A national initiative led by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) to increase the number of apprentices throughout the U.S. served 22,001 participants by its conclusion last summer, vastly surpassing its goal to serve 16,000 registered apprentices.
Expanding Community College Apprenticeships (ECCA), a three-year effort funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, included more than 633 occupations, with the bulk in the construction (39.2%) and advanced manufacturing (38.8%) industries. The next highest industry was transportation at 4.8%, followed by finance and business at 3.8%. (See graph, below).
AACC has produced a fact sheet for the initiative. Of the participants served, 66% (14,399) were new employees; 34% (7,549) were incumbent workers. Of the ECCA apprentices, 60% were White, 20% were Hispanic or Latino, 9% were Black or African American, and 3% were Asian. American Indian or Alaskan Natives and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders comprised 2% each.
Six percent of participants were veterans. One percent had a disability. About four out of five ECCA apprentices were men (83% compared to 12% women).
Most of the ECCA apprenticeships used a time-based training method (79%), followed by competency-based (11.5%) and a hybrid (5%).
