Accelerator and NABTU promote Apprenticeship Readiness Programs at DOL's Good Jobs Summit

Dear Colleagues:
 
Last week, Accelerator for America’s Transit and Infrastructure Program Manager Ross van Dongen attended the Department of Labor’s inaugural Good Jobs Summit where he led a workshop around the vision of our Gold Standard Playbook for Workforce Development. The gathering convened public, private and philanthropic leaders focused on advancing good jobs and equitable workforce development, especially through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The Accelerator was thrilled to see the Summit dedicate time to local priorities, with a panel featuring Mayors Lacey Beaty (Beaverton), Paige Cognetti (Scranton), Brandon Scott (Baltimore) and Ben Walsh (Syracuse). The mayors highlighted the unique hurdles cities face with IIJA implementation and using their offices’ local convening power to create coalitions to traverse those hurdles.

Mainstage speakers and panels from the Good Jobs Summit Plenary. Clockwise from the top: Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu, Deputy Secretary Panel with Labor Dep. Sec. Julie Su, Mayoral Panel with Teresa Acuña (DOL)

A key theme of the Summit was the need to strongly prioritize Apprenticeship and Pre-Apprenticeship opportunities and training programs, especially for women and communities of color. This is core to our mission at AFA and, as part of a multi-pronged strategy around local implementation of the IIJA (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law), the Accelerator has partnered with the North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) to implement and expand NABTU’s Apprenticeship Readiness Programs in cities and communities across the country using funding streams provided by the American Rescue Plan Act. 
 
NABTU’s Apprenticeship Readiness Programs (ARPs) provide a gateway for local residents to gain access to Building Trades’ registered apprenticeship programs – the first step toward skilled careers with good pay and benefits. These pathway programs seek to increase the retention rate among apprentices and increase the number of candidates for apprenticeships across all trades with deep focus on increasing the diversity of apprenticeship candidates by recruiting women, from communities of color, veterans, and the justice-involved. NABTU’s programs embody the vision of our Gold Standard Playbook for Workforce Development - a product we were proud to present to the Summit's attendees with WSP USA's, Denise Turner Roth, alongside our partners at NABTU and Acting Assistant Secretary for the Employment and Training Administration, Brent Parton, during the summit’s breakout sessions. Melissa Wells, NABTU’s Special Assistant to the President for Diversity and Inclusion, joined the breakout to highlight some of NABTU’s 180 Apprenticeship Readiness programs across the country, including Syracuse's Apprenticeship Readiness Program, Syracuse Build. Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh, Syracuse Build Director Chris Montgomery, and Centerstate CEO’s Aimee Durffee, attended to speak on the program's MC3 curriculum and celebrate its third cohort of students, currently in session. Mayor Walsh shared how Syracuse and New York State’s Interstate 81 project has spurred a huge demand for access to training and job opportunities in the city - “Our first cohort had 20 slots. There’s a narrative that people don’t want to work — we had 450 applications. People want to work but they want to work for a living wage and a career.”

Accelerator for America Good Jobs Summit Breakout Session. From left to right: Ross van Dongen (AFAA), Asst. Sec. for ETA Brent Parton (DOL), Denise Turner Roth (WSP USA), Melissa Wells (NABTU), Mayor Ben Walsh (City of Syracuse), Chris Montgomery (Syracuse Build), Aimee Durfee (Centerstate CEO)

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provides $350 billion to state, local, territorial and Tribal governments to respond to the economic impacts of COVID-19 and Apprenticeship Readiness Programs fall under this category by providing job training services that prepare unemployed and underemployed workers for high quality careers in the construction industry.

To learn more about this effort to link workers with careers that build community wealth, please contact Melissa Wells at mwells@nabtu.org or Ross van Dongen at ross@acceleratorforamerica.org.