LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: And half of the integrated CAEP TAP office. I would like to start by acknowledging our CC TAP team, who works hard for all of these webinars and professional learning forums that we do, some of whom you will be meeting in this morning's webinar. 

I would also like to acknowledge our immediate colleagues at the Sacramento County Office of Education. And then I would like to acknowledge our state leadership at California Department of Education, Diana Batista, and others from her team who may be joining us this morning, and our leadership from the State Chancellor's Office, Dean Gary Adams, program lead Mayra Diaz. And we are joined this morning by apprenticeship program lead Dr. Sabrina Lopez. And with that, I will turn it over to Gary for a welcome. Thank you. Next slide, please. 

GARY ADAMS: Thank you, Lisa I just wanted to welcome everyone to this important learning forum. The Apprenticeship Pathways Demonstration Project of Vision 2030 has established apprenticeship pathways as an important workforce strategy in the Vision 2030 workforce plan, as well as in the master plan for career education. 

We are hoping to establish pathways K-14 from our K-12 LEA partners, adult schools, into our community college noncredit programs, and onto credit programs. And this workshop this morning will help our various apprenticeship leads develop those pathways. And with that, I'll turn it back to-- welcome everyone. And I'll turn it back to Dr. Takami. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Thank you so much, Dean Adams. We are just grateful to have you present that introduction and really provide context towards what we are trying to do. So there is a goal of 500,000 new apprenticeships in the state of California by 2029, and we are working hard towards meeting that goal. Next slide, please. And as I always say at the beginning of our webinars in professional learning forums, that we are here on behalf of the more than 600,000 adult learners in the state of California. 

So we'll go through the agenda. We're going to highlight some objectives. We'll take care of some housekeeping items. I'm going to briefly review preapprenticeship/apprenticeship basics that were covered by Chief Adele Burnes from the Division of Apprenticeship Standards in December and provide a link to that presentation. 

And then we will have Dr. Lopez present as program lead of apprenticeships at the Chancellor's Office, really the full scope of the program that she leads. And we will also have our model program from Santiago Canyon College, a CDCP noncredit apprenticeship. We're excited to have two guests visiting from Santiago Canyon College. We will take your questions and discussion, and Dulce will be moderating that part and then closing us out with a survey, which we really encourage you to take, because we do take all of your feedback seriously. Next slide, please. 

So our objectives are to recap preapprenticeship-to-apprenticeship basics. We really do want to provide you with resources for program development, which is what Dean Adams was talking about, is that we have folks who are at very many different stages within the CAEP ecosystem in terms of developing these preapprenticeship-to-apprenticeship programs. 

Also, please feel free to call on any of us who are presenting this morning. We have our email addresses to follow up. And we do want to highlight learning, this morning, the function of the Chancellor's Office apprentice subdivision within the larger workforce and economic development division. And then we will be learning components of Santiago Canyon College's certified nursing assistant apprenticeship. Next slide, please. I'll now turn it over to Chandni for some housekeeping details. Chandni. 

CHANDNI AJANEL: Hello, everyone. Just a reminder that this meeting is being recorded. The recording and the PowerPoint will be released on the CalAdultEd website in a few weeks following its remediation. And we ask that you please fill out the survey at the end. Again, we really value your feedback, and we use it to improve our webinars. Next slide, please. Just a gentle reminder that we want to cultivate a gracious space for lively, respectful, and professional discussions. Thank you. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Thank you, Chandni. So just a little bit of a review, some basics of preapprenticeship to apprenticeship. So on the preapprenticeship side, this is a CAEP-funded activity. And it's one of the ones that we've really been trying to highlight. Dean Adams, in discussion with CAEP TAP about a year ago, talked about this as a high-level priority. And so we are really doing our job to educate the field and answer questions that the field has. 

So preapprenticeship, noncredit for the community colleges and the adult schools. It may be part of a CDCP or offered as standalone course or courses. It does need to be linked to an apprenticeship. And based on the meeting of the committee that I sit on for the Division of Apprenticeship Standards this week, it is highly recommended to be registered with DAS. They didn't go as far as to say required, but highly recommended. And they have a new tool, and I have some links for you, to make that process easy. 

What happens in a preapprenticeship? Well, these are preparatory skills for apprenticeship success. It might be vocational ESL. It may be interviewing skills and other workforce preparation skills. Some of these preapprenticeships are an earn-to-learn model. So there are stipends that are available on the preapprenticeship site. 

Over on the apprenticeship side, many times, apprenticeship programs are credit, but not always. So I just want to-- little caveat there. I'm referencing one that I have talked about and we had presented in December, the preapprenticeship-to-apprenticeship pathway with Santa Rosa Junior College and College of Marin for the Golden Gate Transit bus operators. 

