is is a hard question But valerie what where do you where do you see yourself going on this path? I do like accounting a lot. So I would like to Pursue something Generates a related to that But I do like I also I've been wanting to do something in healthcare for a long time So it's like very I'm very confused like I like accounting a lot and it's interesting because it challenges me more I believe and I know it It has given me a lot of skills, especially in math Yeah But I want to go to a four-year college I since I started my apprenticeship My freshman year I'll be finished with it by my senior year when I graduate. So I'll Be able to I have options to what I want to do after I graduate high school But I do want to attend See you boulder And I'm sort of in the same position as judo I don't have any classes as far as like core classes at my high school. I do participate in band, but Most of my classes are at trident and Right now I'm just taking two classes at a time because when I first started I was doing 21 credit hours in a seven week period and um, yeah, I'm not a good idea, but I still I still did it I still did it and and I made the grades and you know, but that's what I'm doing right now Just finishing my degree. So when I graduate, I'll have my associate's degree before I get my high school diploma Judah um, so I Want to get a bachelor's degree, but uh, something that I've been struggling with recently is I've been in school since I was like three I kind of want to break Um, and I was chatting with someone from the Harvard business school about this in that especially in the tech industry Three years of work experience is tantamount to a bachelor's degree. If not more valuable um So I could get a decently paying job right off the bat right out of the program without a bachelor's degree And that's kind of what I want to do um But I also eventually want to get my bachelor's degree. So my current plan is maybe take a gap year maybe two And then eventually just work toward not finishing up my degree How about you hailey? I know you like to fix things you should come to washington So um, yeah, so I've been working towards my associates. That's why I stayed till 10 because I take extra classes a lot of extra classes and By the end of that when I get my associates, I plan on transferring what credits I can over to Working towards my engineering degree and at least a bachelor's and engineering degree probably more But yeah, that's what I plan on just after my associates is getting my engineering degree I'm so excited for for for all four of you and also super proud even though I didn't have a hand in any of What you've done still proud um, I think we have um A little bit of time for maybe like one or two questions and then we're gonna wrap it. Yes. I see one. We'll do that Hi, steve crawford george washington university institute public policy frequently the case for Youth apprenticeship is that it increases the maturity of the students involved because they get out of their peer group And they've worked with adults and they have real responsibilities and they're taken seriously on the job And so when susie levine the former ambassador to switzerland goes around talking of being sort of an evangelist for Youth apprenticeship. She shows wonderful pictures of the kids in switzerland who look so mature on their job um My question to you is do you find that that's Let me add that one of the arguments for maturity is that and and relevance as as dr. Postelweight said in the first panel the youth apprenticeship adds clarity and Relevance to readiness right so the red you see the relevance of getting Your your classwork and completing your degrees one of the arguments is that more kids will complete high school We know we have high dropout rates still if they're engaged in some kind of work based Training and so the question is are you finding that you feel More adult than I mean this is an imagination right then you would have felt otherwise or that you that your peers Who aren't doing any sort of work based? Training Are experiencing are you sensing that this is making you more mature faster than otherwise? Sorry, so if you're treated like an adult you start feeling like an adult Um, and that's how I felt If i'm treated with respect I Understand that I have value and that I am competent Um, and that's some something that I think a lot of people my age wouldn't have the opportunity to feel Yeah, and I would add Peer pressure is real. It's nothing that you know can be hidden So I wouldn't say that you know, you can't you're not supposed to be mature But in the classroom I take classes with people that are 25 to Maybe 65. So it's um, I blend in though. I don't feel like an outsider or you know I I blend in and I don't mind taking classes with those people and it's it's nothing that I shy away from because of their age or you know, because my first class that I took at trident I was 15 going on 16 and I I mean everyone thought I was older like 20 almost but um, I didn't I didn't let that stop me from being engaged in the lesson or participating with them in the different activities that we had to do in the classroom All right, Valerie or hailey last things because we're gonna we have to wrap up Okay, can we all give them a round of applause? Thank you so much Thank you all so much It's good to hear it straight from the people's mouth. Um We've over the course of the day. We've talked at about a partnership. We've talked to employers now. We've talked to apprentices There's a lot to talk about and this audience obviously wants to get into the nitty gritty and pya is about getting into the nitty gritty So we're excited to do that with you all and this next panel is going to help us do that We've got a really exciting group of people to lead a conversation about what's next for youth apprenticeship What it will take to scale it and to lead that conversation. I'm proud to introduce Mary Alice McCarthy She's the director on the center in education skills here at new america my boss Uh, and it's done a great job of sort of guiding continues to guide this work as well And so no better person to lead that conversation. I'm Mary Alice Thanks, everyone. Thank you brent. Um, and wow, what a great panel that was with the apprentices I wonder if the panelists want to just come up my fellow panelists Stephanie rebecca great Okay, how's everybody doing? How are we temperature wise too hot too cold? Yeah Hot hot and cold. This is the cold part. This is the hot part okay, well, wow, it's been a great couple of panels and um, you know I've I've been working for many years, uh on oh and Elizabeth. Yes. Um, that's all right. There was no buzzer or anything Um, I've been working for many years on strategies to better connect work and learning You know, whether it was helping people transition out of school and into jobs or helping people Be in school and and and be at work at the same time But all these you know, what are ways that we can do that and as a policy person That involves a lot of thinking about our public workforce system and our career and technical education system and our higher education system And how can we make them all work together better work together better? And then one day it's happens to lots of people probably has happened to many of you You discover apprenticeship and it's like Oh It's sort of like getting to that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow It's like it's really there you get to the end of the rainbow and there it is and then you're like well problem solved Now all I have to do is tell everybody about apprenticeship And you know and just go home, you know, it's all gonna be fine And I feel like today I was sitting having that same feeling particularly listening to the employer panel You know, it's like well, obviously everyone's gonna start doing this But I think we know unfortunately. It's not that easy Yeah, and we know that we have a lot of great youth apprenticeship programs and a lot of great apprenticeship programs out there We know a lot about what makes them high quality and what makes them work We know a lot about what we want out of them from an equity standpoint and from sort of our long-term outcomes But we are still struggling to sort of really scale up these pockets of innovation And that's what the partnership to advance youth apprenticeship paya is all about So I have an incredible group of experts here who are going to tell us how we're going to do that And then we're going to all hold them accountable for it in approximately two years so yeah, so Okay, so I'm going to let's go ahead and get started and oh I'm going to turn to the gentleman at my left who is null ginsberg I'm going to start with you null null is the ceo of career wise colorado Which is one of those intermediaries that we've been hearing so much about today the founder Of career wise. He's also a member of the leads the business experiential learning commission in the state of colorado I was appointed to that position by the governor hickenlooper And he founded his own business inter tech plastics of which he's still the ceo If I if I read correctly you did that while you were in college So class project. Okay, so you have founded a lot of things. I bet you have kids too So does that make him like a founding father that was like what I was wondering it seems like 250 now with the apprentices Yeah, I guess it does. I guess it's so I want to start with you No, I mean we have been hearing a lot. You know, how do we how do we make paya? How do we make youth apprenticeship take root across the united states? How do we let it grow roots and really not just not just grow broadly But also sustain itself and really take root in communities You've talked a lot about the importance of Apprenticeship being industry led and that it won't really take root if it's not led by industry Sometimes when you're on the education side of the world that can sound a little bit scary like I don't know You know, what is you know, is that a good thing? Is that good for young people? So can you tell us a little bit first of all a little bit about career wise and your vision for it? And then what do you mean by industry led and why does apprenticeship need to be industry led to really work? Well first with career wise You've heard a little bit alluded to about the swiss trips that many states have taken and we did that About three years ago with our governor who led that delegation and 48 business leaders Who saw it chris was on that trip that you heard from earlier? and What happened with those 48 people whether it was the majority business people that were there or the head of our Community college system or university presidents or school board presidents or a superintendent of a public school Is we had a shared experience of what could be? And seeing it at scale changes everything in terms of your perspective So we came back we set an ambitious goal of creating 20 000 apprenticeships per year