Transcript- Episode 102: Discover What A Modern Apprenticeship Program Looks Like With Kelly Mackey State Director of Strategic Partnerships for the State of California Episode 102
Sep 12, 2023
Kelly Mackey [00:00:00]:
Here's the truth. Graduates of these programs stay longer, and we also know that buying talent is no longer an easy option for a lot of these employers. The simple truth is there aren't enough Stanford, MIT, and Berkeley graduates to fill all of these roles. And the good news is, there doesn't have to be. Registered apprenticeship can create a transformative impact for employers and communities and the. And we know this is because we've seen a 36% growth rate in modern registered apprenticeships over the last two years, and that includes during the pandemic.
Christina Barsi [00:00:39]:
The workforce landscape is rapidly changing, and educators and their institutions need to keep up. Preparing students before they enter the workforce to make our community and businesses stronger is at the core of getting an education. But we need to understand how to change and adjust so that we can begin to project where things are headed before we even get there. So how do we begin to predict the future?
Salvatrice Cummo [00:01:02]
Hi, I'm Salvatrice Cummo, vice president of Economic and Workforce Development at Pasadena City College and host of this podcast.
Christina Barsi [00:01:20]
And I'm Christina Barsi, producer of this podcast. And we are starting the conversation about the future of Work.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:02:20]
We'll explore topics like how education can partner with industry, how to be more equitable, and how to attain one of our highest goals more internships and PCC students in the workforce. We at Pasadena City College want to lead the charge in closing the gap between what our students are learning and what the demands of the workforce will be once they enter. This is a conversation that impacts all of us. We believe change happens when we work together, and it all starts with having a conversation.
Christina Barsi [00:02:30]
I'm Christina Barsi.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:02:32]
And I'm Salvatrice Cummo. And this is the future of work.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:02:35]
Hi. Welcome back to the future of work, podcast. I am your host, Salvatrice Cummo, and today I am joined by Kelly Mackey, who I learned has been formally recognized for her work in establishing many of California's new Marquee registered apprenticeship programs. That is because Kelly Mackey is the State Director of Strategic Partnerships with the State of California's Apprenticeship and Workforce Innovation Unit. Kelly leads a statewide effort to identify registered apprenticeship partnerships across multiple sectors, including information technology, healthcare, business services, and the public sector. Welcome, Kelly. How are you?
Kelly Mackey [00:02:39]:
I'm good. Thank you so much for having me, Salvatrice. It's a pleasure to be here and join you and your listeners.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:02:46]:
You know, one of our branding points about these Future Work podcasts and I always ask a very curious question in the top of their conversation is what led you to this work and why is it important to you? It's a curiosity question. I'm sure sometimes our listeners are curious about what led individuals to their profession, and so I wanted to maybe start off with that, if that's okay.
Kelly Mackey [00:03:09]:
Yeah, of course. So prior to my current role, I served as an apprenticeship consultant and was tasked some 25 years ago with partnering alongside many of our long standing at the time, building and construction industry programs. And I was responsible for ensuring that they were complying with regulations, but more importantly, that they were providing on ramps for individuals to move into these really good paying, high quality jobs. And so I've really had a front row seat to how the registered apprenticeship model can change lives. I've watched individuals come through these programs and upon successful completion, move into the middle class and beyond so that they can provide for themselves and their families. It's a long standing, time tested model that I saw very early on had a way of lifting up communities, including those marginalized communities, who've not had historically, those access points to move into good paying jobs. And I knew that it was a passion for me pretty much the first day I went to a graduation ceremony where many of those apprentices that I had met early on who didn't know what their future held, now had a career that they could lean in on and have through the duration of their lifetime.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:04:26]:
That's awesome. That's very beautiful story. It leads me to believe that the work, and the passion that we see as educators and as an institution to this work, it really underscores our interactions that we've had with yourself and the office. Now we would truly understand the passion of where that's coming from. You saw it firsthand. There's nothing better than that, than experiencing it firsthand, right? I thank you very much. I failed to really thank you, really at the top of this conversation before diving into the question, thanking you for accepting our invitation for the future of our conference that's slated for October 26 this year. You have graciously accepted an invitation to be part of our panel. Perhaps maybe we could spend a little bit of time if you can share with us what you're planning to discuss and shine light on as it relates to apprenticeships.
