WI DWD - Youth Apprenticeship

Overview

The Wisconsin Youth Apprenticeship (YA) program allows juniors and seniors in high school the opportunity to acquire occupational skills in specific careers while working for an employer who teaches a defined set of skills. From agriculture and manufacturing, to logistics, health care, automotive, cosmetology, and more, high school students attain valuable skills in a hands-on environment from potential employers, ultimately earning a recognized credential. The first YA program was offered in 1992. By 2018, many of the fields had witnessed substantial changes. Each training program needed updates. The YA program contracted with WIDS to modernize the programs to comply with the Wisconsin Statute 106-13 Legislative Mandate: WI Department of Workforce Development.

The Challenge

The Wisconsin Youth Apprenticeship program needed to modernize over 65 apprenticeships to accommodate a decade of field-specific changes. Many YA programs had not been reviewed throughout their respective “lifetimes.” Across each program, outdated competencies and requirements needed to be removed and/or updated. In addition, YA needed to engage current, past, and future employers in each field to develop revised occupational pathways reflecting industry changes so they could reconfigure programs to include “hiring signals” such as occupational certifications. Finally, YA sought to develop programs for several occupational areas that lacked YA student opportunities. The YA staff is small and was responsible for multiple duties outside of the modernization project scope.

The WIDS Solution

The Wisconsin Youth Apprenticeship program contracted with WIDS to modernize its curriculum. WIDS applied  a DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) approach to modernizing each youth apprenticeship program. WIDS Learning Design Consultants collaborated with YA Staff to manage the modernization process. WIDS staff applied a DACUM process to engage employers in each occupational area to verify existing and identify new skills, documented any changes to skills and requirements, and documented any changes to occupation-specific accrediting or certifying body agency standards or regulatory requirements. WIDS also facilitated meetings with educational professionals to help identify related instructional classes to support each of the youth apprenticeship programs and the most effective methods for teaching the updated courses.  Once each program’s elements were updated, WIDS identified clearer pathways into Registered Apprenticeship programs, where applicable. Finally, WIDS collated all YA program information and presented it in an easy-to-implement manner, contributing to the program’s future adaptability to change and overall longevity.  

Throughout the multi-year modernization project, WIDS partnered with the program’s staff to keep the project on track. John Keckhaver, Youth Apprenticeship Section Chief with the Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards, Department of Workforce Development (Wisconsin) said,

“WIDS was indispensable in keeping us organized, productive, and on track to complete the YA Modernization project.” WIDS proved essential to achieving these goals. “The YA Modernization effort was complex, detailed, and large in scope. We could not have accomplished it without WIDS.”

The Result

WIDS prepared the final, standardized YA documentation including On the Job Learning Guides, Related Instruction Guides, Pathway Overviews, and program roll-out overview materials. The results have been positive. Keckhaver reports,

“Participation in Youth Apprenticeship has quadrupled in the last ten years. Working with WIDS to update all of our YA occupational programs and create many new ones allowed our small team to continue our daily operations and take on this large project at the same time.”

The YA program has seen an increase in involved employers across Wisconsin and the development of multiple new programs, including many in the five occupational pathways previously not addressed by YA. According to Keckhaver, four of the new WIDS developed programs in two occupational areas: Education and Business and Administration, enrolled over 500 students in the first year of release. Best of all, Youth Apprenticeship enrollments have increased yearly since WIDS partnered with them to modernize the program.