within a decade Now when I first went to switzerland I thought oh, we should be able to do that at least two years And that was ridiculous Because on the surface apprenticeship looks simple you heard from the apprentices they're extraordinary You heard from business people that said this works But underneath the surface If you were to look at us at crew as you see a lot of ducks with their feet moving really fast And Something you kind of joked about a minute ago. We know this works We see examples of it in switzerland We see it now we have a year and a half of apprentices in the workplace across a whole host of industry sectors And it's working So the only chance that it won't It's not because our kids aren't capable or our businesses aren't interested It's because we at career-wise didn't do our job So we are really focused on building that system whether it is the relationships with our K-12 system that support this our two and four-year universities and community colleges that enable this Convincing parents that this is an option You can start with an apprenticeship and with your phd So career-wise is building that That system within our state We're now in seven school districts from the front range to the western slope And we did that intentionally because usually rural, colorado thinks that they're left out and they are so We're looking to make this statewide Your second part of your question is what role does business play? I've been involved in education related activities now for over 30 years And each time What i've observed is businesses were called on to be advisors To our k-12 system and we do that and then about six months later we Complain about we didn't get what we wanted and what I learned is they're not the problem. We are Business has a responsibility and a role In education and what youth apprenticeship does it's the intersection of opportunity both for students and businesses In a way that works for both And if if business doesn't lead Then this will never scale So you need a ceo like home advisor To get behind this you need a ceo like at riyadh engineering, which is a small engineering related company to do this with two Two apprentices or a pinnacle assurance that has 28 apprentices If business doesn't do this if business doesn't see the roi Because this has a very real return on investment. It will not scale So what one of the core principles in colorado is we Have been incredibly fortunate to have Funding from national and local foundations But over the next 10 years our model is designed to be self-sustaining by the fees paid for by business And we began charging those fees in our second year because we now had a proof point And so we're very We think it's really important that this does not become a government program and that we don't delegate the responsibility for this to Our k-12 partners or higher ed partners because they have a hard job to do and we have a responsibility To create those opportunities. So I think the way this scales Is by business leading staying engaged understanding the return on investment and making those investments Thank you. Okay. So elizabeth i'm going to go next to you. So elizabeth standard for joint Yes Yes, we're we're mixing things up here But elizabeth joins us from north carolina and she's the apprenticeship coordinator at the north carolina community college system And before that had some experience working in the k-12 sector So elizabeth's here sort of representing both the education community and also the public sector So we've just heard from all the importance of these efforts being industry led But we also know that that they are complicated and that there's a role for government in making these work Right. Can you help us understand? I think that's part of what you're doing in north carolina Can you help us understand what it is you do to sort of make these these programs scale statewide in uh in colorado in north carolina and pardon me, yes So, uh, we do have an industry based apprenticeship program But I think that north carolina has done a huge amount of work to create an infrastructure That supports and sustains youth apprenticeship in particular throughout our state So I made some notes. It's a whole entire page. I'll try to get through those very quickly But one of the things in our state That we've done to scale apprenticeship is in our general statutes An employee definition includes apprentice So a lot of industry partners get hung up on that piece of who's liable who what about the insurance all that so under um workers compensation in north carolina An an apprentice is is defined as an employee In our general statute. So I think that's one thing that is very helpful in addition to that Um, our state agencies at the highest level have committed to work together to promote apprenticeship around policy and around legislation We have the department of public instruction that also Has an insurance carrier covering our apprentices And so I think that is a really great double coverage for for that issue We also have career and college promise legislation, which for us is a dual enrollment program Our apprentices, whether they are in high school Or if they have graduated and gone on to community college do not pay for their coursework College and career promise students Have dual enrollment meaning of course they get high school and college credit And that is free to them when they are enrolled as a public high school student and then beyond that If they are registered as a pre-apprentice or an apprentice Before their graduation date chris herrington from our state mentioned this We have a community college tuition waiver in place for them So throughout the duration of their apprenticeship, they do not pay for community college Some of the other things that we have in place are college and career ready legislation around the idea that students must have Credentials and certifications from industry before they graduate and they get these endorsements on their diplomas Some of the other legislation that we have is around certified career pathways We are a certified career pathway state and our director of that program And this will just show you how Much we have at the state level tried to support industry the community college system North carolina department of public instruction and north carolina department of commerce all fund this person's salary And chris he has an apprenticeship program But he has also on the certified career pathway program And why that is so important is they the certified career pathways have helped our workforce development boards because they are Legislated to create these certified career pathways It has created a situation where our workforce boards are helping industry drive this and to employ Students that have credentials who know they're on and off ramps who have been Immersed in career awareness from not only sixth grade all the way up through the incumbent worker and dislocated worker And they also have sort of certifications and credentials from industry. They know they're on and off ramps and They're bringing down k-12 community partners Including people like goodwill united way All of those civic organizations the chamber of commerce and cassie's on bila's here from Washington dc now But she used to be from north carolina one of our chamber partners helping push policy and get industry connected with apprenticeship So people are already working together in our local areas through these certified career pathways to make apprenticeship work locally And tied to pathways that are important for that local economy Okay That's great. And I just want to so I mean it's an incredible infrastructure that you're putting together And if I heard you correctly this was the north carolina department of commerce the north carolina community college system that that North carolina system of public instruction The north carolina public workforce system the north carolina career and technical education system for any of you who've worked in government You know how easy it is. It's really easy to make all those systems work that everybody really wants to they're just like Can we work with your system? That's what can we use your accountability measures? And then you've got Philanthropic dollars coming into these different places too, but you're all rowing in the same direction Correct And one of the things that our state did was to position our state so that we are in prosperity zones Those we have eight prosperity zones and within them each state agency has leaders that work together So apprenticeship in c has a consultant assigned to every prosperity zone The department of commerce has a regional operations director assigned to every prosperity zone and the department of public instruction Has regional coordinators in each prosperity zone. We're able to really synergize and come together around these ideas of apprenticeship We're able to kind of connect with our workforce boards there for our industry K-12 community colleges and we're coming together locally and regionally around that Oh my god, it's amazing. Yes. It really is happening. Okay. Okay. All right, Stephanie. Let's go. Let's go to you um, Stephanie, um ampansaw is the executive director of urban alliance in baltimore Urban alliance is a national nonprofit that takes high school seniors and puts them into structured paid Internships not exactly apprenticeship, but a very very close cousin, right? And uh, it says Stephanie has a long history working in the human services sector And Stephanie one of the things you know, so we've been hearing about the importance of it being of leadership and industry leadership We've been hearing about the importance of a policy infrastructure to really actually make that work Um, I think trust is a big issue too, right? These are a lot of people who have to trust one another businesses have to trust schools schools have to trust businesses Parents have to trust schools and businesses. Did you write by their children? Right apprentices have to trust these adults who are telling them that this is a good idea And that this is going to work for them. So I have a feeling that's a lot of the work that you're doing Can you can you tell us about what you're doing in baltimore and about how you generate that trust? And thank you for having us today. This is really encouraging just sitting here hearing everyone And thank you, you know, I feel like you read my daily emails and hear my conversation That's what we talk a lot about But yeah, urban lines for us, you know, when we look at our third year change It's really about like how do you prevent disconnection, right? So how do you get a young person at a critical point in their life? I'm really expose them to everything that they can be and really put them on that path of economic self-efficiency And so for us like the driving force is really the students first model, right? And really this relationships and meeting students where they are We