but apprenticeship possible funding and looking at that. Both from the state and that may be in the context of support services and other amenities, as well as federal and state pieces going forward.

And some of those are also, again, sector or investment specific, either by the Department of Labor or the State of California. And so those involved. And health care may be putting pieces out. The California Energy Commission, and Department of Transportation may be doing more work around climate change, climate initiatives, if you will, those kinds of things. Manufacturing and technology initiatives that both the feds have through the CHIPS and CASCADE and others.

And what was the other question or slide, Debi, that somebody had?

Debi Pezzuto: Denise is asking, can we see the slide again where it showed who should be involved in the process?

John Brauer: OK, let me see. Got to get this to work up here. So you really should-- I split this up, and the way that I put this piece out is to think about this on the left side as the demand industry side, or folks with links to industry side, and then those of you who have traditionally played that education and training role in there. And I just put a bunch of these. Obviously, your existing apprentice programs in your region, if you are looking to start a pre-apprentice program, obviously, employers.

I will have to say, if you haven't realized it yet, that labor really does-- is part of the demand side. I think they often, historically, or just thought of the supply side of the equation by folks. But really do understand industry demand, have connections to their signatory employers, understand what's going on. And as much as the employers and industry associations are at the table, I would highly recommend to you if you're looking at particular sector to look at labor in your region.

Best way to do that is probably to reach out to your local Central Labor Council. If they aren't already involved, and a lot of them are in things like California Jobs First, they have representation, mandated representation, on the local workforce boards. They have 15%, so they are there. There may also be regional sector initiatives that are outside of some of these other players, that may be particularly driven by employers or by the state that you should look at.

I also find public agencies. Frankly, your local city and county are really good places to partner with. So you may have-- you're interested in health care careers, reaching out to your county health care agency and understanding, even within them, the agency, what their needs and roles are. They also have-- traditionally, public sector jobs have been real points of access for particularly communities of color and women into family sustaining wages and jobs and careers.

And beyond the local workforce board, I would encourage you to reach out to them, and maybe that's a place to have a partnership. They also, because they are advancing the public interest in the common good, may be more interested to partner with you in some areas initially, and even the private sector and some other areas. So, Debi is that-- I hope that answered it for folks, that question for someone.

Debi Pezzuto: I think so. I think so. We have another question. It's a best practices question for you. The industry employer-- I thought it was a best practices questions, I apologize. Denise is just saying, the industry employer area, do you best practices on looking at apprenticeships options because so many people are only focused on apprenticeships and what they've been instead of what they could be.

I'm not sure if there's a question in there, Denise. If you want to add a little bit more to that, Denise, so we can answer your question. But other than that, I don't have any other questions in the Q&A. So unless there's any other questions, or if, John, if you've got something else you want to talk about?

John Brauer: I don't at this point. As follow up for folks, maybe reaching out through you, Debi, and through CAIP TAP for follow up questions or concerns or technical assistance in this equation.

Debi Pezzuto: So we do have-- Susan Ryan had raised her hand to ask a question, so I allowed her to unmute if that's OK.

Audience: Hi, I'm sorry, I think the question was answered about the slides. I was just hoping to see that budget areas worksheet again, because I'm taking screenshots for a team that I'm meeting with probably sooner than the slides will come out. I don't know if that's OK.

John Brauer: OK. I mean, I'm going to give this to Debi and I believe there's a folder that is going to have the slides and this as well. But happy to, Susan. So let me pull this back out here on my end of the equation. And I'm--

Debi Pezzuto: And we also have another hand raised. Denise McAulay.

Audience: Yes, what I was trying to ask was, I love the idea, especially with adult education pre-apprentice as well as in the apprenticeship. There's just a mindset that apprenticeship is always like the electrical, you know, woodworking, like the traditional apprenticeship. And so exploring new apprenticeships, do you have best practices or good examples of how that has been branched out from the traditional apprenticeship?

John Brauer: Well, I won't send you to research it. If you go to Europe, for instance, in Switzerland and Germany and England and then down under in Australia, there are all sorts of occupations that are apprenticeships. Everything from finance to various parts of health care, including nursing. In the United States, the one that I've found interesting is the insurance industry.

And I know that there's been a partnership in Chicago with the community colleges and the insurance industry to create apprenticeships for folks to go into there. And that has targeted, particularly, communities of color and disadvantaged youth to learn and to go into that.

