Study: Pre-Apprenticeship Programs Increasing Participation of Women, Black Workers in IL Construction Workforce

“As America invests in new infrastructure, vitality programs, and superior manufacturing, the flexibility to extra readily entry new pockets of workforce candidates has by no means been extra essential,” mentioned College of Illinois Professor, PMCR Director, and report coauthor Dr. Robert Bruno. “It’s equally necessary for policymakers to grasp how program investments are delivering returns each for employees and for essential industries as an entire.”

900% ROI

ILEPI and PMCR researchers have been in a position to quantify that the $66 million invested in HCCTP and IL Works pre-apprenticeships courting again to 2017 in the end translated into an funding of simply over $12,000 per program participant, $18,000 per program graduate, and $35,000 per positioned apprentice. When it comes to earnings paid to pre-apprentices who go on to careers within the expert trades, pre-apprenticeship packages ship a cumulative 900% return on grant funding over ten years.

“The substantial return on funding we noticed within the knowledge was additionally supported by testimonials from contributors who succeeded in finishing their packages and changing into registered apprentices,” Bruno added. “These first-hand accounts revealed that pre-apprenticeship packages led to upward financial mobility, usually from low-paying jobs, and that the wraparound providers carried out by pre-apprentice supplier organizations may be determinative in getting these contributors via their packages and linked to family-sustaining careers.”

ILEPI and PMCR researchers observe that extra pre-apprenticeship program hubs have been created as a part of Illinois’ Local weather and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA), which acquired practically $40 million in grant funding to help the creation of regional pre-apprenticeships and workforce hubs within the clear vitality sector in 2024 alone. Based mostly on the success of the HCCTP and IL Works packages, they forecast that clear vitality packages might create as many as 3,200 pre-apprenticeships and one other 1,200 apprentice placements every year as soon as absolutely operational.

“It’s clear that pre-apprenticeships are reworking lives and making a extra secure expert labor pipeline for the development trade,” Manzo concluded. “This primary-of-its-kind research reveals that these packages are working as supposed, however it is usually true that extra can and must be performed to develop their utilization and affect.”