Putnam-Northern Westchester BOCES in Yorktown Heights will train 25 out-of-school and impoverished youths with a $150,000 state grant announced by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo as part of the nation”™s first state-sponsored pre-apprenticeship program.
Six training providers statewide will receive a total of approximately $1.1 million to teach 191 at-risk New Yorkers between the ages of 18 and 24. The pre-apprenticeship program exposes participants to trades, including construction and manufacturing, and gives them direct access to positions in registered apprenticeship programs.
“Every New Yorker deserves a fair shot at success, and through this nation”™s first pre-apprenticeship program, we are helping to level the playing field and provide more opportunity for some of our most vulnerable citizens,” Cuomo said in the announcement. “These investments will connect businesses with skilled workers, provide life-changing opportunities to young people across the state and help lay the foundation for a stronger, fairer New York for all.”
Cuomo also announced the state Department of Labor has been awarded a $1.5 million state expansion grant from the federal Apprenticeship USA program that will aid the Labor Department”™s work with New York’s regional economic development councils to identify industries needing skilled workers and to connect with employers to create registered apprenticeship programs. State officials said those programs combine classroom instruction with paid on-the-job training.
Since Cuomo took office nearly six years ago, the state”™s registered apprenticeship program has grown from 3,419 enrollees in 2010 to 4,774 apprentices in 2015, according to state officials. Apprenticeships in non-construction trades have increased from 25 percent of registered programs in 2011 to 31 percent at the end of 2015.
