The state of Missouri has been in the apprenticeship arena since 2016 but with the establishment of the Office of Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning in 2019 through Governor Michael Parson’s Executive Order 19-20, Missouri has put a focus on expanding registered apprenticeship.

According to Donna Brake, Manager, Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning, Missouri Department of Higher Education & Workforce Development, the Office of Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning regularly convened quarterly meetings with other state agencies to talk about growth and plans on how to increase or expand registered apprenticeships throughout the state.

“We were engaging employer partners and apprenticeship stakeholders throughout the state but only in discussion,” she said. “For those interested in participating in registered apprenticeship, we could give them technical assistance, connect them to the Department of Labor to register their apprenticeship, and walk them through it, but we were really missing what it was to operate a registered apprenticeship program ourselves.”

Discussions started about how they could lead from the front by putting their own registered apprenticeship program into action. They reapproached an idea that never came to fruition – a registered apprenticeship training model for Job Center staff.

“We worked with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship in Missouri to create a workforce development apprenticeship program for two occupations, one that is specific to veteran staff working under the Jobs for Veteran Services Grant (JVSG), and another for non-JVSG front-line job center staff,” said Brake.

Missouri’s program was registered on September 29, 2023, and its first cohort began in November of 2023. The first group of workforce professionals is expected to begin completing the program this spring as early as April.

A majority of the first group of participants are incumbent staff, but all new job center staff will automatically be enrolled in the program. The program is a mixture of technical instruction, on-the-job learning alongside a mentor or “journeyman-level” workforce development specialist, and completion of the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals’ Certified Workforce Development Professional (CWDP) credential.

Brake said the great thing about the Registered Apprenticeship program is that it introduces specific learning that is associated with what staff are doing in the Job Center.

“It’s teaching them how to work with customers within the workforce development world, how to coach them, how to talk to them about setting goals,” said Brake. “You add in the CWDP credential and they are getting more information about career services and the larger Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA) world. Both combined are just helping fine tune that learning for staff while they are working every day in the job center and serving customers.”

Jerri Bowles, Job Center Services Manager, Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development, said the apprenticeship training creates an opportunity to streamline new hire training.

“New staff weren’t the best prepared and had a lot thrown at them at once,” she said. “The apprenticeship is one and a half to two years of constant training. It’s giving that wrap-around support that we weren’t giving before.”

Bowles said the program is giving new hires more confidence in serving customers and a feeling of support from the entire team.

“The peer-to-peer is important,” she said. “The retention specialists and supervisors can watch them do a particular task and give feedback. If they are struggling, they can brush up on skills and master the competencies.”

National Guidelines for Apprenticeship Standards for the profession of Workforce Development Specialist were approved in June 2020. NAWDP’s Board of Directors was instrumental in the development of these standards which are a model for developing local apprenticeship programs registered with OA or a State Apprenticeship Agency (SAA) for the profession of Workforce Development Professional (Specialist).

More information and resources on the National Guidelines for Apprenticeship Standards can be found on NAWDP’s website at https://www.nawdp.org/ApprenticeshipStandards