Episode 22: How Apprenticeship Programs Can Help Employers Recruit and Retain Diverse Talent Donna Lenhoff, attorney, advisor, policy architect, and U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) policy implementer, discusses the benefit of registered apprenticeships and the impact of public policy. She also weighs in on nondiscrimination regulations that support and encourage apprenticeship programs to recruit, train, and retain a diverse talent pool that includes people with disabilities.
Episode 21: Training Apprentices with Disabilities in Digital Accessibility David Fazio, Founder of Helix Opportunity, discusses employers’ growing need to hire digital accessibility experts. He shares how the Helix Opportunity Registered Apprenticeship Program is training apprentices with disabilities in digital accessibility to both address this need and create career pathways for people with disabilities in this in-demand field.
Episode 19: Strengths-Based Practices to Support Neurodiversity at Work In honor of Neurodiversity Celebration Week, March 13 – 19, Scott Michael Robertson, Ph.D., Senior Policy Adviser in the Office of Disability Employment Policy, U.S. Department of Labor, gives tips and advice for taking a strengths-based approach to supporting neurodiversity in the workplace. Robertson uses his personal experiences as an autistic man to illustrate his suggestions.
Episode 18: A Military Veteran Finds Her Career in Cybersecurity through Apprenticeship November 17th is Women in Apprenticeship Day—a part of National Apprenticeship Week (NAW). In honor of NAW, military veteran, Kristin Strand, shares how her experience in the Apprenti Tech Apprenticeship program helped advance her career in cybersecurity.
Episode 17: Not Your Grandfather’s Apprenticeship: Apprenticeships in Nontraditional Sectors Joshua Johnson, Director of Jobs for the Future’s National Innovation Hub for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility in Registered Apprenticeship, discusses the importance of promoting apprenticeship in nontraditional sectors, disability disclosure challenges, and his passion for National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM).
Episode 16: How Apprenticeships are Creating Career Opportunities for Veterans with Disabilities Nicholas Morgan, President of Adaptive Construction Solutions and military veteran, discusses how he built one of the nation’s most recognized workforce development companies and provided opportunities to high-growth, high-demand jobs for veterans with disabilities through apprenticeship.
This policy brief explores apprentice utilization policies and their potential to create more demand for apprentices in emerging U.S. industries. The paper also reviews the application of these policies in the healthcare industry and proposes approaches to pilot policies for apprentice utilization in healthcare.
Episode 15: How an Inclusive Apprenticeship Led to Marketable Skills in IT: A Neurodiverse Apprentice Shares His Success Story Earl Dube, a graduate of the Bridge to Opportunity IT program who identifies as neurodivergent, shares his journey into an IT career through apprenticeship. He provides advice to other job candidates with disabilities, as well as to employers of neurodiverse apprentices about how they can create inclusive workplaces to broaden their access to a large talent pool of tech professionals.
