CWA Continues to Build Apprenticeship Programs to Raise Industry Standards and Expand Access to Employment Opportunities

Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced grant awards that included $2 million for CWA Local 7603 to establish a registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship program for broadband technicians in Idaho aimed at preparing the skilled workforce needed to improve and upgrade broadband infrastructure within the designated counties of Idaho.

“As Idaho prepares for a statewide broadband buildout, CWA Local 7603 is committed to train more Idaho residents to become highly skilled broadband technicians who know how to build safe, reliable broadband that will stand the test of time,” said CWA Local 7603 Local President Jeremiah Clever. “With the DOL’s apprenticeship grant for $2 million, we have an unmatched opportunity to partner with employers, the state, and educational institutions to lead the way on this historic fiber buildout, all while raising industry standards and providing good-paying, stable jobs to underrepresented Idahoans.”

Additionally, through a grant awarded by the DOL to the Urban Institute, CWA will create a workers’ rights training module for participants in a program to create training pipelines so that underrepresented communities have access to information technology jobs in the clean energy sector. In addition to training workers, CWA will host virtual events for project partners and the public about workers’ rights, labor history, and organizing.

These new programs build on the foundation established by CWA District 9’s Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee, which has administered apprenticeships for inside cabling technicians for more than twenty years and recently expanded to include fiber optic technicians. District 9 received a $5.8 million federal grant last year and a $4.6 million state grant this year to expand this program.

IUE-CWA Local 88502 member Amaris Means shared her personal story as a woman in manufacturing at an event to announce the winners of the Department of Labor’s Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations grants. Amaris, who works at Keystone Powdered Metal Company in St. Marys, Pa., told the crowd that she had been working three jobs to make ends meet when she learned about an opening at the Keystone plant. “Just because people assume that this is a male-dominated field doesn't mean that women can't come in and dominate as well. I'm proud to be a working woman in manufacturing,” she said.

IUE-CWA Local 88502 member Amaris Means (center right), joined AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler (right), AFL-CIO Secretary Fred Redmond (left), and Department of Labor Women’s Bureau Director Wendy Chun-Hoon (second from right), to announce the winners of the Department of Labor’s Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations grants.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.