The preapprenticeship is at Santa Rosa Junior College, noncredit. The apprenticeship is linked through College of Marin, the labor union, and the Golden Gate transport employer. But all apprenticeships combine coursework, which is called RSI, and you'll learn more about that later with on-the-job training. 

DAS does require-- so the industry standard in California is that apprenticeships must be registered with DAS. And I say this because last year, we began working with an institution that had an up-and-running apprenticeship and had no contact with DAS. So we want to make sure that you understand that that is an important part. 

You will hear from Dr. Lopez that apprenticeships-- and from our colleagues-- at Santiago Canyon College are linked to specific employer or employers and/or labor unions. And I do want to mention that there are two broad divisions of apprenticeships. We have building trades, our carpenters, our electricians, our pipefitters, and so on. 

And then we have IACA apprenticeships, which is everything else. That might include cybersecurity, or early childhood, and a variety of other nonbuilding trades. And that IACA sector has really been growing in the last few years. 

Earn-to-learn. You are paid to learn a skill trade and go into a job, often a union-paid job with union benefits. So this is what we call an earn-to-learn model that really does offer a sustainable living wage, if not exceeds a living wage in the state of California. Next slide, please. 

I just wanted to highlight, these are CAEP-funded activities and legislation related to supporting preapprenticeship programs. I'm not going to read these. These are the seven categories of CAEP-funded activities. But I want to highlight them. 

And then if we could move to the next slide, please, I do want to highlight number 7, programs offering preapprenticeship training activities conducted in coordination with one or more apprenticeship programs approved by the Division of Apprenticeship Standards for the occupation in geographic area. In the previous slide, there was a link at the bottom, which is the Ed Code. So if you are curious and want to see how CAEP works in terms of supporting the apprenticeship ecosystem, that's a good place to check. Next slide, please. 

Here are some resources as we move through this morning's professional learning forum, please, we encourage you to put your questions in the chat ahead of time. We will monitor them. And we will get to them either as we are presenting content or during our Q&A later. 

So the first link here is to the slides that Chief Burnes presented in December. And this really gives a much more comprehensive overview of apprenticeships. So that's a good resource. That link that I mentioned that DAS has recently developed for registering preapprenticeships is your second link. 

And your third link is the apprenticeship program information search results. So if you're curious about what kinds of apprenticeships and apprenticeships exist in the state of California, they've recently come out with this search tool that I saw for the first time this week. Our committee was excited. And I think the field will be excited too. It's a really wonderful source of information. Next slide, please. At this time, I am delighted to introduce Dr. Sabrina Lopez, who serves as the apprenticeship lead at the Chancellor's Office. Dr. Lopez. 

SABRINA LOPEZ: Good morning, everybody. Can I have the next slide, please? Thank you so much for joining this morning. Today, I'm going to begin with a brief overview of the Workforce and Economic Development division, or WED, within the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office. WED's mission is to advance California's workforce by aligning community college programs with real labor and market needs. At its core, this work is about creating economic mobility for students, supporting employers, and strengthening California's economy with strong focus on equity and access. 

What WED does is connect education to employment. This division partners very closely with industry, labor, workforce boards, and community organizations to identify skills gaps and respond quickly to changing workforce demands. Through this work, WED supports career education programs, apprenticeships, preapprenticeships, and other work-based learning opportunities that help students move into high-quality jobs. Next slide, please. 

WED also plays a key role in driving innovation across the system. This includes supporting sector strategies, regional collaboration, and the development of programs aligned to California's priority industries, such as health care, advanced manufacturing, information technology, and clean energy. 

Another important focus of WED's work is expanding access to opportunity. The division prioritizes serving historically underserved populations and ensuring that workforce pathways lead to family-sustaining wages and long-term career advancement opportunities. In terms of impact, the California Community Colleges serve more than 2.1 million students across 116 California community colleges statewide. WED's efforts help ensure that this system remains a powerful engine for workforce development, economic growth, and social mobility across California. Next slide, please. 

So now shifting gears a bit to what the apprenticeship team in the WED division does. And our work really centers on two core functions, distributing funding and providing statewide technical support. The apprenticeship team is responsible for administering several key state investments that support both preapprenticeship and apprenticeship programs across the state for California Community Colleges and K-12 systems. These funds are designed to help educational institutions build, expand, and sustain high-quality apprenticeship programs that meet regional and industry workforce needs. 

One major funding stream supports related and supplemental instruction, or RSI, which covers the classroom and instructional component of registered apprenticeship programs. We distribute approximately $100 million annually to support both K-12 LEAs, as well as the California Community Colleges, and their affiliated organizations, such as county offices of education, adult schools, and so forth. 

These funds commonly support apprenticeships in the building, construction, and fire trades, although they may extend to support apprenticeship programs which are registered by the California Division of Apprenticeship Standards outside of the building and construction trades as well. 

