North Seattle College (NSC) is new to the apprenticeship world and is off to a good start. In little more than one year, we have gone from zero to three apprenticeship programs on our campus. One of the most important and difficult parts of getting started in the world of Apprenticeship’s is carefully selecting which organizations to collaborate with in developing the college-apprenticeship program. From the college’s perspective, there are several important considerations:
- Creating a win-win relationship in which each party gets what it needs and wants. From the college side this includes a positive employment outcome for students, instructional programming and operations that pays for itself, or returns a surplus, and apprentices that are likely to return to the college for further education after completion of their apprenticeship.
- Creating an early win to gain campus-wide support for the new program.
- Relationships and programming that supports, and is consistent with, the college’s strategic direction and values.
One key question is who to bring to the table to ensure success. At NSC, we had two distinct concerns: Would the expansion into new apprenticeship programs help or hinder the college’s diversity goals? And, would this new program create a ROI for the college?
At NSC we were able to meet both concerns by partnering with the Pacific Northwest Ironworkers, Local Union #86. Under our state system, Ironworker Apprenticeships allow the college to accrue 30% more FTES “credit” than other building trade programs in our state funding allocation system. Also, we were able to secure federal and state grants to support both the development and operations of the new partnership and registered apprenticeship program. As it relates to diversity, the Ironworkers also share the value of increasing diversity which mirrored that of the college.
A second apprenticeship program that the college was involved in was with the Washington Healthcare Apprenticeship Consortium. Through this partnership we created Washington State’s first Pharmacy Technician apprenticeship program which will be starting soon. The benefits of this new program, is that the related technical instruction would be using the college’s existing Pharmacy Technician curriculum (reducing development costs), and it provide an academic credential for students, plus we also were able to secure a state grant to support instruction and student support costs.
Through our new apprenticeship programs, NSC has shown that it is possible to expand apprenticeship opportunities at the college which meet all partner needs including student success all partners.