Kelly Mackey [00:05:19]:
Yeah, I'm really excited to share with not only your listeners today, but attendees at the upcoming Future of Work conference, some insight about the registered apprenticeship movement that's taking place not only in our state but across the nation. And it all really began when our governor was a candidate for office and he spoke about the incredibly aspirational goal of serving a half a million registered apprentices by the year 2029. I think he recognized very early on the critical importance of building a future workforce that prioritized good paying, high quality jobs for workers. And that really meant ensuring that businesses had the resources to develop that skilled workforce in order for them to thrive in our state. We are almost a fifth of the way there to that very aspirational goal. And I think in large part it's because he's really executing on that vision by building an ecosystem of practitioners who develop these new, innovative and inclusive 21st century apprenticeship programs. Now historically, I think many of your listeners are probably aware, and as I alluded to in my opening remarks, that the building and construction industry has really optimized this registered apprenticeship model for almost a century and they've created this strong testimonial about what it can do. So much so in fact, that over the last decade we've had this really significant increase in a number of other types of sectors that are now embracing this model to attract, train and retain their highly skilled, diverse and resilient workforce. And what we're finding is these modern apprenticeships are being utilized in sectors like you reference, like information technology, arts, media and entertainment, healthcare, transportation, our business services and public sectors and it's really benefiting employers and workers alike and I think contributing more broadly to building a thriving inclusive economy. This is what has really catapulted California as the national leader of registered apprenticeship. And our state has five times the number of registered apprentices as the state with the next highest total. For that reason, in terms of specifics like how we're making this progress, it really came down to a number of things. First and foremost, when the governor came into office, one of the first things he did was form the Future of Work Commission. It was a brain trust, if you will, and they were tasked with driving workforce strategies. And one of the things that they did as a first order of business was develop a five point plan, basically kind of like a roadmap on how to expand registered apprenticeship. And they really broke it down into kind of five categories. The first was to support sectoral and regional apprenticeship intermediaries. Secondly, to expand those sort of new and innovative apprenticeships that are outside of the building and construction trade. Also to really lean in and expand access to our more traditional construction apprenticeship programs who have been widely successful for many, many years, supporting youth apprenticeship for both in and out of school youth. And then lastly, really introducing this model to some of the largest employers in our state and that includes our public sector entities that are our state and local governments. All of this was really helpful in giving us that, like I said, a blueprint. The other area was expanding opportunities by creating a strike team, this unit that I have the privilege of being a part of, the apprenticeship and workforce innovation unit that sees a strike team of subject matter experts who provide invaluable completely free of charge, end to end technical assistance and resources to our stakeholders to create these programs. One of the other things that the governor prioritized, among many other of our partners, was to really create a strategy to increase funding that we knew was imperative to ensure that a lot of these stakeholders had access to resources to build and sustain these programs. And now, through the historic investments of our governor the Biden administration, among many other funding partners, we've seen an unprecedented number of modern registered apprenticeships being developed. Some of the examples of some of the funding structures that we have in place now include an increase in philanthropic support. We have some of our largest philanthropic organizations really doubling down on registered apprenticeship. These funds are really designed to complement available public funding. Our federal workforce partners at the US. Department of labor have also deployed a number of workforce grants to help scale apprenticeship programs across the nation. As I indicated previously, our governor investing in some of our state grants that include our California Apprenticeship Initiative grants, our High Road Training Partnership grants, both of which are funded through the budget and have seen an increase under this administration. We also have developed really separate, targeted, sector specific workforce funding to help, for example, to train the next generation of healthcare workers and climate related jobs. We also have seen the investment of youth apprenticeship funding. I talked about the critical importance of following that roadmap, and one of those areas was really getting younger people in the apprenticeship pipeline earlier. And so the governor, in last year's budget, invested $65 million to help create a youth apprenticeship unit right within our division to help identify strategies to bring young people in. And included in that funding was also seed money to help new programs around youth apprenticeship. And then finally, perhaps one of the most exciting funding opportunities, a really game changing funding stream that was developed right here in California. And that's our California apprenticeship. Innovation funding. It's the first of its kind in the nation non competitive formula funding to help existing program sponsors defray the cost of running their programs. There is no other program like this. It's been developed right here in our state. And because of these strategies, among many others, it's really putting us on a trajectory to realize the governor's really highly ambitious goal, but we think very attainable to serve a half a million registered apprentices by the year 2029.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:11:55]:
That is amazing. There's so many available resources and funding specifically. But I also look at the access to talent and the access to people, access to experts like yourself who are saying, look, this work has to be done holistically. It cannot just be one area's or one departments or one division's focus. Sometimes I think of it even through the lens of academia here, workforce development, even within an institution, yes, it lives here in my division. But the work and the output and the outcomes really is threaded among everyone in all of the areas here in the college. So I kind of view same way with the state. The state has recognized, look, this work can't be done alone. This work has to be done in collaboration with other entities, academia, employers, agencies, et cetera, et cetera. It's really awesome to hear. And I can guarantee you that there's listeners out there who are saying gosh, I really didn't know, I didn't know that all of this was available. So I appreciate you sharing that with me. Maybe we could even insert a link in the show notes where this information can be found and people can really study it a little bit further. But you mentioned a few times the term Modern Registered Apprenticeships, the word apprenticeships. It has been my experience that the word apprenticeships kind of gets tossed around loosely and not everyone really understands the complexities sometimes around any form of apprenticeships, pre registered, you name it. So could you explain a little bit more about what it means to be a Modern Registered Apprenticeship program?
