How to speak apprenticeship, part 2

You're a little ways into your apprenticeship journey now, and you know the basics. Maybe you even got there from the first post in this series, How to speak apprenticeship, part 1? Now, what's next?

It's time to start getting into some of the more intermediate apprenticeship terms. Let's start with a few of the acronyms you may run into.

ETPL

ETPL stands for Eligible Training Provider List. In part 1 on apprenticeship terms, we explained that you'll need to come up with Apprenticeship Standards that include a plan for Related Instruction. The ETPL list in your state often lists which organizations you can leverage to implement that related instruction. Now, you do not always have to use one of these organizations. You may find that your organization, with the right staff, can serve the classroom portion of the apprenticeship. But, this is a good place to start if you're looking for outside help. Also, if you're an education or curriculum provider, yourself, you're going to want to figure out how to get on this list for the states you operate in. These wont be apprenticeship-specific, but you can find examples like California's ETPL or Virginia's ETPL (click Training Services) for context.

LEA

While on the topic, here's one specifically for apprenticeships in the golden state. In California, if you want to register with the Division of Apprenticeship Services, you'll need to work with a LEA, or Local Education Agency. A LEA is a public education agency that partners with a program sponsor and the Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS) to provide education for registered apprenticeship programs.

LEAs are usually community colleges, local adult schools, or county offices of education, but universities technically qualify as well. It just hasn't been their purview to be involved in apprenticeship historically, but there are signs of that changing. Working with an LEA can mean one of two things. They may administer all of the courses in your program so you work with them directly. Or, the LEA may simply write a memo signing off on your related instruction outline as sufficient and relevant for your industry. The latter option is the option typically used by sole sponsors or union programs that have their own training centers. Finding the right LEA to sign-off is a bit opaque so try asking around in your area to find community colleges amenable to this type of agreement.

WIOA

WIOA is the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. According to Wikipedia, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act is a United States public law that replaced the previous Workforce Investment Act of 1998 as the primary federal workforce development legislation to bring about increased coordination among federal workforce development and related programs. So what does that mean for apprenticeship programs? Increasingly, any funding from the federal government is issued as WIOA grant funding. These funds are often issued with a 4 year timeline and come with quarterly reporting requirements.

Now, your apprenticeship program may be too small to sniff at WIOA funding, but it's highly likely that the funding you get from the state is coming from WIOA funding to the state office. If you're being asked to submit quarterly reports on your participants with nearly 100 different data points on each one, it's VERY likely your data is then rolled up by the state office for their own reporting to WIOA.

RAPIDS

RAPIDS is the Registered Apprenticeship Partners Information Database System. You can read a bit about it in the DOL's own words on apprenticeship.gov.

RAPIDS is not the place where you'll track apprentice progress in OJT, RTI, an wage progression on a regular basis, but it is where you'll officially register the apprentice, officially register your apprenticeship program. You'll also update RAPIDS whenever you complete an apprentice or they cancel out of your program. Think of it as the official enrollment record.

While there's nearly a dozen states that have their own system (like Washington's ARTS system), the majority of states use RAPIDS to track apprentice program and apprentice registration, even many SAA states. It's very likely that your program will use RAPIDS.

Apprenticeship Training Committee

In one of our recent articles on the need to make apprenticeship simpler, we mentioned that apprenticeship is, by nature, a multi-part agreement. Many apprenticeship programs are associated with the embodiment of this multi-part agreement and overseen by apprenticeship training committees. Apprenticeship training committees can be union-based, joint apprenticeship training committees or JATCs, or they can be non-union based Trades Apprenticeship Training Committees (TATCs). In some states, like Oregon, a committee is required to oversee an apprenticeship.

Committees usually meet monthly, hold formal meetings, vote on changes to the curriculum, confirm wage upgrades for apprentices, upcoming application dates, etc. to move the apprenticeship forward. If you're in a state that requires this, or if you want this, we highly advise sitting in on another committee to see how they operate as there's a protocol you'll want to follow.