A national initiative led by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) to increase the number of apprentices and services throughout the U.S. is quickly approaching its goal to serve 16,000 registered apprentices by February 28, 2022.
Expanding Community College Apprenticeships (ECCA), which is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, has served 15,647 participants from its start on March 1, 2019, through September 30, 2021. That means it is about 98% toward its goal and has to serve 353 apprentices by the end of February to reach its three-year target.
AACC has produced a fact sheet for the initiative. Of the participants served, 62% (9,469) are new employees; 38% (6,005) are incumbent workers. About 41% of ECCA participants have their apprenticeships in construction, followed by advanced manufacturing (38%). Roughly 4% are in each the following industries: finance and business, telecommunications, and transportation.
Of the ECCA apprentices, 61% are White, 17% are Hispanic or Latino, 9% are Black or African-American, and 3% are Asian. American Indian or Alaskan Natives and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders comprise 2% each.
Six percent of participants are veterans. One percent have a disability. About four out of five ECCA apprentices are men (83% compared to 13% women).
Most of the ECCA apprenticeships used a time-based training method (79%), followed by competency-based (12%) and a hybrid (5%).