It is mandatory to access RSI funding for the program to be registered by the DAS. And we do encourage dual registration with the US Department of Labor. The funds for RSI funding may not support preapprenticeship programs. And they do support the instructional hours of the apprenticeship program, not the paid on-the-job training hours. Those hours are also reported in NOVA by the K-12 LEA or California Community Colleges and may support apprenticeship-related expenses, including those shared by unions and other industry partners. 

Another major funding source that our office oversees is the California Apprenticeship Initiative, or CAI grant funding, which is intended to help colleges and K-12 LEAs implement new and innovative programs, expand existing ones, and strengthen partnerships with employers and labor. We distribute approximately $30 million annually through a competitive grant process within this funding source. And we do seek to expand the amount of funding available for future fiscal years. 

This program funds new and innovative sectors outside of the building, construction, and fire trades, and must be built on strong labor market information from the centers of excellence. Some popular industry sectors supported through this funding source include health care, education, advanced manufacturing, information technology, and more. 

The funds are currently organized by three application types, a preapprenticeship and an apprenticeship implementation grant, both of which are for up to $1.5 million for a total of three years, and an apprenticeship expansion grant, which is up to $1 million for a total of two years. 

Under Chancellor Christian's Vision 2030, we also oversee the Apprenticeship Pathways Demonstration Project, which supports 27 California Community College grantees by providing funding to support conversion of RSI instructional courses to credit-bearing courses in alignment with local certificate and degree pathways. Another major objective for this initiative is to establish a credit for prior learning infrastructure, especially to support preapprentices, apprentices, and working adults. 

Now, a second major function of the apprenticeship team at the Chancellor's Office is to provide statewide technical support. To do this work, we partner very closely with organizations such as the Foundation for California Community Colleges, the LAUNCH Apprenticeship Network, Jobs for the Future, and others. The Foundation for California Community Colleges is critical for supporting and developing guidance, documents, toolkits, organizing webinars, and other statewide apprenticeship convenience. 

The LAUNCH Apprenticeship Network supports LEAs by having a master catalog of approved standards, which LEAs may leverage, thereby streamlining their DAS and DOL program approval process. They also support by building capacity as they have hired regional apprenticeship managers to support each of the eight regional WED consortia, as well as several coordinators who are really focused on statewide employer engagement, credit for prior learning, and contract education. Next slide, please. 

We have a number of resources available through our multiple apprenticeship web pages. And we hold virtual office hours every second and fourth Tuesday of the month from 2:00 to 3:00 PM, where you may join at any time to ask us questions that you may have. You can also reach us directly via email at apprenticeship@cccco.edu. And we are happy to support, provide guidance, and answer any questions you may have. I also strongly encourage you to subscribe to our WED email list, as critical memos, funding opportunities, and other information is often announced via this platform. Thank you so much. And I will pass it back to Dr. Takami. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Thank you so much, Dr. Lopez, for that comprehensive overview. It's really helpful for us here at CAEP TAP as well as the practitioners present today, and many who are not present today, to have this information. But rest assured, we will be disseminating it through the CalAdult website. And I really encourage everyone to check out the links. Dr. Lopez, could you, for those who may be new to the apprenticeship ecosystem, tell us what is meant by an LEA? 

SABRINA LOPEZ: Yes. So an LEA is a local educational agency. It's essentially the related supplemental instruction provider for a registered apprenticeship program or preapprenticeship program. The LEA can be a K-12 agency, or it could be a California Community College. They would then be included on the program standards that are submitted to the DAS. And they would be responsible for providing the RSI to the students. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Very helpful. Thank you so much. Next slide, please. At this time, I am delighted to introduce Roberto Vasquez, who serves as associate dean of instruction and student services at Santiago Canyon College, and Cristina Morones, who serves as health coordinator at Santiago Canyon College. And I will turn it over to them. Thank you. 

CRISTINA MORONES: Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for the introduction. And Dr. Lopez-- so I work at Santiago Canyon College. We were actually the recipients of a CAI grant. It was a $120,000 CAI grant for us to be able to do planning for our apprenticeship program. So we're really excited. Without that support, we wouldn't be able to be here to present the work that we're doing at SCC. So thank you for that. Next slide, please. 

So what I'm here to talk about today is the certified nursing apprenticeship program that we developed at Santiago Canyon College in the division of noncredit. My role is the faculty coordinator. And really, one of the key things that is really important to us is for us to have really good program design that is functional not only for our students, for the college, and for our industry partners. 

Early on, we really wanted to do an apprenticeship program specifically with CNA. And when we reached out to our skilled nursing facilities, we encountered some pushback, because it's a big liability to have people who haven't been trained to just go and start working with patients and do hands-on care. So we really didn't get buy-in in that space. But we really thought that the certified nursing assistant program apprenticeship is a valuable program that we wanted to implement. So we really had to get creative. 

