Apprenticeship & Nontraditional Employment for Women Programs
Apprenticeship Opportunities Project
ANEW has administered AOP for the Office of Port Jobs since the project’s inception in 1994. ANEW and AOP have been recognized by the Washington State Apprenticeship Training Council as an exemplary model for delivering services to clients. It is a lean delivery system that is customized to the individual’s specific employment readiness and goals. ANEW exceeded AOP 2011 apprenticeship placement goals by 171% and its combined placement goal (apprenticeships or livable wage jobs) by 117%. The average starting wage of 2011 AOP participants is $18.36 + benefits; if the total number of job placements is multiplied by this average, the total new wages brought back to the county economy is $3.2 million. ANEW’s AOP six-month retention rate – the percentage of people who entered, remained, and advanced in their apprenticeship – was 91% in 2011.Since the beginning of 2012, ANEW has placed 38 King County residents in registered apprenticeshipsANEW offers part-time, high quality PRE-APPRENTICESHIP TRAINING to help you enter non-traditional careers in construction trades and manufacturing. Our course is FREE* for most attendees and funded by government grants and industry donations.
ANEW provides enrollment and case management services to qualified veterans who are accepted into Veterans in Construction Electrical (VICE).
Scholarships
We are also pleased to announce the availability of 10 scholarships for Washington State women to the Vocational Outside Line Training Academy.
Recent Successes and Current Challenges
Leading Training Partners for the US Department of Labor Washington GreenWays Initiative
ANEW is the workforce lead in Western Washington for the recently awarded GreenWays Initiative Fund. This grant, led by SkillUp Washington and Jobs for the Future, is a national project advancing women and people of color in construction trades and energy efficiency career paths. The Washington GreenWays project specifically links pre-apprentices to registered apprenticeships and will train and place at least 166 women, veterans and people of color in electrical, utilities and construction trades living wage jobs through June 2014. To date, ANEW has enrolled nearly 50 women in its trades rotation program.
Coordinating the 2nd Pacific Northwest Apprenticeship Education Conference
ANEW is the lead coordinator of the Pacific Northwest Apprenticeship Education Conference. The inaugural event held in May 2010 brought together over 500 people from 7 states and two countries to educate workforce, college, community, business and labor leaders in innovative apprenticeship programs and practices. This year, the conference was held on April 17 and was co-sponsored with British Columbia.
Supporting community hires for the Bullitt Foundation Cascadia Project
ANEW is contracted with Cascadia LLC to support the community hiring and diversity inclusion on the privately-constructed Bullitt Foundation. When complete, this building will surpass the 2030 Living Challenge goals for green and efficient construction. The City of Seattle – Office of Economic Development specifically connected ANEW to the Bullitt Foundation for this endeavor, as we are the regionally known, neutral broker of AOP support services, and can refer potential and qualified hires and diverse apprentices from numerous pre-apprenticeship and registered apprenticeship programs.
Recruiting and Case Managing the Veterans in Construction Electrical Program (VICE)
VICE is a 14-week, accelerated apprenticeship with 100% placement into the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (at all local IBEW unions in Washington State). The need for expanded AOP service is compounded by ANEW’s new role in recruiting and case managing veteran electrical apprentices this partner program. The Puget Sound Electrical Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee and ANEW hold a direct entry agreement for AOP candidates who qualify for VICE, which is a first of its kind in Washington.
Producing the “Recruitment and Retention of Women in Washington’s Apprenticeships” workshops statewide and nationally
Thanks to a grant from Women’s Funding Alliance, ANEW produced and offers this informative and interactive workshop to help apprenticeship programs improve their external and internal marketing, monitoring and evaluation processes. This workshop has been offered across Washington and the content featured at the Peer to Peer Learning Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and the National Association of Workforce Boards Conference in Washington, DC.