serve as an intermediary between schools Employers, you know industry So yeah, those are a lot of me moving pieces And so for us building the trust is really starting with the relationships And that's really being on the ground. I think one of the things that we do really well in our model Is having a case manager and so this case manager who we call a program coordinator Is assigned to a young person to really provide those wraparound services to really make sure that they're being successful You know at their internships and then really also supporting the employer A lot of what we hear from the employer is that like this is great But you know, they often, you know, haven't worked with youth And so for us coming in with kind of that youth development knowledge Being able to really, you know, support young people with those barriers And then with our school partners, we're really really closely with Baltimore City public schools And for us it's again those relationships And really meeting a need and so for us, you know, we're meeting student need We're making sure that young people are able, you know to get into these careers And then with industry partners we're making sure that we're really providing that entry level support And so for us it's just make sure everybody's happy And doing that by really having these strong relationships And one of the things I know when we talked on the phone, you talked about how you work with those high school counselors I mean high school counselors can be pretty protective of their students, right? And they also have ideas about what should be their next step Can you tell us a little bit about that work? Definitely. And so for us that's really where it starts of having again those relationships to school counselors And that really for us we're always saying that, you know, it's not just Again, it's meeting students where they are and that like there are more pathways And it's not often like college isn't the only thing and particularly when we're doing, you know, our internships Understanding that, you know, it may not be college today But it may be at another time and then also really using data to really inform like what's happening when you look at Baltimore City, you know between the ages of 18 and or excuse me 16 24 You have about 18,000 kids not working and not in school, right? And so that has huge implications, you know on our city And so we're finding that a lot of students aren't going to college right away, right? So like how are we going to be able to meet those needs of those students who don't want to do it then? And then I think, you know, our school counselors also understand that when we're working with our students It's not like, okay, you graduate high school. That's it. You know, we have a very comprehensive Post-secondary program through our alumni services where we have a case manager who's really with the young person Really helping them along this journey particularly, you know for many of our students are maybe the first to graduate from high school And so for us, we're letting our school counselors know that, you know, we are, you know Hand in hand with our young people really making sure that, you know, if it's college We're going to support them through that if it's getting into the workforce making sure they're not just getting into Any job but a job that's provided livable ways an opportunity to grow And so we have a mentorship program where we have community volunteers We have industry leaders who are working one-on-one with the students post program To make sure that they're getting to and through college or make sure that they're entering the workforce or an adult apprenticeship program So for us, it's having those real honest conversations like what is the data telling us, you know And then understanding our program and that we're supporting the young person, you know for the long haul Okay, and I'm gonna I'm really putting you on the spot right now Because there's one point I want to get out before I before I transitioned to rebecca I was really fascinated how at urban alliance you're working How you've sort of leveraged the fact that the city is building a whole bunch of new schools In order to run your internship record. Can you explain a little bit about the 21st century schools? And so that's really exciting for us. Um, we have worked with city schools for for years, but about two years ago The city got a grant through the 21st century school buildings Project and that is to renovate and build 28 new school buildings, you know over the course of the next 10 years Which is very exciting for us because we are working with young people who you know are in the cte tracks and who have an interest in construction So this was really a perfect marriage because what city schools found is that, you know, they had the industry partners They went into provide an opportunity for young people But didn't know how to do that and so we were able to really step in And it was great because these are young people who they've been in their, you know career tracks for you know, since their sophomore year But never actually were able to step foot into Into a workplace and so we're able to really take our model Which is where young people are working part time through school year or full time in the summer You know, they're getting professional development training really focusing also on their post high school plan Right. So what does life look like as soon as you leave high school? And so we've been able to work very closely With city schools through this project and it's great because these are the schools that they're in and they're also getting an opportunity To build and really take the skills that they're learning in school And it's also been great because we've been able to I think I think Catherine was talking about being able to patch the funding And so we've been able to to do that with great funders from able foundation to bank of america to baltimore's promise I'm just waiting for a century schools to really make sure that you know, these young people get these opportunities because of you know Construction firms are working, you know in the city on the school buildings that our kids are in They do have a responsibility to provide these opportunities for young people Um, so it's really been exciting to see that investment. Um, and we were excited to to take it further Great. Thank you. Okay. Now we're going to move to rebecca hanson rebecca is has joined us from california And she is the executive director of the education fund, which is a labor management fund that brings together the seiu the united health workers and hospital employers around the country and Very specifically in the california area. It's all right and um, rebecca we've just been hearing about This this exciting opportunity that's gotten focused on the construction sector because it was um, you know A place of opportunity and I think we're all kind of familiar with the idea of apprenticeship and construction You know that has a long history there, but you work in healthcare. Yeah, and so One of the things I think we're we're also sort of learning as we get deeper into this apprenticeship Puzzle is that it's not a one-size-fits-all model and and the industry sector really matters So can you tell us about what you see as the opportunities for apprenticeship and healthcare and why it's a good fit And what it means to do it in the healthcare sector? Yeah, no, thank you. And I mean to your earlier point in introducing the panel I think you know when we think about what are the barriers and problems with the current learning model in healthcare and mobility for healthcare workers And for youth entering healthcare. I think it's exactly to your point. It's like there's all these There's these barriers and experience questions that I think apprenticeship really addresses in a systematic formal way So our training fund we serve a hundred thousand workers in western states the majority of them are in california It's across 18 employers the largest of which are Kaiser Permanente and dignity health And within those employers. We're currently doing apprenticeships for medical coding medical assisting surgical tech and And we're also a medical lab tech which was actually done with Kaiser in colorado but We're actively talking to our employers around the opportunities they see in youth apprenticeship. I think in california Like around the country. I think people have been doing a lot of experimenting right with how do we develop Apprenticeship models that match these occupations And our national partner on the healthcare career advancement program hcap Has over the last year registered 500 apprentices across the country 84 percent of them are women over 70 percent are people of color Like there's a real focus on how we create healthcare pathways with equity Across our workforce and also think about the challenges that our employers are facing So for allied healthcare I don't know how where people are of allied healthcare But you know, we pretty much serve folks in hospital and ambulatory settings who are Everywhere from food service Housekeeping all the way to lvm medical imaging, you know higher professional technical workers And 60 percent Of of those folks are getting trained currently by for-profit educators A lot of them are exiting school with 20 to 40 thousand dollars of debt There's very limited mobility. We know from reviewing linkedin only 10 percent of allied health workers have any kind of job ladder in allied health So while we see an opportunity to sort of really be focused on Building stackable and competency based credentials through something like a registered apprenticeship program I think as we are looking at moving people up a job ladder There's such a big opportunity to connect to that ecosystem of partners around k through 12 and thinking about How are people entering our industry? We know it's done in such a suboptimal way right now and it has a huge impact on equity We also know that at least in california There's going to be a need for 400 000 new allied health workers between now and 2024 like this the shortage is now But it's going to get worse quickly And there is not a pipeline of talent in place to fill those jobs And so I think you know in california There's been work around vocational high schools to develop You know a medical assistant credential for for students coming out of vocational high school and health care At the same time that they then have to leave high school and do an unpaid Clinical rotation in order to actually earn the credential and many of them are dropping out because they actually have to go to work Right to support their families. So You know, I think in just sort of summarize by saying I think we think there's a better way, you know We think that there is um A proactive way to really address experience and quality of training for health care workers and that you know It's really about It's really about