Now, we might not have buy-in from skilled nursing facilities, but what we did have is we had a lot of caregiver companies reaching out to us all the time, trying to hire our students, and telling us, we don't have enough people to take care of the aging population in Orange County. We'll hire your students right off the bat. And that actually-- ding ding-- gave us a little light bulb. There is a lot of cross-standards across skills and tasks between a caregiver and a nursing assistant. 

We also offer a caregiver program here at SCC, where we really teach our students how to take care of somebody safely in their home. And we cover-- honestly, the curriculum that we implemented for caregiver is a lot of the theory portion of our CNA program. The only thing is that we teach students how to do things safely without having, let's say, a bed that lifts up and down, because they might not have access to certain technologies in the home. 

So what we decided to do is to do a certified nursing apprenticeship program where students are actually getting their hands-on training while they're being caregivers. So as part of the program design, students actually start off as caregivers in our program. So they do take two of our caregiver classes. They give them that foundational skill. We still want them to prepare-- safety has always been an issue in this space, because you're working with patients. So we want to make sure that students know basic caregiving skills before they transition to the workforce. 

So once we established that this is the space that we want to be in, we actually reached out to a lot of the caregiver partners in the area that were reaching out to us already. And we said, hey, would you be interested in hiring our students to be caregivers? You pay them while, at the same time, our students are going to be enrolled in a certified nursing program. 

So as they work with you as a caregiver, just by the process of being in a program, their skills are going to increase. So in the beginning, they might be able to be sitters. But as in the classroom they start learning more technical and advance their skill set, they're going to be able to perform more additional tasks and care of patients that require more care. 

So they thought it was a great idea. And we brought in multiple industry partners. We reviewed the O*NET code, all the different skills and tasks, so that we can come up with our standards for our program design. 

So the way that our program is designed is students are going to take two classes. Then we're going to transition them. There is an interview process. So our employers did want to interview students, talk to them, transition them to the workforce. And at the same time, the apprenticeship students are going to get priority registration into our CNA program, which is really impacted, is one of our most popular programs. And so now while they're getting paid learning those skills, they're also going to be in the classroom, learning theory, and working at a long-term skilled nursing facility as part of their training. 

So there's different checkpoints, additionally, that we do with our students. We have a really good onboarding classified team. I really cannot stress enough, this is-- it says, raising children takes a village. Creating these programs takes a village, too, because we have touchpoints. 

We have a really good classified health staff that supports a lot of our health care pathways, not only from-- we do orientations because we want to make sure that students are aware of what the apprenticeship program is, how would they benefit from participating in the program. And maybe it might not be for them. We tell them what are the paperwork, what's required, how do they even register. So we give them all that information ahead of time. 

And then we have a lot of touchpoints with students. First, the orientations. Then they're in the class with the teacher, but we're still connecting with them, meeting with them, making sure that they're on a pathway to transition. At the same time, we're working with our employers. OK. What are the need-- how many caregivers can you take on in your business? Where can we onboard our students? 

So once our students are ready, then that handoff from the classroom to the employer is also seamless, because there's some paperwork that we have to do there. And then just getting them registered in our theory and CNA program, and checking in how they're doing-- do you need help? And our faculty are great, because you also need faculty involvement. 

We have the great opportunity that we also participate in ELL Pathways. So our faculty communicate with each other, not only with the ASL instructor. The caregiver instructor communicates with instructor that's teaching CNA. They all communicate with me. We really want to make sure that the students feel supported every step of the way while they're enrolled in our CNA apprenticeship program. 

And then, yes, our program is-- our students can complete it within six months and a day. It could be earlier, depending on when they register for that caregiver class in the beginning. And then like I said, throughout the program. I think one of the most valuable things is just staying connected with your industry partners, your students, and then having a really strong team who has buy-in and really have the same goal of supporting our students. So that's where program design is. And then I'm now going to take it away to Roberto Vasquez, where he's actually going to talk about the application process for SCC. 

ROBERTO VASQUEZ: Awesome. Thank you, Cristina. Can we go to the next slide? So I'm here to talk about what actually we did all in the back end to get this program launched. So for us, it's been almost a year program process. We started about last January. You'll see there that it's a single employer partner. That's how we submitted our applications. But it actually started as a multi-employer partnership. 

We have close relationships with caregiver industry here in the Orange County area, specifically within the city of Orange. So we were able to bring three employers in and have these conversations about what this apprenticeship program could look like, what it means for them, and how we could collaborate on this, and then what these applications look like. 

Ultimately, we got them to agree on all points that we needed. And two of them were tension points, where the wages and the programs of standards-- as far as wages, if you're familiar with the ETPs, what sets that baseline or that threshold of what the wages need to be for the area of Orange, it's $19.32. 

