“We want all apprenticeship preparation program graduates who come to us for jobs to have the same basic competencies that will make them good apprentices,” said Ironworkers Training Director Lee Newgent at a meeting of prep program directors.

Newgent, who is also the Chair of the Western Washington Apprenticeship Coordinators Association, said graduates would fare better if preparation focused on the physical, academic, and workplace realities of construction work.

The outgrowth of that discussion is a joint effort between apprenticeship preparation programs, such as ANEW and Seattle Vocational Institute, and the Western Washington Apprenticeship Coordinators Association. Seattle Jobs Initiative is providing additional assistance.

The project, which will be completed in January, involves interviews with a broad range of JATC coordinators and review of apprenticeship and preparation curricula used in King County and elsewhere in the U.S.

The end product will be a model apprenticeship preparation curriculum tied to the real world needs of JATCs. For more info., contact Stephanie Kellner at Port Jobs (206-728-3883).