Audience: Being from Europe myself, I understand that element, I was just trying to see, because America is so different in that it's always been college focused, and that that's where the struggle sometimes with apprenticeship comes about in helping industry understand that an apprenticeship could be that tool in their workforce. And so I was just wondering--

John Brauer: So the biggest-- so there's that one. The one that I was involved in, Denise, was, and it still exists today, is in the public transit sector of California. And I would encourage you all, if you want to look at it, it's something called California Transit Work, catransitworks.org. And Deb, I don't if I can put that in the-- if somebody wants to put that in the chat.

They started out as a-- frankly-- and this shows you the progression of this over time. Being a bus coach operator, driving a bus is an extremely stressful occupation. They had real issues around mental health and physical health issues, and they started out as a mentor program for bus coach operators. They then moved, over time, to set-- and they have set, in the last six or seven years, the first bus coach operator apprentice program in the United States.

And they then took that to approximately eight other transit agencies with community colleges and adult Ed partnerships and that. They have subsequently also put together maintenance apprentice programs because the industry is changing. So again, the bus coach. Operator one was on the retention and recruitment of new bus coach operators and their ability to stay there. So that was the reason for that.

And on the maintenance side of it, it was the conversion to zero emission vehicles. And even for existing mechanics, it's a pretty big leap to go from a compressed natural gas bus to working on a zero emission high voltage bus, if you will. They then created, and I know with the College of Marin and then up with Santa Rosa Junior College, they've even created some pre-apprenticeship programs built off of those, and also worked with, I believe, Union City, the high school down there, James Logan, I believe, on a link for the high school towards those pre apprentice and apprentice programs.

And they now have a consortium of partnerships where they're building out those apprenticeships in 14 different areas. So with AC Transit in the East Bay and their local labor, Amalgamated Transit Union, Golden Gate Transit, San Joaquin Regional Transit District, and they're doing that with Delta Community College there in Sacramento Regional Transit Authority, Riverside Transit Authority. And some of their education providers there they're talking to LA Metro, which is huge and growing forward.

Same with San Diego, Foothill. I believe Monterey and Salinas. So that's one that I was involved in, that I know has really, over time, been able to grow. And again, I think, Denise, I would just say is, really identify-- the opportunity seems to come from what's a pain point or a challenge or a barrier or something that you're trying to solve in creating the apprenticeship. That seems to motivate folks as much as it is the access issue of it. So it may be a Silver Tsunami or a lack of skilled workers, or changes in technology or other things like that.

And so, I think, having those kind of conversations with industry is one way to start that conversation. Because if you can find that, then it seems like folks get are the most motivated in areas that they previously haven't been able or willing to create an apprentice program to consider doing that.

Audience: That's amazing. Thank you very much.

John Brauer: Sure.

Debi Pezzuto: John, before you go on, would you mind scrolling down just a little bit so Susan can see the bottom half of that expense item?

John Brauer: Sure.

Debi Pezzuto: I think that budget there. Thank you.

John Brauer: Did that work, Denise, Starting with that? It's not Denise. I'm sorry. Susan.

Debi Pezzuto: Susan. Yeah. And I'll work on getting these materials out sooner rather than later for everyone.

Audience: Thank you, John. That's great.

John Brauer: Sure.

Debi Pezzuto: We don't have any other questions in the Q&A. Are there any other questions out there?

Mandilee Gonzales: I'm not seeing any comment on Q&A or the chat I've been trying to monitor. One just came in. Go ahead, Debi.

Debi Pezzuto: Derek is just asking, can you give some examples of stipends versus client support?

John Brauer: So generally, in terms of where-- I have been involved in programs where stipends have been offered when the money's been available to students to be able to participate in a pre-apprentice or a job readiness program. That for folks, if you're asking somebody to make a 6 to 10 week commitment, they sometimes, at a minimum, may require some income to come.

That may be different than, say, transportation assistance or transportation vouchers or uniform or equipment provision or things like that. I don't know if that's answering the question, but sometimes it's, for folks to participate, they need some kind of stipend to participate, as opposed to the others, which are kind of really helping them, maybe, get ready for the industry or just to be able to show up every day beyond that. Whether they're able to take a bus or local rail or that kind of a thing.

Debi Pezzuto: Thank you, John.

John Brauer: Sure.

Debi Pezzuto: Derek says, thank you.

[chuckles]

Mandilee Gonzales: And I just wanted to bring to everyone's attention, we had one of our attendees share a link in the chat that goes to the Sonoma Marin Bus Pre-apprenticeship program. So if people are interested, he wanted to share with everyone.

John Brauer: Thanks.

Mandilee Gonzales: And then I'm going to share the link, John, that you just shared as well. And then I think somebody else also shared that when you were speaking about it, the CALTRANS Works.

