06/25/2019

Ohio Partnership Awarded $12 Million to Scale Industry-recognized Apprenticeships

The Ohio Manufacturers' Association is a lead member in the partnership

The U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) announced today the recipients of its Scaling Apprenticeship Through Sector-Based Strategies grant. The grant includes a $12 million award to Ohio's Lorain County Community College (LCCC), the lead applicant in collaboration with Ohio TechNet (OTN) and The Ohio Manufacturers' Association (OMA), collectively known as the Ohio Manufacturing Workforce Partnership (OMWP).

The funding will play a vital role in helping Ohio address the workforce shortage and skills gap affecting manufacturing, as manufacturers across the state have repeatedly cited workforce as their top issue of concern. With the grant funds, OMWP will upskill 5,000 Ohioans over the next four years through Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAP), an innovative earn-and-learn model recently authorized by the USDOL.

"Ohio manufacturers understand that it's time to change the way we develop talent," said OMA President Eric L. Burkland. "Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Programs take the best of traditional, registered apprenticeship – structured on-the-job training, with related classroom instruction, and regularly increasing wages – and give manufacturers the flexibility to determine which skills and outcomes are most important to their long-term success. To ensure that these flexible apprenticeships provide high-quality training, each will be tied to a specific Industry Recognized Credential."

Please select this link to read the complete press release from Cision PR Newswire.