Community colleges can assume various roles in a registered apprenticeship program, depending on state regulations and institutional capabilities. Typically, colleges can choose to provide related technical instruction (RTI), act as an intermediary, or serve as a registered apprenticeship program (RAP) sponsor. By partnering with industry through any of these roles, community colleges create opportunities to:
- Align curriculum and classroom instruction with practical applications.
- Build pathways to careers, degrees, and certifications.
- Strengthen relationships with employers and industry leaders to better prepare students for the workforce.
- Partner with local employers to manage registered apprenticeship programs.
Role 1: Related Technical Instruction (RTI) Provider
As a related technical instruction (RTI) training provider, the community college focuses on delivering academic instruction aligned with industry standards. Responsibilities include developing curriculum collaboratively with local businesses to address workforce needs, offering progressive credentials based on competency testing, and facilitating access to financial aid and support services such as tutoring and counseling.
Key benefits for colleges in this role include:
- Offering curriculum that meets industry standards while providing academic pathways for employer partners with existing registered apprenticeship programs.
- Expanding relationships with industry partners through collaborative program development.
- Providing opportunities for students to “earn and learn,” graduate with minimal debt, and secure employment.
- Addressing workforce demands to build new programs that meet the high demand of industry and the economy including reskilling and upskilling.
- Creating stackable credential pathways and integrating competency-based curricula into existing programs.
- Enhancing recruitment efforts to attract diverse student populations, including adult learners, which can increase both enrollment and revenue.
Employers benefit from this arrangement through access to updated training, structured academic pathways, funding opportunities, and the potential for students to earn credentials or degrees while contributing to the workforce.
Role 2: Intermediary
As a registered apprenticeship intermediary, community colleges serve as connectors to their local business community while remaining committed to providing students with quality education, experiential learning, and skills that meet employer needs. In working with college intermediaries, AACC highlights that the primary responsibilities of an intermediary could include recruiting, screening, and testing potential apprentices to determine readiness and placement with a registered apprenticeship sponsor. The community college works with individual employers, large and small, to design and deliver a tailored curriculum that meets individual employers’ business goals.
Reasons your college should be an intermediary:
- The college is committed to serving employer partners beyond academic instruction and has the capability of facilitating parts of a registered apprenticeship program.
- Employer partners have existing registered apprenticeship programs and would like an outside organization to take a hands-on role in facilitating and administering the program.
- The college can serve many employer partners under one program, especially those with only a few apprentices—a benefit to small and medium-size employers.
- The college can build new programs to meet workforce demand.
Employer benefits can include reduced administrative burdens, streamlined apprentice recruitment, curriculum design support, and access to funding opportunities. Colleges also help align education with workforce needs, contributing to employee retention and workforce development.
Role 3: Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) Sponsor
As a Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) Sponsor, community colleges assume full responsibility to design and operate a registered apprenticeship program. This comprehensive role allows the college to oversee all aspects of program management while building stronger employer partnerships and diversifying institutional offerings. The responsibilities of a RAP sponsor include the administration and operation of a registered apprenticeship program and may include employing the registered apprentice.
Reasons for assuming the sponsor role include:
- The college is committed to serving employer partners beyond academic instruction and has the capability of facilitating the entirety of a registered apprenticeship program.
- Employer partners would like to build a registered apprenticeship program and would like an outside organization to take a hands-on role in facilitating and administering the program.
- The college has the ability to serve many employer partners under one program, especially small to medium-size employers who can only handle smaller numbers of registered apprentices.
- The college would have full administration decision-making over the program and access to data.
- Registered apprenticeship programs support the diversifying of college offerings.
- The potential to hire apprentices as employees as alumni of the apprenticeship program.
- The ability to offer additional services to employer partners beyond being a training provider
Employer benefits include complete program management by the college, reduced administrative workload, recruitment assistance, curriculum design tailored to industry needs, and access to resources and funding opportunities.
Other Resources
- High-Quality Pre-Apprenticeship Programs: Community Colleges
- Registered Apprenticeship Sponsor Responsibility
- The Role of Community Colleges in Registered
- Apprenticeship gov: Educators – Community Colleges in Registered Apprenticeship