Once your college decides to implement a Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP), several critical steps must be undertaken to ensure success. The following high-level overview outlines key actions recommended by AACC for developing EV RAPs at community colleges.
1. Define the vision for your EV Registered Apprenticeship Program
Establish clear priorities for your program, including the targeted occupations, student populations, workforce needs, and potential collaborative partners. This vision should be endorsed by college leadership, faculty, staff, the board of trustees, industry partners, your state apprenticeship agency or federal Department of Labor Office of Apprenticeship, along with other key community stakeholders.
2. Develop internal systems to support your program
Assess and adapt existing systems within the college to effectively support the registered apprenticeship program. Review existing systems and determine how they can be used or modified to support the new EV Registered Apprenticeship Program, and gain stakeholders’ support to utilize these systems. This might include partnering with existing departments within your college, utilizing a credit for prior learning process, creating and building on existing academic pathways, providing off-campus advising, employer engagement, innovative/flexible scheduling, and a method to track related technical instruction and on-the-job training components.
3. Identify your champion
Identify a champion within your college who will guide, develop, manage, and implement the Registered Apprenticeship Program. This individual may be an existing administrator, staff or faculty, or a new position hired specifically to take on this task. The college will also need to determine the administrative and physical placement of this role within the college (e.g., academic or workforce division).
4. Define and build your program model
There are many decisions that must be made in developing a new EV Registered Apprenticeship Program or expanding into a new RAP occupation area. Answering the following questions will help your college define the framework around which your RAP can be built:
- Will the college act as a Registered Apprenticeship Program sponsor, provide only the related technical instruction for employer partners, or a combination of services?
- If acting as a sponsor, confirm eligibility with your state apprenticeship agency. If the college is providing the related instruction; will it be credit-bearing or non-credit?
- If credit-bearing, will the student receive an academic credential, certificate, degree or diploma, or multiple credentials through a developed pathway?
- For non-credit coursework, will the student receive an industry-recognized credential?
- If there is local market demand for the Registered Apprenticeship Program, which EV occupations or career paths will be integrated into this program?
- If additional services are needed to better support the Registered Apprenticeship students, who internally or externally will be providing these services?
- In working with employer partners, what specific compensation model makes sense for the Registered Apprenticeship Program?
- Which training model (time-based, competency-based, or hybrid) will the program adopt, and what will the duration be?
5. Implement and scale your registered apprenticeship program model
Evaluate and assess outcomes as each cohort completes the program. Use this data to identify best practices, address challenges, and inform program growth. Success will hinge on strong institutional leadership, solid employer partnerships, and well-functioning internal systems. Expanding to additional occupations, geographic locations, or new programs will be supported by these foundations.