Excerpted from a story by Julia Fennell shared on Colorado Newsline on November 26, 2021.
Colorado is in the process of creating a State Apprenticeship Agency, a move that some say will expand opportunities for residents to gain valuable skills. The agency will give the state, rather than the federal government, the authority to register apprenticeship programs in Colorado as well as establish standards for these programs.
On June 23, Governor Jared Polis signed House Bill 21-1007, the legislation that will establish a Colorado State Apprenticeship Agency. The legislation appropriates $485,249 to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment to fund the new agency.
Some occupations, such as carpentry, construction, musical instrument repair and electrical work, typically require an apprenticeship to begin, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Cell technicians, IT systems administrators and hardware hackers were recently-approved apprenticeship occupations, according to the government’s apprenticeship agency website. There are also approved apprenticeships in other fields, including software development, cybersecurity, massage therapy, animal care and cosmetology. The governmental agency maintains a list of approved apprenticeship occupations.
Colorado’s new state agency will not be an official state apprenticeship agency until it is recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), said Katherine Keegan, the director of the Office of the Future of Work, which is overseeing the state apprenticeship agency. The Office of the Future of Work, created by a governor’s executive order in 2019, works to prepare for Colorado’s future economy with the rise of globalization and advances in technology.
The apprenticeship agency will work to promote programs so that more Coloradans can “access these critical training opportunities, which to-date have jump-started the careers of nearly 2 million Americans in the last decade,” Colorado House Democrats wrote in a May press release.
The new state agency would work with businesses and organizations offering apprenticeship programs in Colorado to provide technical assistance to help the businesses create and meet apprenticeship program standards, according to the press release.
Some proponents of the bill say more state control over apprenticeships may reduce the time it takes for an apprenticeship to be registered.
State Reps. Tom Sullivan and David Ortiz, and state Sens. Jessie Danielson and Robert Rodriguez introduced the bill in February. Other Colorado government officials signed on as co-sponsors, including Reps. Brianna Titone and Alec Garnett, current House Speaker, and Sen. Kerry Donovan, who recently suspended her campaign for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District due to redistricting.
OA state vs. SAA state
Colorado is currently an office of apprenticeship state, or an OA state. Over the next year and a half, Colorado’s apprenticeship agency will go through the process of building the standards and its plan, which it will then submit to the Department of Labor for recognition. Once recognized, Colorado will become an official State Apprenticeship Agency, or SAA, state, Keegan said.
In OA states, the registration and oversight of registered apprenticeship programs is done by federal DOL staff through state field offices, according to the American Association of Community Colleges website.
In SAA states, the registration and oversight of registered apprenticeship programs in the state is done by the state. The Department of Labor must recognize a state as an SAA prior to the state becoming one. Colorado aims to be recognized as an SAA state in 2023. The bill requires the State Apprenticeship Agency to begin accepting applications for the registration of apprenticeship programs on July 1, 2023.
The State Apprenticeship Council oversees registered apprenticeship programs in Colorado and ensures that registered programs are compliant with state and federal laws and standards. The council will be made up of 16 members.
Colorado has been awarded “a few different” federal grants that support registered apprenticeship expansion, which the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment and the Office of the Future of Work is administrating to support the adoption of apprenticeship programs, Keegan said.
If an employer in Colorado is interested in building a registered apprenticeship program now, they can contact one of Colorado’s apprenticeship consultants. The employer will need to go through the process of creating apprenticeship standards and work processes, and then the consultant will support the employer in submitting it to the DOL for approval, Keegan said.
The main difference between what happens now and what will happen once the state apprenticeship agency is recognized by the DOL is that once recognized, Colorado employers will submit their apprenticeship standards and work processes to the state instead of the DOL for approval.
Some people who testified against the bill during hearings cited concerns that creating a state apprenticeship agency will add more bureaucracy or make it more difficult for employers in Colorado to establish or get their apprenticeship programs registered.
Robert Cheney, the president and general manager of RK Electrical, testified against the bill at the May 24 hearing on HB-1007. RK Electrical is one of seven businesses owned by RK Industries, which offers construction, manufacturing and service solutions, according to its website. RK’s apprenticeship program was established 25 years ago as a way for unskilled employees to get a leg up in the construction industry, Cheney said at the hearing.
“Proponents of the bill say that they are not trying to create a political system, but their focus on the structure of the SAA oversight, governing board, and described implementation does exactly that,” Cheney said. “It puts the oversight and decision-making for an apprenticeship program approval into the hands of a structured and appointed board.”
Colorado employers are able to have apprenticeship programs that are not registered with the DOL, Keegan said. Registering an apprenticeship program can be a measure of a high quality apprenticeship program, because it shows that the program has achieved the standards required to be registered. Registering an apprenticeship program also allows the employer to access more funding to support apprenticeships, along with other resources.
Apprenticeships and internships are not the same thing, Keegan said. Registered apprenticeship programs require competency development over the course of the apprenticeship, and apprentices are required to receive on the job learning, related instruction, and mentorship on the job.
“It’s combining education, on the job learning, and engagement with the industry,” Keegan said. “Those competencies that are built over the course of the apprenticeship result in an industry-recognized credential.”
Ninety-four percent of apprentices who complete an apprenticeship program retain employment, and have an average annual salary of $70,000, according to an Office of Apprenticeship fact sheet, which was last updated in September 2020.
In fiscal year 2020 — October 1, 2019 through Sept. 30, 2020 — over 221,000 people across the country entered the apprenticeship system, according to the U.S. Apprenticeship program within the U.S. Employment and Training Administration. Over 80,000 apprentices graduated from the apprenticeship system during the 2020 fiscal year.
Employers who register their apprenticeship program with the U.S. Department of Labor show prospective job seekers that their program meets national quality standards, according to the fact sheet.
The U.S. Department of Labor found that, between 2011 and 2020, the number of new apprentices grew by 70% nationwide, according to a press release from the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.
Senate Bill 19-171 requires the CDLE to create and maintain a resource directory of registered apprenticeships in Colorado.
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