both the employer needs the opportunity across a state that if you take cost of living into Account has the highest poverty rate in the country And it's about creating equity of opportunity across the whole pathway in health care. And that's really what our focus is That's great. That's great. And I want to sort of dig a little I want to double down on the equity question Okay, and um and and for for knoll and elizabeth who are thinking about these sort of statewide initiatives How are you all thinking about equity? How are you keeping track of it? You know, where is it fitting in to sort of your overall strategy of developing youth apprenticeship? either one of you In north carolina, we have an apprenticeship network it system that we developed we call it nc ran and we are able to Track our data that way. We have an office staff person who enters our registered apprenticeships and is able to Disseminate that information to our staff. We sometimes have to provide that for legislature Purposes so that's one thing that we're doing another thing is the funding that we have we use for Diversity efforts. So my job for example as youth coordinator. I work with our industry partners across the state who are in consortia like chris is I do professional development with them on equity issues And then we also have Marketing grants and we actually just issued our rfp this week for marketing and the goals of our marketing funding will be toward equity as well That being said, um, we really want to be a support structure for our industries to Pursue equity and they talk about it all the time chris mentioned that he's part of a collaborative not only is he in a consortium in his own county But his county along with four others have created a collaborative called the eastern tribe workforce initiative And the grant funding that he mentioned that they got is also Um, some of that is being used toward marketing and diversity as well So we'd like to support our industry at the local level to make that happen So career-wise when we initiated our Program we did it from the beginning with equity in mind and that meant strategically The school districts we chose how we recruited how we Managed and monitored what that profile looks like so in colorado because we believe that apprenticeships Should be accessible to all kids It meant that we would pick a school district like cherry creek Which is the highest performing school district in our state And then dember public schools is an inner city school district Mesa 51 on the western slope is semi rural and in recruiting from them we then Monitored so if if this is the makeup of abraham lincoln high school Which is a 95 percent free and reduced lunch school Would we recruit? Reflective to what that population looks like and from a numbers perspective Will we be able to recruit as many from that school as we would from cherry creek high school And in fact that school happened to be the highest degree of recruitment of all of our schools in our first year And I remember listening to one of the pathway directors there saying He goes i've been in education for decades. This is the first time This a program actually serves my kids And that's a really powerful statement And my background is i've I sponsored 42 inner city kids from a neighborhood with a 90 dropout rate 20 years ago Spent 10 years with them And the biggest lesson I learned which I tried to infuse within career-wise is we ultimately graduated over 90 percent of those kids And that says it doesn't matter what your zip code is or your ethnicity or whether you're in poverty or not You can succeed if The system allows it And our system doesn't always allow it but youth apprenticeship does So we did it by design by making sure that we're drawing from all types of schools We use sales force. We've uh as our kind of business operations Backbone and so when we bring apprentices in through our digital Ats our applicant tracking system We know what schools they come from and enough about them to be able to say are the profile of our students Reflective of the schools that they come from and they are is it perfect? No But the mix is fairly reflective when you look at a pie chart Of the school and then the apprentices. It's fairly similar. You can tell it's not a totally different school So we're seeing kids succeed regardless of where they're coming from The reality of it is though, they're not all academically at the same level And I think there is a need for wrap-around services for many of our schools where the students are not performing at grade level But we have and do have kids within career-wise in businesses today That are two to three grade levels below where they should be And so you'd ask yourself what happens to them Well, universally what we heard from switzerland and what we're experiencing now is those kids come up to grade level much quicker Than they would staying just in the classroom Because putting them in a business and you heard this from jude, I believe Um, you feel like an adult you're given the respect of an adult and now they're understanding why it's important That they know how to read and write so they can write an email So the the fact is it's built into our system. I think we all have to be cognizant of this Fact of equity and certainly, you know, I use the analogy. It's not a glass ceiling for many of our kids It's a cement ceiling I think apprenticeships are is a rock drill that can go right through it Okay, okay. So we've we've talked about leadership. We've talked about infrastructure We've talked about trust and also about sort of being in in your industry and responding to the needs of your industry But we haven't talked about money and that certainly is going to make a big difference So i'm going to just put the the question out to you, you know, how are how are you all thinking about money? How are the statewide systems and let's start with you, rebecca And how do you how do you handle them? You know, who pays for what in your system? So we are funded by employers. We're a joint labor management training partnership We get money from employers to help fund these programs It's sustainable in the sense that it's ongoing annual funding of 20 million a year that we apply to programs and But even that I would say is not one it's tied to our incumbent workforce, which is amazing and important work But it like I think through grant money. We've been able to expand programs to serve Folks who maybe are not fully benefited or our community members and in some cases Grant money is also an important way that we fund initiatives around youth, right? And so We kind of leverage different pieces of the pie are typically Our training fund is supporting the education costs. We do a lot of wraparound services like a ton of them and Because most of our folks have been through the education system where they're left with debt Where they're left with perhaps a lack of confidence on their academic ability That was kind of thanks So there's a lot of work that we do to support their transportation. Even if they're if they're dealing with that. So So we In our and so we are investing in their education time and in their tuition and support Often the employers are paying the wages. These are workers, right and then Where we're able to expand to serve Additional community members or youth We're leveraging grant dollars other community-based partners who are sponsoring those students often providing stipends that allow them In some cases to work less than another job to come to the apprenticeship or apprentice like experience. So Yeah, yeah, I think it's right that there's a steady stream of money from the employer from the joint training from that Yeah, they're already invested in a sense and we're just trying to make the investment work better, right? So And I just want to ask because elizabeth we talked about this About how you get the general assembly. We were hearing from the folks from south carolina that there's never enough money How did how did you all get the general assembly to actually pony up some money for these programs? So we have an expert in the house dr. Pam house. She's back here in the third row She actually is with the national fund here in washington. She used to be with Apprenticeship in sea when we were with commerce. She was over our department and she worked with Senator chad barefoot on a lot of different pieces of legislation But I would say that dr. House was instrumental in ensuring that apprenticeship funding Stayed at the state level and not only that she increased our funding By going to the legislatures and talking about the importance of apprenticeship So there was a time when it was a little bit scary and we weren't sure what the funding was going to be in north carolina But my position and the positions of the coordinators that we have across the state are all state funded So some of the things that you've heard that career wise does we do those um from a state funded position And who convinced the general assembly and that was pam house The business community went to the general assembly not the education community That is great And pam actually was with seamans and a couple of other industries as their apprenticeship Legays on so and then as well cassie's on bill who I mentioned is here from the state chamber perspective. They all Really pressed the general assembly. It was not It was it was definitely from the industry side sort of an industry leadership issue and nor did you ask Yeah, so in colorado we spend 10 billion a year in our k-12 system Which sounds like a lot of money, but actually we're 43rd out of 50 states and investing in k-12 We're 48th out of 50 and investing in higher ed So in looking at building the system Taking anything off of that table did not make sense to us and ultimately believe that if this in fact has an ROI For business They should be the ones ultimately funding it that being said Building the infrastructure to do that is not something that we can do out of the gate So we have relied on state and local Found state local and national funders to do that some state money some minor federal money But ultimately we began charging fees a thousand dollars per apprentice This last year. I will tell you that I didn't get any pushback, which is a business person said to me I didn't charge enough. I want to hear somebody complain. They didn't but when you do the math 20,000 apprentices per year at a thousand dollars per apprentice is 20 million dollars to support the system employers today are spending ten thousand dollars per year in apprenticeship wages and five thousand dollars in Training whether it would be at a community college internal training. So they're making a fifteen thousand dollar per year commitment To this which tells me because they spent over two and a half million last year in our first year That number will climb over five and a half million this year That the money is there As long as they see the value so from