The Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee (AJAC) recently partnered with the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership (WRTP) on a multi-state effort to encourage more women to enter into technical apprenticeship programs. WRTP was recently awarded a federal Department of Labor grant to support the Raise Women’s Success in Apprenticeships (RWSA) network of multiple non-profits, Workforce Investment Boards, employers, and unions from the West Coast and Great Lakes regions who are building capacity to better engage women in apprenticeship pathways and help them succeed.
Ebonee Heller, the winner of 2019 Tradeswoman of the Year, graduated the AJAC apprenticeship in June.
The program will provide services and inform potential apprentices in multiple big market cities, such as Oakland, Seattle, Milwaukee, Twin Cities, and Detroit.
Washington State has 7,972 active apprentices, but of these only 1,654 are women, a notable 10% (data which also includes women-dominant occupations such as cosmetology). The formation of the group will allow women to gain access to opportunities in various male-dominant occupations, such as manufacturing, energy, IT and transportation.
RWSA seeks to build a learning network committed to sharing best practices that not only help recruit more women into apprenticeship pathways, but more effectively leverage available public resources that can help women succeed, such as provisionary training, tutoring, and connections to supportive services such as childcare and transportation. This support system will be invaluable to women as they prepare to enter fields where they have not historically been represented.
The systemic change anticipated to result from the partnership is planned to be transformational. RWSA will bring together networks that normally work separately but with similar goals: meeting workforce needs and helping underrepresented and low-income peoples gain access to better careers.
Learn more about the new initiative through one of our partners Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership (WRTP).
