The Department of Labor announced that it has awarded $7 million to a consortium of organizations led by Houston’s SAFAL Partners, which includes WIA, to develop a registered apprenticeship Center of Excellence in support of Strategic Partnerships and System Alignment.
The award was one of four cooperative agreements DOL awarded to establish Registered Apprenticeship Technical Assistance Centers of Excellence. This Center seeks to support the increase in the use of registered apprenticeship as a key workforce development program, including efforts to create pipelines (such as pre-apprenticeship and other career pathways) that can increase the diversity and inclusion of apprentices, among other priorities. The Center of Excellence initiative builds on a top priority of the Biden administration to expand and modernize registered apprenticeship and make them available to all Americans.
WIA will work with the SAFAL Partners-led consortium to convene and gather input from telecommunications and related industry sectors nationwide.
WIA is the national sponsor of the Telecommunications Industry Registered Apprenticeship Program (TIRAP), a Department of Labor registered apprentice program and the first and largest registered apprenticeship program in the wireless industry.
“WIA is honored by this recognition and inspired to meet the goals of the initiative. We are excited to be working with SAFAL Partners, the other world-class organizations in the consortium and the Department of Labor on the important project,” said Tim House, WIA’s Executive Vice-President. “WIA’s commitment to workforce development solutions, as demonstrated by our ongoing administration of TIRAP and our catalog of more than 30 courses addressing the skills-gap for the telecommunication industry, is certain to contribute to the success of this Center of Excellence.”
The USDOL announcement of the Centers of Excellence can be found here: https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/eta/eta20210622.
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About WIA
The Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA) represents the businesses that build, own, and operate the nation’s wireless infrastructure. On the federal, state, and local levels, WIA advocates for the widespread, responsible deployment of wireless infrastructure to enable mobile broadband access for communities everywhere.
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