The Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee (AJAC) Manufacturing Academy is a 10-week pre-apprenticeship program designed to offer a solid foundational pathway in advanced manufacturing employment and apprenticeship opportunities for low-income job seekers. 12-15 students per cohort (offered quarterly).
100+ trained per year in partnership with 3 community/technical colleges in Puget Sound (South Seattle, Bates, Green River) that includes 20-24 elective college credits in addition to industry credentials and certifications issued by AJAC. Can be applied towards 2-year degrees and apprenticeship programs.
Challenges:
- Credits come with tuition costs (est. $2-3K per student, depending on college)
- AJAC works closely with college financial aid offices, workforce development council/WorkSource staff, and CBOs to pre-qualify students for available funds (e.g. BFET, Worker Retraining, WIOA, etc.). But it is not currently Pell eligible because it is a short-term training.
- They are typically only able to fund 20-30% of all interested applicants b/c of complex web of funding streams, eligibility processes for available funds.
Opportunity
- A Regional Pre-Apprenticeship Fund (as described in the Framework) would drastically lower barriers to participate, resulting in our ability to roughly double the number of annual people served per year (200+).