When Igor Dobrosavljevic was exploring growth options for his Des Moines computer consulting firm, he chose an option that’s still a rarity in his industry — hiring and training a paid apprentice. 

“We were looking at growth and deciding on optimal ways to grow the company,” said Dobrosavljevic, who launched Grand Consulting in 2008. Rather than considering only college graduates for his next hire, he thought, “What if I trained them myself? There are quite a few smart people out there who might not necessarily have a college degree.” 

Grand Consulting’s apprenticeship program is one of nearly 750 active apprenticeship programs in the state that are registered by the U.S. Department of Labor. 

One indicator of the need for more skilled labor in Iowa: Currently, more than 500 electricians from outside of the state have been brought in by contractors to complete projects due to a shortage of electricians available locally, according to the electrical unions’ training director. 

As Iowa companies seek to address the skills gap, there’s evidence that more companies are opting to grow their own workforce talent through apprenticeships, particularly in areas such as information technology, advanced manufacturing and health care. 

Iowa, which has added about 100 registered apprenticeship programs each year for the past three fiscal years, is on track to meet a federal five-year goal of doubling its registered apprenticeship programs by 2019, said Greer Sisson, Iowa state director for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship in Des Moines. The goal aligns with a national initiative announced two years ago by President Barack Obama to double the number of apprenticeships and apprentices by 2019. 

Iowa a leading state
More than 8,100 Iowans are currently working in registered apprenticeship programs statewide. Over the past five years the number of registered apprenticeship programs has grown from 461 in fiscal 2011 to 743 in fiscal 2015. In that time, the number of new apprentices has increased steadily, from 2,584 in fiscal 2011 to 4,145 in fiscal 2015, or about 12 percent annually. Among the newest registered apprenticeships in Iowa are programs for craft beer brewing apprentices as well as winemaker apprentices, along with newly developed IT apprenticeships.   

“We have a lot of energetic businesses and partners in the state of Iowa who believe in registered apprenticeship,” said Sisson, who has led the state Office of Apprenticeship since 2004. In terms of percentage growth, Iowa has been one of the leading states in the country for expanding apprenticeship programs for the past few years, she said. 

“I think one of the biggest reasons for growth in Iowa is that we have a great federal-state partnership,” Sisson said. “One of the barriers is that people aren’t aware of what registered apprenticeships are — our office and our partners do a good job in going out and talking about registered apprenticeships.” 

Working with the Office of Apprenticeship, Iowa Workforce Development has taken several steps recently to increase its level of assistance to businesses in establishing or supporting existing apprenticeships, said Beth Townsend, IWD’s director. 

“One of the things we recognized as an agency was we needed to make a more sustained and consistent approach to apprenticeship programs, because Greer’s office has only three other people,” she said. “The (goal to double apprenticeships), that’s a pretty big task you’re talking about, about 750 more apprenticeship programs in Iowa.” 

To provide additional funding for apprenticeship training, Iowa Workforce Development recently applied for a $2.3 million U.S. Department of Labor grant from a $90 million pool of federal funds set aside for expanding state apprenticeship programs. 

The funding would augment a $200,000 federal apprenticeship accelerator grant the agency received in June, Townsend said. 

“We’ll be working with organizations like the Iowa Association for Business and Industry, and we’ve spoken to the Refugee Alliance because we’re interested in creating some apprenticeship programs for moving refugees into the workforce in a variety of ways,” she said. “There’s a large and growing refugee population in Iowa, and we really need to tap into that to help meet our middle skills gap.” 

Additionally, Iowa Workforce Development is in the process of hiring an apprenticeship coordinator who can provide training agencywide, Townsend said. “We want all of our field offices throughout the state to be talking to employers and encouraging them to develop registered apprenticeship programs,” she said. “With an apprenticeship coordinator, we feel we’ll be able to develop a more consistent approach than we have in the past.” 

There’s now also additional state funding that employers can apply for to augment or initiate apprenticeship programs. 

Legislation tripled state funding
In 2014, the Iowa Legislature passed the Iowa Apprenticeship Act, which appropriated $3 million annually for grants that companies can use toward apprenticeship training. Also known as 15B grants, the program replaced the High Technology Apprenticeship Awards program and provides triple the funding the earlier program had. In its first year of awards in fiscal 2015, the Iowa Economic Development Authority awarded $3.15 million to 68 apprenticeship programs that are training nearly 4,800 apprentices. 

“Iowa is actually one of the few states in the country to put forward its own money,” Townsend said. “Most states rely solely on the registered apprenticeship money that they get from the Department of Labor.” 

In addition to making more funds available to companies that want to hire apprentices, the Apprenticeship Act streamlined the administration of the grant program and made the process more transparent for applicants, said Tina Hoffman, marketing and communications director for the IEDA. 

“We have so many workforce training challenges; apprenticeships are a great way to meet the skills gap that’s out there,” she said.  