Kelly Mackey [00:13:40]:
Yeah. So Registered Apprenticeship has been the long standing gold standard work based learning model for employers and we have a debt of gratitude to the building and construction industry as I alluded to, that have really established this model and optimized it to be able to train their workforce. And now the reality is that what we're realizing is that it has a far reaching application. But in a nutshell, the Registered Apprenticeship model consists of a two pronged approach. It consists of a theoretical component which comes in the form of a recommended 144 hours of what we call related and supplemental instruction, which is a fancy way of saying coursework. And then it's complemented by roughly 2000 hours of on the job competencies that are performed by an apprentice in the workplace. Essentially what happens is you have a group that's interested in putting together a Registered Apprenticeship program and so they will come to us and they'll work with one of our strategic business advisors that is focused on the sector that they're interested in. And we begin by helping employers identify that occupational code, the needs and then identifying how they're going to be utilizing it. We take an onet code Identifier which basically says you need this for related and supplemental instruction and you need the following for competencies in order for an apprentice to have a mastery of understanding of a particular occupation, they will then select their candidates, their apprentice candidates and we also bring together partners for them. So as they're forming that apprenticeship set of standards, which is basically what will allow that individual apprentice to go through the program and have the employer, partner and other stakeholders follow that sort of roadmap. We basically bring in local education agencies who will deliver the curriculum, intermediaries who can provide in some cases programmatic support, all the outreach and the recruitment and assessment and then funding partners to help really educate them about all those different funding streams that can help offset those costs. We also recognize that mentorship is the cornerstone of Registered Apprenticeship. And so an apprentice will work under the tutelage of a subject matter expert while they are enrolled in a Registered Apprenticeship program, who will guide them through their time in the program, which will average anywhere from six months, upwards to three years depending upon the occupational role. The employer will set the wages, which we typically see about 40% to 70% of that high skilled work wage. And an apprentice will be eligible to receive at least one pay increase based on that criteria set forth by the employer. Once the apprentice has successfully completed their curriculum and their competencies performed on the job, they will then be issued a certificate of completion by the US department of Labor Office of Apprenticeship and by our state agency, the Division of Apprenticeship Standards. The good news is that once an employer and other stakeholders develop this program and embed it within the institution itself, they can then augment it right as market conditions shift, new occupations are needed and emerge and then other partners that may be added down the road as well to really strengthen and fortify a more robust program. The good news is that the benefits to registered apprenticeship have a really far reaching application. First, for the employers. There's a stat that we often quote according to the US department of labor, for every dollar that an employer invests in registered apprenticeship, they see a return of almost a dollar 50. We know that instilling trust and confidence allows for those employers to hold on to apprentices future employees that much longer. They tend to stay with employers who are investing in them the thought of diversity and experience. We want people from all kinds of background to have access to this. Registered apprenticeship is an on ramp for that and that benefits the employer, the access to funding, which really far exceeds any opportunity that they would see with an internal training program that cannot necessarily be linked to a registered apprenticeship funding. Stream the increase in efficiencies and performance by reduction in turnover and really optimizing that model as a recruitment strategy that they can deploy at any time. And then the customizable training, we can really tailor a registered apprenticeship program to meet that specific employer and stakeholders operational needs so there's no one size fits all and they can get that program up and running in many cases as soon as three to four months. And then lastly, for the apprentice, the apprenticeship benefits for future workers is really exciting because a lot of our apprentices, the apprenticeship program aligns very nicely with a degree track. So we often see a lot of our apprentices graduating with either two or four year degrees. We also know that that linkage between industry and academia creates for a more robust training opportunity and experience for that worker so that when they're done with their apprenticeship, they are that much more skilled on day one when they start their job and the opportunity to earn while they learn. That's a very exciting prospect. All the while developing lifelong skills with competitive wages and then upon completion that certification that they have a mastery of that particular occupation. And then again the credential getting that certificate, that is a portable credential that the apprentice can take with them throughout their lifetime. I think all of these really demonstrate, and for so many other reasons, why apprenticeship is the gold standard model for work based learning.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:19:40]:
Absolutely. And based on what you're seeing and through your lens, what are you seeing as the current landscape of the apprenticeships and how are they evolving at this point?
