Arizona and US Department of Labor aim to double the number of apprentices in the state

Arizona is one of 10 states selected by CareerWise for a new youth apprenticeship initiative to double the number of apprentices in the state.

Each of the 10 states participating will receive $200,000 from CareerWise, a national nonprofit that focuses on creating education-to-career pathways, to launch the program.

CareerWise is partnering with the U.S. Department of Labor to create the initiative.

How will this help Arizona?

CareerWise will work with Arizona officials to build more pipelines for the state’s youth to enter apprenticeships in fast-growing industries, providing training and networking to grow apprenticeship programs and create new ones.

Arizona currently has 9,308 active apprentices. The goal of the program is to double that number.

Brent Parton, president of CareerWise, said Arizona was chosen because of its existing workforce opportunities.

“Arizona’s really been on the forefront of a lot of innovation in apprenticeship, whether that’s cyber security in Phoenix and the broader Valley [or] opportunities in healthcare that are going up,” Parton said.

Parton added that Arizona is the “epicenter” of advanced manufacturing and semiconductors, which also lends itself well to apprenticeships.

He stressed that an apprenticeship is different from an internship, and that impacts Arizona’s workforce.

“An apprentice is an employee from day one. And that means that you’re not only paid, but you are getting supervised training on the job from folks that are really skilled,” he said.

Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.

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