our perspective We are working every day to become self sufficient It'll take us another seven years of investment from non Non-private sources non private sources But there is a clear path to that McKinsey did our analysis and our projections And we really believe that 20 million dollars is real And it's it if we do a good job It'll be there and we won't need outside funding. Great. It's definitely Yeah, so very similar. Um, so in our more traditional model, which has been around for 20 some years Our employers pay into it because we do see there there is an ROI, right? So they are investing but you know the construction program is very new And so we've started the past two years with philanthropic dollars, you know a mix of different local funders But yes very similar in that we are ramping up now In year three where we're going to start having employers actually pay into it And we do have some employers who you're second year. They're like, okay, when can I pay you? I was like, you can pay me now like it's fine, right? So we do see that employers see that like this is you know, it's it's a cost benefit You know for them here you can get a trained young person who's coming in with the skill set Who's also coming in with case managers, you know ongoing training And you have an opportunity to hire them and so for us, you know, we're really meeting An hr need and really creating this talent pipeline I'm sorry employers do see, you know, even in year two are seeing the value are willing to pay But yes, so right now it is being funded on philanthropically But we will be moving towards more the employer model because of the sustainability completely agree with your saying Can I add one more little thing about that? Yeah I do and while you're doing that I want people to start thinking about their questions and then please So because north carolina has a lot of state funding helping to support apprenticeship We do have companies that pay fees But it is a local fee that their consortium Decides upon they have the money In house So they may have a fiduciary partner like the chamber of their local chamber of commerce who helps them manage the funds But it is their money They decide how it's allocated and they pay locally If they choose to not all of our consortia have fees, but um sunday But it's manageable employers will pay for apprenticeship and so on so I guess what we're hearing Okay, how about some questions we've got one row over here somebody give them a microphone to vince there Vince collars social policy research associates awesome kickoff for this program. Thank you all and this panel I'm from california as well and We we're working on trying to bring youth apprenticeship to california and scale matters In california so the question and and I appreciate the equity lens here We crunched some numbers and we think that california has the capacity and the need for Anywhere from a half a million to a million apprentices and it turns out that According to a measure of america. They're about a half a million opportunity youth in california Coincidence maybe a question is if we try to reach those and they're not in school Some of them or most of them are not by definition not in school. What's the opportunity here to Make sure the equity Approach to youth apprenticeship also reaches those that are not actually in school Okay, yeah, and I don't you probably are aware of this but the likely next governor has committed to five a half a million apprentices by 2029 which is something we're really tracking along these same lines I mean, I would say that our union partner Is is in california is health care workers union 100,000 health care workers in the state They're ready to invest themselves in this pipeline of of friends of family of their grandkids of their kids of their community members like and so there's an active conversation between employers union and And you know the likely next administration around like how are we Going to fill this gap. We know we're going to have in health care and it won't to your point It won't just be health care, but health care is 15 of our economy in california. It's huge, right? And currently You know the annual demand is 65,000 allied health workers that is not met, right? And I think our perspective is that Um, I've actually learned a lot here today about how we could connect this into high schools Which is exciting and and we've you know through new america and others. We've we've talked to folks at l You know, los angeles unified school district. We work now with oakland unified school district, but um, I think we we have a model in the union of going To the community and finding the people who haven't had this opportunity or maybe need this opportunity So I think we haven't been thinking about it sort of in this focused way I've actually learned a lot here about how you could think about that in high school But I think to your point A lot of these programs are going to need to address that group of of folks who are maybe not as well connected to currently to education or job opportunities Yeah, so in north carolina We are because I mentioned earlier that we're integrally connected to our workforce boards who disperse our weowa funds Our we owe a youth program next gen as part of most of our apprenticeship consortia If not part of the overall picture of workforce development So our standards in north carolina say that we can use those funds to help people who are Not in school out of school youth to do an apprenticeship and they can help pay for part of that on the job learning The only thing I'd add to this is youth apprenticeship I think in the model that is being created will help support opportunity youth and even adult apprenticeship However, the roi for those is much less and it will take public support wraparound support to do that The deeper question is Why do we have such a large cohort of people that are unemployed underemployed opportunity youth And that's because our pipeline is leaky if in switzerland 98 percent of the population 30 percent has a four-year degree and the balance have apprenticeships And here we have a great system if you're going to get a four-year degree, but otherwise good luck Our youth apprenticeship is about sealing that leaky pipeline that takes a hundred students starting in high school and only results in 25 In colorado actually getting a four-year degree. We have to seal that Because the cost to support an opportunity youth is probably 10 times what it is to support one apprenticeship I think we've got time for one like speed question and one speed answer. So who's got a speedy question better be How you doing? Uh, my name is nick toath. I'm representing the office of apprenticeship from new jersey I actually lead the office. It was developed a few months ago As some of you may know governor murphy invested in our state legislature invested 10 million dollars in apprenticeships We just released a four and a half million dollar notice of grant opportunity to grow apprenticeships in non-traditional sectors Like the life sciences health care advanced manufacturing It stem just to name a few as a logical follow-up. We're actually currently developing an essentially a pre-apprenticeship program and so My question to you is what advice do you have? With respect to a policy approach on how to structure that and if you can draw from many examples of Policies that have achieved good outcomes. That'd be extremely useful information for me. Is anybody doing pre-apprenticeship? Yeah, so Policy can't give you much on that. I mean, I will say like one of the things that we are doing You know is working with our local city council members who Have are actually investing in kind of our next cohort of youth But I think one of the things That we're talking with with baltimore city schools and 21st century program Is so for these schools that are or excuse me is construction firms that are like working who've gotten the contracts That they actually like that has been mandated that they do have to take an intern Because of that way when we think about this baltimore city has also these local higher Initiatives as well And so how do you begin to for those who are going to do business in baltimore city on baltimore city school? You know schools How do you begin to mandate and really ensure that again that whole equity lens and how do you ensure that young people Are going to be able to get the same opportunities But I say one thing that we've definitely done is starting to lay the ground work with city council around this idea of apprenticeships All right. Well, I want to thank the panelists with an amazing group of experts I'm proud of all of you even though I've had none nothing to mirror our way to take no, but thanks everybody Okay Who's up next? Okay Home stretch here everybody a lot of good discussion really appreciate Uh all of the folks that have been able to share their perspectives to to close this out We're going to hear and come up worship. Come on. Come on. Yeah To close this out We're going to hear from a set of folks to Talk about another critical element in this work and it's the right way to close the day today because it's talking about All of these partners that are engaged in these programs It takes leadership to get that happen and yes, you need industry to lead But it also takes political leadership to make it work at both the state and the city level And so we're very lucky to have a pair of speakers day to reflect on that And we're very lucky to have that conversation led by Portia Wu Who's the managing director of us public policy at microsoft That's her current title She's a national expert on workforce labor education issues most recently the former assistant secretary at the employment and training administration At the department of labor was at the white house and a number of things before that So we're really happy to have here talk through what the policy leadership structure looks like on this So without further ado Portia take it away Thanks Brent Congratulations to you and to the partnership to advance youth apprenticeship. This is an exciting day. I see a lot of friends and colleagues and experts on apprenticeship in the room so I have the honor of coordinating this last conversation I know it's been a long day already, but I hope everyone will keep the energy high And I do think there's some really important questions That we want to try to attack in this last discussion here So i'll just be brief. I'll just say a couple things about my my current role And the importance of apprenticeship to us and then move on and introduce our other speakers As Brent mentioned, I am now handling workforce policy at microsoft as well as some other policy areas And microsoft has been pleased to play its own part in this apprenticeship journey that all of us are on together We actually have a partnership with a prenti and the washington technology industry association We're graduating our first class of