Institute for Apprenticeship, Training and Education Programs

AI is here, it’s everywhere and its implications are many. This session will discuss how AI has evolved and how it’s impacting your industry and the apprenticeship world. Take away an understanding of the challenges and possibilities.

This session will feature a panel of apprentices and early career journeyworkers sharing their personal stories and providing insights on what motivates them. They will also discuss what they want out of their relationship with an apprenticeship program/union/employer. Take away an understanding of what is driving the next generation of workers so you can design your recruitment and retention efforts to be mutually beneficial.

New initiatives and growth in many apprenticeship programs are made possible through funding provided by grants. This session will help you identify where to find grant funding and provide an overview of how grants operate. Topics include:

• Legislated grant opportunities
• Other grant sources
• Applying for grant funding
• Reporting and oversight
• Challenges and best practices.

This session will provide an overview of the accreditation process, including:

• Why consider accreditation
• Understanding the accreditation process
• Challenges that will arise
• Best practices.

This session will provide an update on the Canadian legal, legislative and regulatory environment, including:

• Relevant laws and regulations you need to be complying with
• Industry activity to pay attention to
• Provincial initiatives.

With the presidential election over and a new administration taking office, there are many questions about how registered apprenticeship programs will be impacted. This session will provide insights on the current and future environment to help you plan for what lies ahead. The panel discussion will address:

• Update on the Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship
• Update from the Office of Apprenticeship (OA) National Office
• How apprenticeships may be impacted by the new administration
• Legislative and regulatory activity impacting registered apprenticeship programs.

This session will feature a spotlight on successful recruitment programs and discuss best practices for:

• Developing your strategy and messaging
• Pre-apprenticeship programs
• Outreach to targeted audiences
• Partnership opportunities.

This session will help Canadian apprenticeship trustees understand the role and responsibilities in managing a training trust fund. Topics include:

• Who is a fiduciary
• Best practices for good governance
• Common fiduciary challenges.

This session will provide an overview of fiduciary responsibility and review the applicable laws and regulations that apprenticeship trustees must be aware of and adhere to. The session will cover:

• Legal framework and governing documents
• Fiduciary responsibility
• Best practices for good governance
• Introduction to prohibited transactions
• The two-hat dilemma
• Proposed 29 CFR Part 29
• Common fiduciary challenges
• Important legal cases.

This session will feature a spotlight on successful retention programs and discuss best practices for:

• Developing your retention strategy
• Advising and mentoring your apprentices
• Addressing issues in the classroom and on the job site.

This session will consider many of the exposures to risk for apprenticeship programs, with a focus on:

• Operational risks
• Reputational risks
• Cybersecurity risks
• Developing a process to identify
and mitigate potential threats
• Insurance coverage options.

So much has been learned over the past decade about how personality types and learning styles impact a person’s ability to learn. This session will help you understand the most current approaches to student learning and development. Topics include:

Designed for training directors and coordinators, this session will focus on the tools you have to manage the business side of your apprenticeship program, including:

• Accounting and budgeting
• Cost tracking
• Dashboards
• Leveraging plan professionals and other resources.

This session will focus on how instructors can create instruction that not only effectively develops skills for their apprentices but also helps retention through active learning. The session objectives will include:

• Understand diverse learning styles and needs
• Design effective instruction through the DACUM system
• Maximize technology and leverage existing resources
• Make training more efficient through modularization
• Learn strategies for engagement and motivation
• Best practices for evaluation and continuous improvement.

The Business Side of Your Apprenticeship Program

This session will look at the business side of apprenticeship programs for trustees, directors and others who have a role in the oversight and management of these programs. Topics include:

• Financial statements
• High-level oversight
• Internal controls
• Fraud and abuse.

During this highly interactive and engaging presentation, participants will learn to transform apprenticeship education. By focusing on engagement; belonging; and practical, innovative training methods, you can help shape the structure and growth of apprenticeship programs. Learning objectives include:

• Identifying the challenges in developing today’s workforce
• Discovering ways to deliver cognitive content through active engagement
• Exploring how active engagement can increase the sense of belonging and improve retention.

You run a trust fund that has a certain set of policy requirements. At the same time, you are running a school that has an altogether different set of policies. You are also running a business that requires yet another set of policies. This session will address:

• Checklist of policies you should have
• Components of a good policy
• Policy development, implementation, documentation and oversight
• Common policy challenges.

This time frame is designed to provide attendees with an opportunity to participate in roundtable discussions based on your role. The idea is to provide a facilitated but self-directed opportunity to discuss issues of mutual interest. You will be assigned a table based on one of the following: trustees, apprenticeship directors/coordinators, apprenticeship instructors, and general. Each table facilitator will compile a list of key takeaways that will be shared with all conference attendees.

An open discussion of Canadian issues that are relevant to training trust funds, this session will provide a forum to address the most pressing issues that trustees, administrators, coordinators, instructors and directors are dealing with today.

An open discussion of U.S. issues that are relevant to training trust funds, this session will provide a forum to address the most pressing issues that trustees, administrators, coordinators, instructors and directors are dealing with today.

You have plenty of data to protect, from trust fund information to student records. Be proactive in looking at your vulnerability to a cyberattack. This session will cover:

• DOL guidance
• Assessment and penetration testing
• Dealing with a breach
• Insurance coverage and claims
• Basic things to do to protect yourself
• Internal controls.

The mental health epidemic is impacting apprenticeship programs both in the classroom and on the jobsite. This session will provide a forum to discuss the scope of these problems and identify solutions, interventions and strategies to make a difference in your programs and for your people.