The conversation with all three different employer partners was that that wasn't necessarily what they were offering their employees that they were hiring for their businesses. But ultimately, we got them. Two of them were just under $19.32. And then one of them was actually above, which was not a problem. So it worked out as far as ultimately getting them all into agreement for them to offer that wage. 

Now, as far as program standards, Cristina talked about the alignment that we found with the caregiver programming and the certified nursing assistant programming. And so the skills and the competencies were, to a degree, very aligned. These are skills that folks would be learning regardless of what health care area they were in. 

But we spent quite a bit of time on just a few of them, trying to look at them from different perspectives and of seeing if our students, our apprentices, would be actually gaining these skills. Because if you're familiar with the DAS application, it's a bit different from the Department of Labor, is that there's a 75% threshold in meeting the competencies. So you need to, as a program, in collaboration with our employer partners, need to essentially say that, yes, our students are going to walk away with these skills, which is different from the Department of Labor. 

So, ultimately, when we got all of that done, it took us about four months. So I would say about March or April, we essentially had our very first application package together and ready to ship out. That was done in close coordination with a DAS consultant, Linda Mount, who was extremely helpful from day one, walked us through the process. They actually have a full package that walks you through all the different steps, everything that you need to put together, and how you could collaborate with your employer partners. 

At that point, the institution was going through a little bit of change. And we were assigned an outside support organization, DIAG USA. And then interestingly, simultaneously, DAS actually updated their applications. So we were going through all these different transitional points at that time. 

So in the end, DIAG USA came in, helped us through that new process. And as we worked on that-- it took a little bit longer because we had to rehash some things that changed in the application process and ultimately submitted our applications in October. 

And interestingly, the DOL-- we just found out on Monday. So we're still over here, living on that high of getting it approved by the Department of Labor. As far as the DAS application, we've actually been lucky enough to hear some great things, saying that it has been shared with the administration and that it is something that they're highlighting. 

So we're very excited about that. And we expect approval. I mean, we're-- fingers crossed for approval. But everything is working out in our favor right now. So that was the entire application process for us. We are in February of 2026. I think we could have submitted just a little bit earlier, but ultimately about a year. Thank you. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Wonderful. Well, Associate Dean Vasquez, thank you very much for this presentation. I saw Dean Adams nodding his head in excitement about what is going on at Santiago Canyon College. Can we have the next slide, please? OK. So Cristina, did you want to talk about this resource? 

CRISTINA MORONES: Actually, I don't think this is one of our resources. Maybe we can-- 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: OK. I'll go ahead and just encourage everyone else to take a look at this growing equitable apprenticeship toolkit. All of the resources presented today are to support the CAEP field in developing these preapprenticeship-to-apprenticeship pathways. 

It was very important, I think, for us to hear about the different funding sources. So on the CAEP side, CAEP funds preapprenticeship. And then on the apprenticeship side, you heard about the different funding sources Dr. Lopez mentioned. And then in December-- contained in the slides-- Chief Burnes mentioned the COYA grants and the other sources of funding that are available through the Division of Apprenticeship Standards. Next slide, please. And with that, I will turn it over to my esteemed colleague, Dulce Delgadillo. Dulce. 

DULCE DELGADILLO: Hi, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us this morning and to our presenters for showcasing and sharing so many resources about the great work that's being done out there. So we're going to go ahead and open it up for questions. So I'm checking on the chat here. I see a lot of resources. Thank you. And I see some updates from Dean Gary Adams on ELL Health Care Pathways. Do we have any pressing questions for our presenters or just in general? 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Please feel free to come off of mic and/or put something in the chat. Yes, we will be-- all of our webinars and professional learning forums will be posted on the CalAdult website after it is remediated. And Chandni, if I could ask you to put the link to where our webinar recordings are housed within that CAEP website, that would be very helpful. 

I know one question that Dulce and I were talking about prior to the webinar is we want to make sure that folks understand the difference between when we're talking about internship or externship and apprenticeships. So internships and externships, I'm going to turn that over to Dulce, and then I'll come back to the apprenticeship distinction. Dulce. 

DULCE DELGADILLO: Yeah. So within the context of-- we're a standalone noncredit institution, but we were having this conversation as part of our district community college strategic planning. And so this action item and this goal at a large district level was actually around building partnerships with industry partners within our region and looking at facilitating not just the skills within the classrooms, but the partnerships with those employers. 

And the question that came up was, do we use internship, externships, apprenticeship, preapprenticeships? What is the difference between all of those? And is there a difference specifically within the realm of credit and noncredit? We know that preapprenticeship is very much used in noncredit. 