John Brauer: Yeah. And I'm just a big fan of them. They, in addition to the apprenticeship programs, they've created pretty amazing mentorship program and model for folks that I think have been really good. I think one of the pieces that is generally missing till later in a new apprentice programs that get created and is the whole idea of mentor, in the building trades and firefighters, you have built-in mentor programs in those traditional apprentice programs.

It's in the other areas, other than, maybe, health, where you'll have a preceptor or somebody, that that's not really built-in in terms of either recruitment, outreach and support, if you will. Another area that I-- my memory got gelled on, on the public sector side, the city and County of Los Angeles have had really good pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship pathways into jobs at the County and the city. And they did a couple of things.

The County, which is blessed to have the former Secretary of Labor sitting on their board of supervisors, said, look, we hire roughly 20,000 people a year. That should provide some opportunities to have folks come from the community who look like the community and working in our county jobs. They did an assessment that identified which departments and programs are having demand and openings.

They targeted formerly incarcerated and formerly homeless folks as some of the subpopulations of folks that they wanted to move towards it. They partnered with community based organizations, including the Black Worker Center and some other community organizations there, where they put together a pre-apprenticeship boot camp process for folks, a job readiness process for folks to go, then move them through.

The ultimate goal in that was for folks to, basically, be retained at the end of a year, to take the Civil service requirements or meet those requirements and move into jobs within the city. A lot of those ended up being in health care agency, of which theirs is the second largest in the United States. It's a public health agency, their public works department, the parks and rec Department and some other places like that.

And the LA County really is to be commended, and the city as well. When Mayor Garcetti was there, they moved to do the same thing, and they involved the HR department as well.

Debi Pezzuto: Another question in the chat for you. Do you have other case study examples of excellent pre-apprenticeship programs?

John Brauer: I think the two that I know best and have really been taken to scale is the MultiCraft Core Curriculum one. That has been-- probably, there's 40 or 50 MC3 or MultiCraft Core Curriculum programs in the state of California. They have formal relationships with the building trades. They are configured in a bunch of different ways. So the intermediary role may be played by an Adult Ed program, or a community college, or a community based organization, or the Local Building Trades Council, or one of the building trades in that equation.

So the configuration is whatever works on the ground for everybody. The curriculum has gotten designed with industry. And even having said that, the design of it was at a national level, so it's required some buy in at the local level with industry to say, yeah, we're glad it got done in DC, but for us, we still need to understand whether it's going to work with our regional apprentice programs and that.

The other, that I know of, is something called The Industrial Manufacturing Technician, the IMT, which is an apprentice program. And I know that has gotten created and utilized, and can be utilized as a pre-apprentice program as well. To me, it could also be the equivalent of the MC3, for manufacturing. It teaches the basic principles of manufacturing, production and processes. So you're not just learning the technical aspects, but the theory behind it, which is always, I think, one good-- really good sign of a good apprentice and/or pre-apprentice program.

It's also a gateway to more advanced manufacturing. So you can even take something like that, which is registered with DOL as an apprentice program, but frankly, utilize it as a pre-apprentice program in the state of California or elsewhere. Those are the two that I know best. Oh, there is one other one, I should say, because I have a friend, Peter Simon, who a lot of you may know.

And Peter has worked, he and Jennie Mollica, through their technical assistance, have worked with the Painters Union up and down the state of California. And I do know they have-- I mean, across the country, excuse me. And have worked with, for instance, Oakland Adult Ed and the Painters Union to create a really viable pre-apprentice program that targets English language learners. And that would be the other one that I know of. And those guys have done really fantastic work in creating that one as well.

I'm glad I said that, he'd get after me later if he heard I hadn't mentioned it.

Mandilee Gonzales: Well, I have to say, Peter is with us today, and he actually shared his the Marin-- the slide deck that was shared earlier was from Peter.

John Brauer: Good. Hi, Peter, I didn't know you were there. I wanted to do good by you guys. So good.

[chuckles]

Debi Pezzuto: I don't think--

Mandilee Gonzales: Well, with that, Debbie, unless you have any other last parting words, we're going to go ahead and start to move to close.

Debi Pezzuto: No, that's all. I was just going to conclude our session, if you'd like me to go ahead.

Mandilee Gonzales: Please.

Debi Pezzuto: Yeah so thank you, everyone for attending and engaging in the conversation with us. If you've been here for all three webinars, thank you. If this was your first one, thank you. As Mandilee said, once this material is all remediated, it'll be shared with everyone. And we'll be sharing out a Google Drive folder that has all of John's amazing materials and slide deck for you. So please look out for that. You can also feel free to contact us with any additional thoughts or questions that you might have via email.

You can contact myself, Megan McBride or John Brauer, it doesn't matter, we all work together nicely.