The purpose of this grant program is to promote apprenticeships as a significant workforce solution in filling current job vacancies and closing the skills gap between employer workforce needs and the skills of the current workforce. The overarching goals of this grant program are threefold:
- To accelerate the expansion of apprenticeships to industry sectors and occupations that have not traditionally deployed apprenticeships for building a skilled workforce, such as cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and health care;
- To promote the large-scale expansion of apprenticeships across the nation to a range of employers, including small and medium-sized employers; and
- To increase apprenticeship opportunities for all Americans.
This grant program supports the expansion of apprenticeships to industries that have not typically used the "learn as you earn" model to recruit new apprentices into the workforce, and to upskill those already employed in the industry to bolster the sector's competitiveness. Given the funding source, the industries and occupations that can be targeted with this funding are those for which employers are using H-1B visas to hire foreign workers, such as information technology (IT) and IT-related industries, health care, and advanced manufacturing. The Department is particularly interested in expanding the apprenticeship model to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI) professions. In addition, these grants seek to increase the level of apprenticeship activity among employers within these industry sectors that have not traditionally implemented apprenticeship programs, particularly among small- and medium-sized businesses.
To promote new, high-quality apprenticeship programs and the expansion of existing apprenticeship programs, this grant program will award grant funds to an apprenticeship partnership of public and private sector entities which, working together, will develop and implement new apprenticeship models or expand an existing apprenticeship program to a new industry sector, new population, or a local/regional, statewide, or national scale. This grant program will also support an array of activities designed to assist the industry in developing and expanding new apprenticeship programs. These activities will include the development of industry-approved, competency-based curricula for both on-the-job and classroom training; and the development of appropriate quality assurance and data systems and processes. Among other benefits, such activities help simplify program development and reduce program start-up times and costs, making it easier for employers to deploy the programs; and promote program consistency and quality, thus facilitating industry-wide acceptance of the apprenticeship model.
Grant-funded projects should strive to increase apprenticeship opportunities for all Americans, focusing particularly on veterans, military spouses, transitioning service members, and underrepresented populations in apprenticeship, including women, people of color, and ex-offenders. Priority consideration will be given to applicants who identify that at least one census tract within their physical service area is designated as a Qualified Opportunity Zone.
Apprenticeships: Closing the Skills Gap is the latest in a long line of Department of Labor H-1B visa funded workforce development grant opportunities featuring partnerships between employers, workforce development groups, and education and training providers. Previous iterations of this grant and their awardees are as follows:
Apprenticeship programs funded and developed under this grant program must have the following characteristics:
To help American industry reduce the need for skilled foreign workers under the H-1B visa program, applicants must design their apprenticeship programs to target one of the following: 1) Occupations in an H-1B industry; and 2) H-1B occupations. H-1B Industries that are using a significant number of visas to hire foreign workers include: (1) IT and IT-related industries; (2) Health Care; and (3) Advanced Manufacturing