And so we know that is part of the realms within CAEP. But what does that look like, capturing apportionment potentially on a regular-- just apprenticeship for noncredit. And what does that look like? And how do you determine what works best for your institution and for your students? Because, honestly, now you're going to have a set of preapprenticeship, apprenticeship, internships, externships. 

And I don't know-- my question is also, are all of those allowable, or where are those allowable? Now, I don't know if Dr. Lopez, if that-- you could maybe provide some guidance on that or somebody from WEDD in terms of how each of those buckets is being operationalized within the system. 

SABRINA LOPEZ: Yes. Absolutely. So I included a link in the chat to the Grow Apprenticeship California funding matrix. It outlines all the different funding sources. Not only the ones that are overseen by the Chancellor's Office, but including those overseen by DAS and other state agencies that could support some of these programs it outlines, which-- any deliverables, or eligibility requirements, and so forth. 

And then one other thing that I would also recommend is-- before coming to the Chancellor's Office, I was an apprenticeship director at one of our California Community Colleges. And it would really be a local decision on what funding sources to leverage and potentially braid as long as funding sources are not double-funding the same expenses. 

I recommend working very closely with the district office to perform a profit analysis, to look at the different options available, and to see which ones are most beneficial for your local institution to leverage. And at that point, it would really be at the discretion of the college or campus leadership to determine which funding source to utilize. 

DULCE DELGADILLO: Thank you. That's very helpful. Mayra, I see your hand. 

MAYRA DIAZ: Thank you, Dulce. And then also to Gary's comment, as we've been elevating preapprenticeship for the CAEP audience, we continue to elevate that, under CAEP, one of the allowable use of funds is the preapprenticeship aspect. 

So if you are a recipient of CAEP funds and you are looking at your program areas, preapprenticeship, developing those pathways, is one of those allowable use of funds. So we're really looking to elevate that opportunity of CAEP funding that you may be receiving locally. 

In addition, ELL Health Care Pathways was brought up earlier in the chat. And so we just want to raise that as well, because that is a current funding opportunity. Up to $55 million in funding under round three is currently available for you to apply as a consortium to develop health care pathways, leveraging accelerated learning models. And one of those accelerated learning models that we're talking about today can be a preapprenticeship model that maybe you already have, or you're in the middle of starting, or you're looking at starting. 

That is an opportunity that is currently available, with available funding up to $55 million. And we're looking-- the application for this round three RFA closes March 18. And we will be granting up to 25 awards. So just wanted to elevate that those are two current available sources of funding. Thank you. 

DULCE DELGADILLO: Great. Thank you, Mayra. That's very helpful. And I'm seeing in the chat here, from Dean Gary Adams, preapprenticeship and apprenticeship are the preferred pathways. There's many benefits as opposed to internships and externships. So definitely tapping into those resources I saw, actually, on that DIR-- thank you, Sabrina, for putting that in there-- that's how you can contact your DAS. There is a whole link in there-- I just clicked on it-- that you can contact. So definitely inquiring with them. 

And I love that approach. I'm a researcher at heart. So definitely looking at, what do you have right now, doing an assessment of what makes sense, and then coming together, so that you're not duplicating efforts-- and you're also making sure that you're addressing the needs of the student population and the industry as well. Any other questions? You got experts in the room here. So definitely take advantage. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: So while we're waiting for questions, Dulce-- and we have the gift of time, which we almost never have-- I'm wondering if our colleagues from Santiago Canyon might discuss or share a little bit more about those developmental building blocks, because we do know, having worked with some of our other CAEP partners and practitioners, that there are building blocks. There are sometimes stumbling blocks, memos, MOUs, and those kinds of things. So Cristina and Roberto, if you might come off of mic and just share with our audience a little bit of the building process at Santiago Canyon. 

ROBERTO VASQUEZ: I could start. Cristina, you could follow me and fill in all my gaps. Interestingly, Santiago Canyon College has Elizabeth Arteaga. She's the dean of apprenticeships here. And she's actually working very closely with the Chancellor's Office on apprenticeships. So we had that support system getting an understanding of how they approach it on the credit side, because this is a brand new process and program here on the noncredit side with continuing education. 

But ultimately, when we were facing a lot of challenges, Linda was really our person. She just has such an expanded view of the process for DAS. Some of her support and information that she gave us actually helped us with the Department of Labor application, because there's a lot of parallels to it. 

I mean, she guided us, I think-- when I spoke to the tension points about a wage and the competencies, initially, we weren't sure how to actually approach that with employer partners, because they see it from a practical sense of what they're doing in the field, from a business perspective, what those wages actually mean and how it could impact their internal cultures. 

So Linda actually came into that. We started having meetings not just with employer partners by ourselves as an institution or a program. We brought Linda in and had these conversations, because she could provide the expertise to answer some of the questions that we didn't have the history at that point to actually do. 

