Denver, CO – May 10, 2024 – This week, Colorado marked a significant milestone with the celebration of the first ever Youth Apprenticeship Week, culminating in the “Apprenticeship Rising” event hosted by CareerWise at the Forney Museum of Transportation in Denver. The event highlighted eight years of success in linking students to career opportunities and businesses to emerging talent through innovative apprenticeships.
Governor Jared Polis, who addressed attendees via a pre-recorded message, expressed his enthusiasm for the initiatives. “I wanted to take this opportunity to celebrate the first Youth Apprenticeship Week. Here at the state level, we’re working hard to connect students with training and education to help them thrive in school and beyond to get the skills they need,” Governor Polis said. “Apprenticeships are a very exciting part across the state. These opportunities are a key part of our work to build Colorado’s workforce for the future and to ensure our state is the best place to live, work, and thrive.”
Governor Polis also announced the recent passage of Senate Bill 104, a significant development aimed at aligning career and technical education programs with apprenticeship opportunities. This alignment is designed to maximize credential attainment and seamlessly connect high school opportunities to jobs upon graduation.
Denise Miller, Ed.D., Director of Apprenticeship Colorado at the Office of the Future of Work in the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE), commended the earn-and-learn programs CareerWise is building. “These programs mark a significant step into building a resilient economy,” she said.
Representative Eliza Hamrick, who co-sponsored SB24-104, the legislation that helps align the registered apprenticeship and the high school career and technical education systems so that K-12 students in Colorado can seamlessly connect to registered apprenticeships, remarked, “We need our students to be set up for success regardless of it being school or something else. Youth apprenticeship can set our students up for success.”
Apprenticeship Rising brought together educators, policymakers, industry leaders, and students to celebrate the successes and discuss the future of apprenticeship in Colorado. “We are rethinking how we are educating our educators and how partnerships can unfold to better serve our students and industries,” said Noel Ginsburg, Founder and CEO of CareerWise. The event also highlighted the achievements of apprentices and their contributions to their respective fields.
As Youth Apprenticeship Week concludes, Colorado looks forward to building on this momentum to expand and enhance apprenticeships that will equip more young people with the skills necessary for the jobs of today and tomorrow.
For more information about CareerWise Colorado and future events, please visit CareerWise Colorado’s Website.
Contact:
Shauna Harman, Director of Marketing & Communications
CareerWise
Phone: (317) 345-1496
Email: shauna.harman@careerwiseusa.org
About CareerWise
CareerWise helps communities develop modern youth apprenticeship systems to establish diverse talent pipelines for industries and multiply paths to careers for students. Founded in 2016, CareerWise addresses both the skilled worker shortages across the country and inequities in education access by bridging traditional education and workforce development. CareerWise has consulted with workforce and education leaders in more than 28 states and after launching the pilot program in Colorado, helped launch programs in Indiana, Michigan, New York and Washington, D.C., making implementations faster and more cost effective based on the organization’s technology, training infrastructure and unique expertise. For more information on partnering with CareerWise to build career success in your community, visit careerwiseusa.org.