apprentices in two weeks. So we're very excited about that And we we've learned a lot along the way I think all of us who are in this together feel that we're saying we're all learning all the time And the challenge is to share those learnings. How do we take that and drive that to bigger change broader policy prescriptions So um focusing on youth apprenticeship today, we've already heard of a lot of great points About, you know, how do you think about equity? How do you think about money? How do you think about Building those partnerships and getting to scale and and connecting students and young adults to apprenticeship And that's going to take alignment And as I think Brent mentioned at the beginning It was it's challenging to think about aligning and also dealing with some of our existing structures Which frankly maybe aren't the best at equity and connecting to people who have become disconnected But we know and through the example of the Engaged employers fabulous apprentices we've seen today. We know this model can work So I'm really excited to think about now in our last panel sort of how can the federal government How can work at the state and local level help to promote and enable innovation in this space? Um, and I think especially for state and local law and policymakers who we're about to hear from directly Um, you know thinking about how inclusive economic development and growth Really plays out in a day-to-day way. I was talking with council member marquise Beforehand and he was saying look, I've got a day job. I've got a million things other things to do And um, I I need to think about how does this go with housing? How does this go with job creation? How does this go with so many other things? And you know thinking about that issue of dynamic Good jobs in our rural communities in our urban centers is is the challenge of the day The good thing is we have a tremendous opportunity got a strong economy Got lots of willing partners here in the room. So how can we work together to drive forward this youth apprenticeship strategy? So with that, I'm going to turn to some examples the approaches of people things things that people are doing on the ground In the states and our communities. Let me first introduce secretary kelly schultz from the maryland department of labor She leads the department of labor licensing and regulation. She's also a former member of the maryland house of delegates Representing frederick county. So welcome secretary schultz Thank you. We are your last panel. I think before lunchtime. So, uh, we'll try to make this easy for all of you I am so grateful to payah For this partnership working together and talking with some of the partners that I already have spoken to It's really obvious that this is going to be a national trend that is not going to go away in the near future There is so much energy behind this that I can tell you for Our purposes at in the state of maryland governor hogan is 100 percent behind the idea of apprenticeships overall And youth apprenticeships so much so that he gave us a goal four years ago.  So I want 10 000 apprentices in the state of maryland and I said well, sir, you know, that sounds really great Except that apprenticeships work kind of like graduations and you have people coming and going at all these different times and It may be hard to get to that 10 000 number and he says no, no, no, I think you can do it Well, I'm excited to say last month we reached 10 000 plus apprentices and so my job has been saved momentarily But uh, but we reached that goal Partly because of our youth apprenticeship program So three years ago we started a youth apprenticeship program in the state of maryland. It was a pilot program We brought on two counties. The legislature said that they wanted stem apprentices. So we said, okay We're going to create stem apprentices and junior and seniors in high school And we're going to attach them to community businesses and everything is going to be great Especially since there was no funding that came with it Those government programs are a lot of fun sometimes Regardless of that we were successful We reorganized internally our staff and in what our priorities were what our vision was and we were able to Apply for and receive some of the largest federal grants from the first round of apprenticeship funding that came out from dol So we're very grateful for that and we incorporated that into our Apprenticeship maryland 2.0 is what we call our youth apprenticeship program There were a lot of lessons learned in those two counties with with stem occupations We identified stem very very broadly as many of you do as well Everything from agriculture because we have agricultural rural communities that are involved going into cyber security health care machinery Manufacturing so we were able to draw in a large number of businesses for that And what we learned through that period of time was where we started out by being able to Present great opportunities for those high school students that may not have ever known that these types of opportunities and these careers exist Out there in the world, but we also realized that the economic development factor of this in the state of maryland is big And it's only getting bigger Because the more we can talk about creating an individualized Specific workforce of the future for very specific industries and very specific companies within those industries And they can have that retention plan for them to be able to grow as you had heard from some of the employers earlier That adds an economic development advantage to the state of maryland Because every day I have in my office members of industry groups that say we cannot find enough employees We can't find the right employees. We cannot find Those college students that are graduating from college that have the skills necessary for them to start work on day one How are we going to do this and this is a broad spectrum? This is not specific to geographical regions It's not specific to demographics. It's not specific to anything. This is a real real challenge that we have So working with our friends at the department of commerce and our state educational system We realize that there is a better way of doing business We can create big giant government programs Where everybody kind of sits around and looks at each other and hopes that we're training the right people with the right skills At the right time in order to be incorporated into the right job Or we can bring all the stakeholders together to the table and say what is it that you need specifically How are we going to specifically connect you with with your youth? And it all starts in the high schools Because we know once they get out of high school and they may go into a two-year college They may go into a four-year university or worse yet. They might go into a dead-end job We've lost the opportunity to be able to incorporate them into those specific skill trainings at the early part in their life So that they can begin to advance in their own career pathway So this is really exciting. I just want to talk to you a little bit about one of the other stakeholders that came forward when I mentioned about funding Obviously one of the requirements to have an apprenticeship is that these apprentices are paid There was a fear that some of the smallest of the businesses that are going to be bringing in the youth apprentices into this program Wouldn't be able to pay their salaries So we had a corporate sponsor petomic Edison that came forward and said we believe so much in your program That we are providing grants to your community foundation for those small businesses to apply for in order to be able to pay the salaries of these youth apprentices But that's an example of how you need to be able to have everybody from the community working together It was the chamber of commerce. It was the community foundations. It was the nonprofit world It was the big business world everybody coming together to say This is a solution to a problem that has been identified And we all need to be on the same page in order to be able to know how to fix it Yes, there have been regulatory changes Not without a fight sometimes. Yes, there have been statutory changes Yes, there have been conversations with the us department of labor in order to be able to identify ways in which we can very specifically manage what we do But it takes patience. It takes Consistency it takes messaging and it takes everybody from the community speaking on the same level about the same issue With the same amount of education In order to be able to do that with that we created our apprenticeship ambassador program So we have deemed ambassadors across the state in industry and private sector and in public sector and students Who are right now out there every single day talking about the world of apprentices and how it can be beneficial to the youth in our community So we're very grateful for those that have signed up with us to be able to continue these partnerships So two years later after our pilot programs ended and this is the happy story We had such a success with those apprentices That the governor Stated this spring that the youth apprenticeship program would now be an official statewide workforce development tool That will be offered at all of the high schools in the state of maryland with all of the businesses being able to participate in that And with that this school system or this school year right now We have our first non pilot School district on the eastern shore of maryland. So we're very excited about that. They're very excited about that and we anticipate Getting six to eight school districts enrolled over the next Year and continuing on with that into the future until all 24 school districts are enrolled in youth apprenticeships So i'm very grateful for this opportunity to continue the discussion with our municipal leaders as well And i look forward to your questions. Thank you Um next i'd like to invite to the stage Our other panelists council member marquise harris dawson. Sorry i cut off your last name earlier I was so excited to go to first name basis on this that i jumped ahead of myself Council member harris dawson is a member of the los angeles city council He was sworn into office in 2015 to represent the eighth district He has been focusing on issues of equity homelessness jobs community safety and of course apprenticeship. So thank you Good afternoon everybody Come on a little bit better. Good afternoon everybody There we go. There we go. It's good to be here And we're very grateful to the folks That invited us to be a part of this discussion. The apprenticeships are very very Important to us. It was a long flight, but we made it. I will make a note As a testimony to how important this is to us It's about 82 degrees in los angeles at this moment So we're very we're very excited to be a part of this discussion and it's good to be here with practitioners Folks who are actually on the ground doing