But yeah, I mean, ultimately putting the process together-- I know it took us quite a while to actually submit by October. It's going to sound weird, but it actually was not complicated. It was fairly straightforward. I think the employer partner's enthusiasm for us just made the process really easy. They were onboard from the very beginning. They've reached out to us in different capacities, trying to work with us to help train our students and even create a pipeline for employment to them. So this transition to an apprenticeship, from my experience, just kind of felt natural. Cristina. 

CRISTINA MORONES: Yeah. I guess the only thing I can add to that is, in Orange County, there's a huge need already. So employers really need our students. They need a workforce, and they're willing to work with us. I will say, Rob, we definitely hit boots on the pavement though. So even though employers are really interested in working with us, sometimes we met at their place of work, because they couldn't come, so that we can advocate for our program and give them a little bit of guidance and clarity of what it is that we're asking for. 

And I think, for me, that was the hardest conversation, how to navigate those conversations with our industry partners, because it's different when I have the conversation of like, hey, can you give me access for our students to train at your facility?, than, hey, I need you to pay my students. I also need you to give them a pay increase at a time that they're upskilling. So navigating those conversations, I think, were a little bit more challenging for me. 

But I think it worked that-- Rob and I, I think we worked well together where I can talk about program development and our students and give them the story about why it's important for them to do this work with the college, and then Rob comes in with, OK, now let's talk about the actual process. I think it's almost like good cop, bad cop. And I'm sorry, Rob, but I think I'm the good cop in this situation. So I think that's one of the most challenging conversations that I had here in the institution as the development of this program. 

And I'm just going to make a really quick comment, because we're talking about preapprenticeship as well. And I'm thinking, our students have to take two caregiver classes before they even enter apprenticeship program. Why don't I just create a preapprenticeship program and add some ELL support classes so that pipeline can be a little bit clearer? And it just dawned on me right now, in this space. So new application coming soon, guys. 

DULCE DELGADILLO: I love it when that happens. Maryanne, I see your hand. Thank you for joining us today. 

MARYANNE GALINDO: Hi, friends. Long time. I have a question for the designers on the call of Santiago or whichever project. Are you framing out yet any type of noncredit-to-credit option in terms of, for example, noncredit work experience in your preapprenticeships co-op ed, which is a credit discipline in your apprenticeship, like looking at scaffolding and integrating structures for documenting their experience and their portfolios in that way that basically helps you level up from preapprenticeship to apprenticeship? Framing out what's the space for those two types of experience, have you explored that yet? 

CRISTINA MORONES: Right now, Santiago Canyon College is really in early conversations about credit. And maybe I'm not understanding the question, but are we talking about more like credit for prior learning? 

MARYANNE GALINDO: No, no. I love credit for prior learning. I'm saying, in your actual instructional design for your CNA certificate, are you embedding, for example, noncredit work experience course, so that they can then capture, in that space, their portfolio and document all of that wonderful stuff? Are you doing it even before that? Basically, there's a conversation about, how do we show noncredit to credit in the work experience side? And noncredit has that space, and then co-op is the credit side. Just curious if you're scaffolding that way. 

CRISTINA MORONES: You know what? I don't necessarily think we're scaffolding in that specific way. I know that we're having a lot of conversations because we're also developing an LVN program. And we are trying to see how we can create pathways between noncredit CNA, LVN, and then the credits associate degree in nursing in those spaces, but not specifically with the course that you mentioned. And honestly might be a gap in my knowledge. I'm not really too familiar with that. So maybe we can connect after, Maryanne. 

MARYANNE GALINDO: No, I think it's an innovative space. There's no gap in your knowledge. It's a new, trending thing. And so when I think of our ELL learners and whatnot, I want them to have a space in terms of job readiness and whatnot, to honor, through noncredit work experience, their actual lived experience as a structure that helps them explain everything that they bring to the table already and supporting CPL. 

So we can have structures that build that sequence out. And I don't see why we wouldn't want to embed it into a preapprenticeship certificate or something to that effect. So there's nothing you're missing. I'm just thinking like a crazy human lady, like normal, and trying to figure out ways to enhance our curricular structures for the students that we're working with. So I remember you from the ACE conference. And happy to talk more with you, Cristina, whenever you want. 

CRISTINA MORONES: Thank you, Maryanne. 

GARY ADAMS: Oh. Dulce? 

DULCE DELGADILLO: Yes. Go ahead, Dean Adams. 

GARY ADAMS: I just wanted to say a couple things. Firstly, I would like to commend Maryanne Galindo to everyone on this call. I am amazed at her ability as a faculty liaison between the noncredit and credit worlds. 

I strongly urge everyone on this call that's looking at a CNA to VPN to RN pathway, so to take it from noncredit to credit, to get in contact with Maryanne. Not that I want to overwhelm her, but I think she is an expert in the field. 

