Implementing a Registered Apprenticeship Program

The video starts with a problem employers across the country face: positions remain open, turnover remains high, and costs continue to rise. This how-to for City of San Antonio Workforce Development answers with a registered apprenticeship, in four phases: explore, build and partner, register, and implement and launch.

Phase one is explore: look at where it’s hard to hire or keep talent, and which critical skills are lacking. The video calls Apprenticeship.gov “a great place to start,” along with your local apprenticeship training representative, and notes that apprenticeships now “go far beyond traditional trades,” into IT, cybersecurity, finance and healthcare.

In phase two, build and partner, you plan the skills apprentices will gain through hands-on work, the training that supports it, and how their pay will increase as they develop new skills. “Registration isn’t just paperwork,” the video says. Registering with the Department of Labor or your state apprenticeship agency, it explains, gives a program access to free support, funding opportunities and tax credits.

Phase four is implement and launch. You train your mentors and start recruiting apprentices. Then the video says to celebrate: promote the program on social media, issue a press release and invite local media. It says a City of San Antonio apprenticeship representative can guide employers through every phase. At seven minutes, it’s the longest of the 10 videos we made for the department.