the work. I got to sit in the conference room with some folks who are actually apprentices And have experience. I've gotten to hear from policy makers in that regard and as well as People are trying who are trying to push through and make the apprenticeships real My role in this discussion today is a little bit different than all of those things I'm one of the people who are who's trying really hard. I wake up every morning and I try to make the problem worse I try to make it worse by creating more jobs and more opportunity and more need for labor in los angeles But all around the state of california Just in our our our first year my first year Being on the city council folks who know los angeles know we have a very bad problem with homelessness We've got the the biggest homeless population anywhere in the united states if you go there Now you're bound to see you cannot drive around town without seeing homeless people and so I got elected and we got in and we got busy and we put a bond on the ballot to raise one point two billion dollars to build housing for homeless people And the voters of los angeles you have to pass a bond by 66 percent. So it was close. You have to get two thirds We got 81 and I was just I was on cloud nine. I was just like came in to work the next day We're doing the work. I'm you know getting it done and then The the bureau of contract management looked at me and said So who do you think's going to build these houses? We don't have enough construction workers for the work that we already had before this bond passed And your the money being available doesn't solve that problem at all In fact, there's a saying that we say in the halls of city hall in los angeles When we're confronting situations all the time we say this isn't a money problem This is a people problem. We just don't have the people To do the work and so I've that led me to become a part of the discussion about apprenticeships programs because I was feeling like well, you know, I have a district that has a good amount of people who are either out of work Or they're under employed, right? So they they are they graduated high school and they went down to The local drug store and they got a job there and so they work every day and they work all day every day But they do not have a career and things like health benefits and child care and all the rest continue to be a problem And so apprenticeships seem to be the best way To break through that problem both to provide us with the workers that we need to deal with the urgency of this Economic and society building moment that we have in los angeles and I think is common Around the country and to deal with long-term unemployment problems. There are communities where Unemployment never goes into single digits. We still have those in los angeles and I would suggest throughout the united states Given the situation that we're in now What I say in los angeles and and what I'll say here is This is a time where we ask and need all of you to be bold To be daring and to throw stuff against the wall Your your wildest ideas that you think I got to leave this in our little conference room in our organization Get those ideas out there tinkering at the edges of the system that we have now Is not going to cut it And what will happen is we will begin to slide backwards As an economy and as a community. I am Really big on the concept I spent the principal part of my career As a community organizer and a leader in an NGO in los angeles and I'm a big believer in integrated systems What do I mean by that? I mean Systems that don't think of themselves in isolation from everything else that goes on right and so If it is let's just take a get out the vote program if I have a get out the vote program and I Parachute people into a neighborhood or into a community around election time And I bug them bug them bug them bug them about voting right and voting what I want them to vote on and then I leave And they don't see me again until there's an election. What happens is that causes a fissure in the relationship, right? There's no trust. I there's no confidence and Over time what's going to happen is I'm either going to avoid you or you're going to be talking But you're not going to be communicating With me when systems are integrated When there is an apprenticeship program or an apprenticeship ambassador, I really like that term secretary. I appreciate Appreciate that when there's an apprenticeship ambassador That's embedded and integrated into the communities where there are workers You build trust in the community. You build confidence in the community You build consistency in the community and the community will start to do the work for you so It's one thing for a professional person to say, oh, I need to recruit Workers from this high school or this neighborhood It's another thing if the mother from the church says, you know what you would be good at this I want you to go talk to this woman that I know Because she's been a part of the community and I'm retired for years I don't need an apprenticeship, right? But I'm a member of this community and it's my job to make sure people in the community do well An integrated approach that gets into communities in a deep way. I think One critique I I have an industry of this in this regard is industry is really good at going where the market is They're good at going where the customers are. They're good at going where the money is They're not so good at going where the workers are They they uh, some of the companies that have the biggest demand for workers Are completely unknown in the communities where worker potential workers are And unless someone has a connection That they got somewhere outside of the community They know to go somewhere and get an apprenticeship program or access a pathway into work or into a career But if you're in the neighborhood and you're living your life on the day to day You never even know that these people need workers much less that they need workers And that they have work that you might be able to satisfy as a person and so Folks spin their wheels. There's frustration among communities that have chronic unemployment And there's frustration among companies and enterprises that need more and more workers. And so We Just say again Be bold be innovative innovative try crazy stuff We've got to turn around the business that Some communities just get left behind and there's nothing to be gained From working with people in those communities to understanding that our margin of victory Is really amongst those communities and amongst those workers and all the potential that they have To help us build a kind of community and world that we all deserve to live in so good So you both have a ton of experience And in the community level at the district level the state level We've heard a lot today. We're trying to drive this to sort of policy now It's a crazy time in washington, right? Like all those who work here. We're not sure what's going to happen in the election We spend all our time wondering about that instead of doing our work during the day, but But if you could sort of capture key policymakers in the room here The different stakeholders, you know the department of labor members of congress say look this is really what means doing This is where there's a barrier in policy or from my experience Or from changes we made at the state level if you would really tackle these one or two things What would they be to you first? flexibility I think with any government program one of the fears of the businesses anyway wanting to get involved in these types of programs Is they think it's another big government program where you're going to have to fill out a million pieces of paper You're going to have to have all of this reporting That's going to come to the state that we're going to send to the usdol and and That fear is real and that fear is a barrier So I would say part of what we have been able to do particularly with the youth apprenticeship program Is to separate it from the bureaucracy of the big adult registered apprenticeship programs and we did that in our statute And we did that in regulations telling our apprenticeship council, you know Hey, we're not going to interfere on everything that's required right now with the registered program But for the youth we need to be able to have some flexibility because we're building a new program We need to be able to do that so that we can understand what is going to work and what is not going to work We need to test the waters We need to understand how the businesses want to be able to react We have to understand how the students and even as importantly their parents Are going to be able to fit into the system and then how the school system is going to be able to Provide their resources as well so flexibility and Just the time to Not push it as fast as some people want to push it but to be able to take that time to understand What is working? I think that for us would be probably the best policy Mark wreath I I agree. I think flexibility is a key one of the You know having some experience not in apprenticeship or or work force development But having experience As a leader of an NGO The last thing you wanted to do as a leader of an NGO was take a government contract Because the government contract typically costs you more to do Than you ever received and so what I find that's very frustrating and and as a policymaker We try to move the needle on but it's a very heavy lift That is the the organizations and concerns that are the most effective especially in this area of apprenticeships Are the ones that are the least likely to ever want to do anything involving the government Because of the administrative work Because of the the scrutiny I can I've pushed for and I and I think We should make a broader push we need to treat Our social enterprises The way we treat our business enterprises. So in the city of Los Angeles, we make a contract with somebody to provide manhole covers The way they're evaluated is if the downhill covers work, right? And we have some wage stuff. You got to pay, you know, there's We got some wage requirements and some non-discrimination stuff. I mean there's stuff. I don't mean to say there isn't But uh, there isn't you know, you don't have to come to a million meetings and you don't have to be on You know this panel you get to do the work that you were contracted to do and and that's the direction we're trying to push Push the city in and the state of california in is Deliver the resources to people who are delivering results So I'll ask one more question and I'll open it up for any final questions that people have today People have talked about a lot about the importance of bringing businesses to the table and mark racy You just made a great point about you know If it's ever going to mean any time it's going to be now, right businesses are crying out for talent The economy is booming. They're dying for workers Yet somehow it is still difficult