Among the changes are a reduction in the administration fee that IEDA deducts from the grant awards to 2 percent, down from 18 percent previously, “so that more money was getting out to companies so they could hire more apprentices,” Hoffman said. The new system also enables grant applicants to track their applications through the process, she said.
 
More than just construction 
The state funding through the 15B program is helpful, particularly for smaller apprenticeship programs, said Steve Hansen, director of training for the Des Moines Electrical Apprenticeship, which provides apprenticeships for the union electrical trades. 

“But they’ve still got to have funding some other way,” he said, noting that the average annual training cost for each electrical apprentice is about $4,000. Most of the construction trades apprenticeship programs are self-funded with a per-hour contribution from the apprentices, which is allocated to an education fund. 

The need for additional apprentices extends across all of the skilled construction trades, Hansen said. 

“The workforce as a whole is aging, so there is going to be a need for this new generation to fill those gaps,” he said. “And it takes a few years to get through the apprenticeship and then another few years before they become skilled enough to pick up where that retiring person left off. So we’re seeing a decline in the number of applicants for apprenticeships, but the need is increasing every year.”  

Sisson said although construction trades are the “bedrock” of apprenticeship activity in Iowa, it’s a common misconception that apprentices are filling solely union construction positions. 

“It’s a big part of apprenticeship, but it’s so much more than that,” she said. “There are registered apprenticeship programs in health care, IT, transportation. In Iowa we have one of the largest transportation apprenticeship programs in the nation.” 

Additionally, active apprentice positions in the state are about equally split between union and non-union apprenticeships, and on a whole, 89 percent of apprenticeship program in Iowa last fiscal year were non-union positions, Sisson said. “So that kind of dispels the myth that apprenticeships are just union construction jobs.”  

More information technology-related apprenticeship programs are in the works for Iowa. The Technology Association of Iowa recently developed a template for a registered apprenticeship program for application developers, “which was far and away the biggest need that our members had,” said Tyler Wyngarden, director of talent development for TAI. “So we at TAI were in a position to be the lever at the state level to say, ‘If your company wants to offer an apprenticeship program, here’s a template to follow.’ 

TAI can also work with technology companies to flesh out other types of apprenticeships and get them up and running, Wyngarden said. “The real benefit is, as opposed to companies going it alone, they can lean on us to get the collective support they need.” About 15 companies are currently in the discovery or development stages of technology apprenticeships, he said. 

Dobrosavljevic, whose Grand Consulting firm hired a help desk apprentice a couple of months ago, developed a three-year registered apprenticeship program that he hopes will lead to a highly qualified technician by the third year of the program. 

The hardest part of the process was finding a candidate to fill the apprentice position, Dobrosavljevic said. He hired a technically inclined Bosnian immigrant who was interested in computers but who hadn’t held a job in IT before. The apprentice will progress from job shadowing in the first year to handling calls in the second year to developing solid expertise into the third year, he said. 

“I’m hoping to hire another apprentice in a couple of years,” Dobrosavljevic said. “it all depends on the growth of the company. I definitely see the benefits that can be obtained from it.” 

‘A logical fit’ for postsecondary education goal
IWD’s Townsend said she expects to find out whether Iowa receives the Department of Labor grant relatively soon this fall. 

“Iowa is in a very good position to hit the ground running,” she said. “A lot of states haven’t put money into apprenticeship programs, and they don’t have the infrastructure we currently have. Greer Sisson’s office has really done a good job of laying the foundation for that, so we feel we’re in a better position than states that are just starting to look at apprenticeships as a way of developing their workforce.” 

Apprenticeships are also a logical fit for assisting Iowa in meeting Gov. Terry Branstad’s goal of having at least 70 percent of Iowans achieve some level of postsecondary education, Townsend said. “Because it’s an earn-while-you-learn approach, and when you’re finished you have credentials that you can use with your present employer or take with you that are industry-accepted. I think apprenticeships will be a key part of meeting that goal.” 

Townsend said her department will focus on moving several key groups of people into apprenticeships. In addition to refugees, IWD will also work to increase the number of apprentices in the minority communities and among people with disabilities. “Those are two communities that have traditionally faced more barriers to employment,” she said. 

“We are making concerted efforts to reduce our minority unemployment rate, and apprenticeships are a logical way to reduce that number and get more minorities into the workforce in meaningful positions with recognized credentials.”

 

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MidAmerican Energy streamlines its apprenticeship program
To keep up with turnover in its line mechanic workforce, MidAmerican Energy Co. has opened a new line mechanic training center in Des Moines and is looking at ways to prequalify more apprentice candidates. 

In conjunction with opening the 28,000-square-foot facility in mid-September, the Des Moines-based utility company has streamlined its lineman apprenticeship program to a two-year program that follows one year of pre-apprentice training, rather than a four-year program. 

