i3 - July/August 2019 - 36

Policy

By Bronwyn Flores

P O L I CY U P DAT E

CTA's Apprenticeship Coalition

t CES 2019, IBM's Ginni Rometty announced the
launch of the CTA Apprenticeship Coalition. Last
month, the Coalition met in Washington, DC, for the
day-long Design Thinking Workshop with apprenticeship leaders such as the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Ghazi
Associates, IBM and Jobs for the Future sharing best practices
to help Coalition members get started.

In 2017, IBM launched its apprenticeship
program. Working with the DOL, the
company went from conception to
launching a cohort of six people to hiring
200 apprentices in the first year of the
program. This year, IBM plans to enroll
450 new apprentices - individuals from
all walks of life who are transitioning
from careers in nursing, the service
industry and U.S. military to systems
engineers and blockchain specialists.
Through the CTA Apprenticeship
Coalition, IBM is sharing its guides for
how to create an apprenticeship program for roles including software engineer, data analyst and cybersecurity
analysts from the ground up. The goal is
to scale tech-related apprenticeships to
help close the U.S. skills gap.
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JULY/AUGUST 2019

Learn a Skill: No Debt

The Coalition is comprised of more than
two dozen companies and will provide
pathways to tech jobs in all parts of the
country - from Kansas to Michigan to
Texas - not just traditional coastal tech
hubs. One of the many benefits of
apprenticeships is individuals can access
a learning experience similar to college
but without the debt.
"It's very refreshing to have a trade
association bring so much energy to the
important task of training today's workers in roles generated from the digital
revolution such as artificial intelligence
and quantum computing jobs brought

on by the technological revolution," said
David Barnes, vice president, global
workforce policy, IBM.
Not only is there an urgent need for
U.S. companies to find skilled talent,
there are few tech job training programs
at the federal level. Less than one percent of DOL registered apprenticeships
are focused on tech jobs. Fortunately,
DOL is actively working to expand the
number of available apprenticeships in
new and growing industries such as hospitality, nursing and technology.
Between 2014 and 2018, the
Department saw a 71% growth in
apprenticeships - a 20-year high.
Thanks to A&K Robotics, Alarm.com,
Amazon Web Services, BloomBoard,
BOSCH, Digital Creative Institute, Ford
Motor Company, Franklin
Apprenticeships, Microsoft,
OpenClassrooms, OperationsInc,
Phone2Action, SoftBank Robotics, Sprint
and TeamPeople for attending and for
working together to train America's
workers for the jobs of the future.

To learn more about the Coalition, visit CTA.tech/apprenticeship
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

https://www.cta.tech/Membership/Member-Groups/CTA-Apprenticeship-Coalition.aspx https://www.alarm.com/ https://www.cta.tech/apprenticeship

i3 - July/August 2019

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