to engage them directly in this model What thoughts do you have? I mean we've talked about addressing maybe some fears What are some other incentives that you've seen be successful other techniques to that you would recommend to sort of Bring people that you've used to bring businesses into that broader industry and policy conversation You know, I find that it's it's not difficult to bring businesses in if they believe that you can deliver so we have an organization in southern california called leaders up and they provide training and prepare workers for a set of companies for entry-level workers and literally Every quarter they pick up new relationships with large corporations because they deliver and so they started off You know delivering about 5 000 workers and now they're into the tens of thousands Because they and because they deliver it didn't take a lot of work to convince To convince corporations to join them, you know another example An example of a group that would probably have a really hard time getting Any working with the government is an organization called second call second call specifically works with street gangs And if you know the anatomy of a street gang, there's always People in the street gang that the main members that and so second call works with those people to get them out of the gang And into mainly the construction trades, but other businesses businesses are Falling over themselves to trying to work with second call because they deliver So I think that's how what we've got to begin to look at and begin to lift up what works And I think when people see what works, they'll be drawn to it I I agree with those statements I also say that when I'm learning about when we go specifically into a jurisdiction where there is that youth apprenticeship program with that specific school system what we find from The businesses in those communities is that they start out our initial industry sponsors They started out wanting to do it not necessarily because of their workforce need But they did it because they wanted to be an interactive part of the community They wanted to give back they're very involved these small businesses in these areas They're very involved in what happens in their community Many of them are members of chambers of commerce the community foundations different associations the big volunteer networks And I think that was the one of the initial draws for some of these businesses Everybody has a corporate giving fund at this point in time. Everybody wants to be a good corporate steward to to society And so that's there, but I think once they get into The actual program They realize where the benefits are the benefits are is that they have been able to reevaluate their internal processes and procedures Their protocols in order to be able to develop a work plan for that individual student So it's helped them reevaluate their entire process And they have built their workforce most of our Apprentices over the two-year pilot program were employed after their pre-apprenticeship program with their youth apprenticeship program Some of those businesses creating specific jobs for those youth apprentices And they will be able to retain them because retention Is just as much of an issue as finding the good first entry-level worker So i'm going to open it up now. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to ask a question? Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna just take my product and this Can I just pose to ask how many people in here have done an apprentice? Other than the youth Am I new america? You've got something to work with here So they're all good recruits then so you all are recruits to become our new apprenticeship ambassadors I mean, I think you raise uh Something that I think is challenging with with uh a lot of work in this category In this category, but I think apprenticeships are particular in this way Historically or culturally apprenticeships are not formal things Right, so all of us obviously got apprenticeships through somebody.  You don't walk into the office knowing how to do the job Someone does it but it's done on an informal basis and it's done on a relationship basis, right? And so when you have an apprenticeship Program, really what you're trying to do is formalize something that happened Informally before and so there's a It's tough. It's not it's the jacket sometimes doesn't fit as well as you might like it to and I think it's important To be conscious of that when we're doing this work. It's it's like Purposefully building community, right? And so we're gonna have a block party where before you didn't have to You didn't have to have someone figure that out that kind of thing happened naturally Everybody came out on Sunday afternoon or whatever day it was and we ate together and we barbecued together or whatever As our society develops and people become disconnected and those things fray We have to put formal things in place And so I think it's important to remember that when you're doing apprenticeship programs You're doing something in a formal way That would have happened naturally based on relationships before And for me what that means is you have to put relationships at the center of your systems And that takes education and so I completely agree with that and For us What was a different change over the last four years from where where I come from and what I see now Is that we have been 100 focused on outreach and education to every stakeholder So we are intentional In going out and creating Stakeholder groups to be able to come together so that we can talk very openly and honestly about the non bureaucratic process About how simple it can be what we can do to be able to provide a resource Not a an enforcement overseer, but a resource to these stakeholder groups to get together in order to be able to form there So we have what we call apprenticeship 101 training. Um, we bring in Businesses industries. We get invited all over the state. We put in a lot of miles on our cars To be able to go and give that education Because unless everybody in your area Knows what you're talking about what you can do in order to be able to move this forward to create it as the premier workforce tool It's not going to get done Right, we all have to be speaking about the same thing We have to all have that apprenticeship 101 training so that we know exactly What the benefits are what the hurdles are what some of the barriers are but more importantly what the solutions are And how easy and quick it can be Terrific I'm uh, I see another question in the back I'm uh, I'm greg henchell with the u.s. Department of Education and I had a question from our quise um, I'd like to hear the rest of the story about Getting people into apprenticeships to build the low-income housing. How's that going? Is that sounds like an interesting experiment slow? Well, I mean, you know it's it's slow because we have people living on the street So you can't build the housing fast enough But I will tell you what is nice about it. It's one of those things that's as good a benefit Almost as the housing so the people There are homeless organizations that are working with homeless people that are getting people into apprenticeship programs And what's great about that is once they get through that apprenticeship program. They're their homelessness is in their history It's not coming back because they can work until they retire and they can build a retirement So in one respect is going very very well and another respect is very frustrating because we can't get the housing up nearly as fast As it's needed Okay, um with that I oh, I think um, we're gonna rat. Oh, Mary Alice wants to our host a council member Harris Dawson, you know, we've talked a lot about the need to attract employers and to get employers and schools to work together and But it's also true apprenticeship is this uh thing that um, it's probably I think it might be literally the only thing left that republicans and democrats can also agree on and And both of you, you know, you all represent I think different ends of the political or different not different ends But different parts of the political spectrum. Do you have a is that your experience and do you have a sense of? Why is it? What does it mean that this is a model that seems to appeal to both sides of the aisle and and what can we do with that? Really refreshing to be In workforce development because it is universally when I go in front of our legislature And they ask questions. We have Everybody in the room paying attention and want to participate and and I think it's because of a couple of things I think number one. It's because of the economic Advantage that we will have when we have strong workforce programs Everybody wants to have a strong economy. They want to be able to attract businesses and everybody wants to be able to further The educational and the skills of those young people that we know have such great futures Or can have such great futures when we all work together in order to make that happen So very refreshing that we don't have battles about this The only battle that I will say that we have sometimes about it is how fast people think that we can go Because uh, there has to be a reality like I said in order to be able to develop the foundation of a good program And then let it grow I concur with my colleague On that harmonious note, um, I'll turn it back to our our Okay, I am the final note. I'm gonna close us out here. Um, so I have about 15 or 20 points that I'm kidding It'll be quick Thank you to to Porsche's secretary Schultz to the councilman Harris Dawson. Thank you to everybody here I want to be sure to thank again our national partners our funders Everybody that's been involved in putting together paya Particularly want to thank the new america team. You've been fabulous. You're incredible. Don't say it enough This Is just uh the beginning Of something so it's the start and that's that's important because there's a lot of work ahead of us going to take a lot of coordination A lot of partnership. That's why it's in the name Um, we are excited to have everybody that's in this room be partners with us as we move forward All the people that are out there across the country folks that may be live streaming this We want you to be involved and we see this as the beginning of something that hopefully will transform the relationship between education And employment to do that's going to take a lot and we recognize that If we want to do it right if we really want to ensure that we are not only meeting the needs of industry But first and foremost, we are expanding access and opportunity for young people who don't have enough of it If we're going to do that work, we need a lot of people to help do it So thank you all again. There is lunch outside. We hope that you will stay and talk to each other We hope you'll also stay in touch with us as we move forward with this work. Thank you very much. Thanks for being here