Using Data to Advance Youth Apprenticeship in Washington State
The Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship Blog Series
Blog Post
May 19, 2021
The Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA) is a multi-year initiative to support efforts in states and cities to expand access to high-quality apprenticeship opportunities for high school age youth. Through the PAYA Network, the initiative connects place-based practitioners to surface best practices and co-develop solutions to a range of policy and programmatic challenges. Advance CTE, a PAYA National Partner, leads a PAYA Network workgroup of focused on data quality in youth apprenticeship. Over the next several months, Advance CTE will publish a series of blogs to highlight how PAYA network sites are using data to improve youth apprenticeship quality and equity. This is the first post in the series.
Check out the latest PAYA blog post from Brian Robinson, policy associate at Advance CTE, about how the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee (AJAC), a partner in the King County Regional Youth Apprenticeship Consortium, effectively leverages data to advance equity in its youth apprenticeship programs.
"Data is important to AJAC’s commitment to equity. AJAC tracks a number of youth apprenticeship metrics in an effort to diversify the aerospace industry, which is overwhelmingly White and male. Since its inception in 2017, AJAC has enrolled over 225 youth apprentices with roughly 10 percent identifying as female and 35 percent as learners of color.
One strategy AJAC is using to diversify participating youth apprentices is to develop inclusive marketing materials and provide platforms for apprentices from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds to represent AJAC at conferences and other public events. Another strategy is to leverage partnerships with urban and rural school districts and community-based organizations who work with youth of color, opportunity youth and justice-involved youth."
Click here to read the entire post.
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