The new approach is a hybrid between a time-based and a competency-based apprenticeship, said Jim Dougherty, MidAmerican’s vice president for electric delivery.  “Our big driver on this was how to get very talented, qualified people into our workforce in as timely a fashion as we possibly could,” he said.

Utilities in many states are experiencing shortages of line mechanics and apprentices, but that’s not the case in Iowa, Dougherty said. For its first six-person class in Des Moines, the company received as many as 60 applications. “In our industry there’s a lot of high-line work done by contractors,” he said. “We get a mix of candidates, those already out in the workforce and those just out of school.” 

Apprentice line mechanics can make between $26 and $32 per hour, depending on their advancement within the program. Journeymen line mechanics, or those who have finished the apprenticeship, can make a base wage between $38 and $40 per hour, according to MidAmerican.

The company currently has between about 40 and 60 active apprentice line mechanics. MidAmerican’s goal is to have about 36 apprentices go through the program each year, Dougherty said. 

“It’s still time-based, but we’re taking care of some of the competencies upfront, through either one year of pre-apprentice training or one year of a line school,” he said. “We see it as a way to better train them and meet the workforce challenge.”

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Central Campus program to introduce students to apprenticeship opportunities
Beginning next school year, Central Campus will give its middle school students a better taste for the broad range of skilled trades they could enter after high school graduation. And as the Des Moines school district’s regional career training academy, Central Campus is working toward a day when high school students will be able to begin actual apprenticeships with employers while they’re still in school. 

Central Campus is now in the planning stages of forming a Generalist Skilled Trades Academy, an  initiative that will formalize pre-apprenticeship training of its students. That program will then lead to trade-specific academies to connect with registered apprenticeship programs offered by employers. 

Located at 1800 Grand Ave., Central Campus recently became the first high school in the state to qualify as a Quality Pre-Apprenticeship Program by the U.S. Department of Labor. That program, established by the Labor Department in 2012, is defined as “a set of strategies designed to prepare individuals to enter and succeed in a Registered Apprenticeship program and has a documented partnership with at least one, if not more, Registered Apprenticeship program(s).” 

As a longer-term goal, Central Campus is also seeking to become a Sponsored Apprenticeship Program, which would enable it to begin training students as apprentices while they’re still in high school, said Aiddy (pronounced ah-DEE) Phomvisay, director of Central Campus. 

“This is a collective effort to provide, first and foremost, pathways for our students into meaningful careers and good-paying jobs with benefits,” Phomvisay said. “It’s a win-win solution when we can partner with business and industry to not only make sure our standards and competencies are aligned with their needs, but also that they have exceptional skills so they can be highly successful and continue their training at little or no cost to them while making a good living.”  

Next summer, Central Campus will launch a Skilled Trades Academy for seventh- and eighth-grade students to provide them with a broad exposure to the skilled trades. “Then we’ll begin with a first-year class called the Generalist Skilled Trades Academy, a curriculum that gives our students exposure to the wide variety of skilled trades that are out there,” he said. “From there they can determine where their skills, talents and passions lie to focus on a specialized trade.” 

Ideally, the students will begin the specialized trades programs in the ninth grade and stay with them for three years through graduation.  

Through the program, “we will track the students’ (training) hours and competencies and completion dates for the pre-apprentice programs,” Phomvisay said. “At some point, once we become the sponsored apprenticeship program, we’ll be able to track their training all the way through to completion.” 

Greer Sisson, state director for the Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship in Des Moines, said Eastern Iowa Community College is the only higher education institution in the state that’s now offering a registered apprenticeship sponsorship program to youth. At the K-12 level, no schools in the state are yet offering the type of registered apprenticeship sponsorship that Central Academy is aiming to launch, she said. 

Initial funding for Central Campus’s Skilled Trades Academy program will come through a consortium of companies called the Skilled Trades Alliance. To date, 65 organizations, the majority of them construction-related companies, have joined the alliance and a number have made financial contributions, Phomvisay said. 

The alliance, spearheaded by Hubbell Realty Co. CEO Rick Tollakson, Rachel Flint of Hubbell Homes and Gary Scrutchfield, owner of Lumbermans Wholesale, seeks to raise $900,000 by the end of October, which would provide the initial three years of funding. “Our pledges indicate that right now, conservatively we’re at $400,000,” he said. “We’re confident that with all of our business partners coming forward that by the end of October we’ll meet our goal.” 

Phomvisay recently met with his entire staff to present an example of an early innovator in the program — Central Campus’s welding program. That program recently received a gift of new welding equipment from MidAmerican Energy Co. worth $250,000. It’s now working to ensure its instruction and competencies are aligned with MidAmerican Energy’s welding union.   

“I’m challenging every one of our instructors to look at these (quality pre-apprenticeship) standards and then demonstrate our ability to put them in place so that our students can have exposure to apprenticeships,” Phomvisay said.