Apprenticeship Expansion Project

In 2018, The Irvine Foundation awarded funding to the Foundation for California Community Colleges through their Better Careers Initiative to support apprenticeship readiness and expansion throughout California community colleges. We created the Apprenticeship Expansion Project through this funding, which seeks to expand the knowledge and network of practitioners interested in learning, creating, and expanding apprenticeships in the state.

The Foundation for California Community Colleges has leveraged funding from the Irvine Foundation with the following goals in mind: 

• Enhance cross-sector understanding and coordination among statewide and regional partners, including workforce, education, and community organizations. 
• Increase the capacity of new, expanding, and innovative apprenticeship programs (pre-apprenticeship, enhanced on-the-job training, and registered apprenticeships) to access funding and plan for sustainability.  
• Address program sustainability by developing new resources to incorporate sustainability in program planning and disseminate effective sustainability practices to the broader community of apprenticeship stakeholders. 

We are continuing to iterate and build upon existing Apprenticeship Expansion Project content, create new educational resources and implementation toolkits, expand existing and create new mechanisms for information dissemination, and focus on developing a statewide apprenticeship community of practice. We are lifting expertise within the community of practice related to apprenticeship intermediary models, youth apprenticeship models, diversity, equity, inclusion, high road training partnerships, employer engagement strategies, and more.