OADNOADN05/04/22
Nurse educators are acutely aware of the complexity of the healthcare
system and the need for students to be able to transition from academia to practice. Nurse residency and other transition to practice programs have been identified as instrumental in assisting new graduates. Recently the apprenticeship model has been brought forward as another type of transition to practice program. There has been much success at some colleges and universities implementing this model. Apprenticeship may offer nursing education a way to meet equity and access challenges, while building on existing models of well-established work-based learning.
In collaboration with the American Association of Community Colleges, OADN held two registered apprenticeship (RA) webinars on the following two topics from AACC’s Virtual Apprenticeship Network tool, which we believe are most important to OADN members. Each 45-minute webinar provides an overview of AACC’s promising practices, resources, and contacts. Given RA has not historically been widely utilized within our membership, we will reserve time during each webinar to seek your input on how AACC and the U.S. Department of Labor can best position this for your institutions. This will no doubt also be useful to you as you seek potential funding and work in RA spaces in the future. Scroll below to view the webinars from this page.
When implementing a successful community college registered apprenticeship program, assessing your college’s readiness is a must. Planning a new registered apprenticeship program initiative at a community college requires a systematic assessment plan, investigating both internal and external assets. This assessment should focus on a college’s internal capacity, institutional support, employer partner awareness and interest, employer partner support, labor market capacity, and sustainability.
Once the decision to implement a registered apprenticeship program at your college is made, there are many pieces that need to be put into place to achieve success. This high-level overview provides several steps AACC recommends institutions consider and establish when building registered apprenticeship programs at community colleges.
Adrienne Summers
Executive Director of Apprenticeships – American Association Community Colleges
Adrienne Summers is the Executive Director of Apprenticeships at American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). Adrienne oversees the Expanding Community Colleges Apprenticeship (ECCA) project, which is a $19.9 million cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to expand apprenticeships with community colleges across the country. As part of the ECCA project, the ECCA team created a resource tool for apprenticeships called the Virtual Apprenticeship Network (VAN).
AACC was tasked with serving 16,000 new Registered Apprentices with community colleges and industry partners in a three-year period. Currently the grant has served over 19,000 Registered Apprentices from 106 college communities and eight global industry partners.
Prior to AACC, Adrienne worked for Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland where she started apprenticeships and grew eleven occupations in less than three years in IT, Construction Management, Biomedical Engineering Technician, Software Development, HVACR, and Electrical occupations.