She formerly was on our statewide Faculty Senate representing noncredit. She's a tremendous asset in the field. And, Cristina, I would strongly urge you to reach out to Maryanne. 

Secondly, I want to lift up Charles Henkels and the LAUNCH Network. Do not do this work on your own. We have invested heavily in creating the only employer engagement network in the country, and that is-- the acronym is LAUNCH. 

Charles Henkels and his staff-- there's both a statewide hub as well as regional directors. And each one of those regional directors has a CPL coordinator as well as a contract education coordinator. 

So when you're looking for employer partners-- and I really commend Roberto and Cristina for their program-- please work with our LAUNCH network, our employer engagement network. And they can also connect you to our contract education resources. 

Lastly, I want to lift up Crystal Nasio. She is the apprenticeship CPL executive advisor supporting the Chancellor's Office. She's fantastic. She works directly with Charles Henkels and his staff. They're all coordinated by Dr. Lopez and her team. 

We have lots of resources to help you create these K-14 noncredit-to-credit pathways. And please reach out and utilize these resources. Thank you, Dulce. 

DULCE DELGADILLO: Thank you so much, Dean Adams. Yes, lots of resources. We've placed them into the chat, a lot of links in there. Reminder that this will be shared out. The links all on the web-- on the PowerPoint will also be shared out. 

And not only that, but we are here to build community. We are inventing wheels, as I say to a lot of my team. And so we're really here to hear, to learn to see what is scalable, where we can take-- what are some tidbits and tools and tangible action items that we can take back to our local ecosystems so that we can continue doing this important work. 

Do we have any other questions? Anything else? Again, we have some expertise in the room here. So do not be shy. Any other questions or any other comments? Or if you have a resource, or a tool, or something that you want to share in this space, please let us know. 

OK. Well, we have a couple more slides. So if you have any questions, please feel free to unmute yourself, raise your hand, or to put it in the chat. So I'm going to wrap us up here. So as we close out, it's really important for us to hear what is happening on the ground. And the only way we can do that is to hear from you, who's doing the work on the ground. So please give us that feedback. 

We are housed in a research department. So we look at this data. We talk about this data. And we use this data to improve your experience, hopefully, and our deliverables. So please, if you could take the two to three minutes that it would take you to do the survey, you can go ahead and scan it with the QR code on your phone, and that would give us the very valuable information. 

I also want to just highlight that if you have not seen, there are tons of email addresses in that chat. I would copy and paste them and maybe place them in your digital rolodex to use them as resources and maybe just building your local tribe in being able to have these discussions. 

The next resource I want to guide you to is our CC TAP listserv-- so we update this in collaboration with our great partners at Sacramento County of Education-- where we distribute very critical information that is coming out for CAEP, for CDE, for Chancellor's Office. Everything that is within both of our ecosystems, we are sharing within this listserv. 

So please take the time. If you have not yet, subscribed. You can do that a variety of ways. You can do that through the QR code. Or you can subscribe through the listserv at the Chancellor's Office. So this is very-- you do not need to be a community college in order to be on the listserv. It's literally open to anybody. So if you just want to be informed of what's happening in the CAEP land, please feel free to register. 

If you're interested in technical assistance or want to just get in touch with us to talk about CAEP, to talk about ELL Health Care Pathways, to talk about anything that's coming up, apprenticeship, preapprenticeship, all of those pieces, there is the contact information. You can directly contact us, and we will be routing your request and technical assistance request accordingly. 

A couple more slides and feedback pieces. We are very much grounded in doing this work in collaboration with people from the field. And you have the expertise. We do not pretend to have the expertise on it all, but we are the gatherers of the experts so that we can share those resources. 

So if you are an expert in any of these, adult education, noncredit-- dual enrollment is a hot topic-- noncredit student services, CAEP evaluation, any of these pieces, please let us know. We will make it very painless for you to share your expertise. And we would really appreciate it if we could just continue building this community of learning to serve our students. 

With that, I want to thank all of you for spending your morning hour with us this morning. I hope you have a great rest of your day. Thank you so much for the conversation, for the knowledge-sharing, for the community-building. We are sharing here some contact information, myself and Lisa's, but also Dr. Lopez and Roberto Vasquez from Santiago Canyon. 

Thank you so much from the Chancellor's Office. Thank you so much for engaging, for listening to us. And another shout out just to Dean Gary Adams and to the Chancellor's Office for participating and sharing some valuable resources with us. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us. Thank you for all of the work that all of you are doing. It is critical for our communities. And I hope you have a great rest of your day. Have a good one, everybody. 

LISA MEDNICK TAKAMI: Thank you, everybody. 

GARY ADAMS: Thank you.