Kelly Mackey [00:19:52]:
Yeah, so we've seen a sizable shift in the labor market over the last few years and I think it gives us really our best clue about how the model can be optimized. Here's the good news. The registered apprenticeship model, as I talked about, is really customizable and can fit any industry and any size employer and can be molded and shaped to an ever shifting workforce landscape. The Pandemic has really created a significant disruption for a lot of businesses in a lot of ways. But the truth is we really started to see that disruption well before the Pandemic. Whether it was an aging and retiring workforce, taking that expertise with the a skills gap that really includes technology in many cases outpacing the knowledge, skills and ability of our existing workforce. Graduates like I talked about, who are ill equipped on day one, who really are excited about taking on these in demand roles but lack that work based learning component that I think a lot of employers are looking for and then the access to untapped talent. There's a large segment of our potential workforce that are not competing for these roles largely because they have the lack of experience, but do have the aptitude for learning, which is the biggest single indicator for success in a registered apprenticeship. And that is an aptitude for learning. And they have it. They're looking for a job that's commensurate to their initiative, abilities, goals and proven track record. And giving them these access to opportunities helps them to become contributors in the workforce. So registered apprenticeship can really bring specific relief to all of these Berkeley issues. You talked about the shift. One of the biggest shifts that we're seeing is, and I love Salvatrice, that you talked about this village coming around to create these apprenticeship programs. And that's exactly right. That's what the model of modern apprenticeships is all about. This consortium building. It used to be that we had one employer, one local education agency and one apprentice. And the reality is that apprenticeships are about bringing other stakeholders like our workforce system partners, our community based organizations, our regional and sectoral intermediaries governmental entities, funding partners. This is how we strengthen outcomes. One of the other changes that we're seeing are as we're leaning in to the different sectors and figuring out where those gaps are, are sector based strategies aimed at meeting the skilled workforce and the needs of employers to make them competitive and to spur economic and greater development. It's why our unit is broken up by sector specialists who can, for example, when developing these programs on the fly, update a new curriculum or a set of competencies, all the while leaning in on data? Where are the gaps? How is the market shifting that would forecast where a sector is going? What are the in demand roles and the technologies that need to be integrated real time and trained? So that building that occupational training for the job of today is also going to meet the needs of the job of tomorrow. Employers are looking for work based learning as one of their prerequisites. And that's where apprenticeship comes in. One of the things that we welcome and that we're seeing and I think this was amplified during the pandemic and is really coming out of and staying true post pandemic, and that is the elevation of worker voices. And that's a good thing. This is particularly true as we're looking at ways that we can take those workers and train and upskill them. It's become a priority for them. For today's modern workforce, for companies, there are really only two ways to acquire talent. They either buy their talent or they grow their talent. And what we're seeing is that workers today want options. They want opportunity. And they are heavily rewarding employers who are investing in them and giving them those chances. And they see those returns on investment through retention. And here's the truth. Graduates of these programs stay longer. And we also know that buying talent is no longer an easy option for a lot of these employers. The simple truth is there aren't enough Stanford, MIT, and Berkeley graduates to fill all of these roles. And the good news is there doesn't have to be. Registered apprenticeship can create a transformative impact for employers and community. And the reason we know this is because we've seen a 36% growth rate in modern registered apprenticeships over the last two years, and that includes, during the.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:24:25]:
Pandemic, that's amazing 36% increase. I didn't know that. I have to believe that that's also probably attributed to the partnerships that you're creating and that your team is creating. As we underscored earlier, it does take a village, it takes multiple partners, multiple agencies. And now that we've had a moment to really talk about the overall outlook, objectives and purpose of the programming and the state's position here, could you share with us perhaps maybe more concrete examples?
Kelly Mackey [00:24:58]:
So I'd love to share with you a little bit about what we've done recently and what we're looking forward to development over the coming years. So we've development a number of exciting partnerships in recent years that include working in a wide variety of sectors, including multinational corporations, small and mid sized businesses in roles that include everything from registered nurse, cybersecurity analyst, audio and visual specialist, to data scientist, insurance broker, and engineering. Some of the partnerships with companies that we've developed and established registered apprenticeship programs with include the likes of Amazon, Tesla, CVS, Sony, Netflix, three of our healthcare industry giants, including Kaiser Dignity and Sutter Health, which also includes an incredible partnership with their respective unions. We've developed a partnership with IBM, Lockheed Martin, state and local governments, and soon we'll be formalizing a partnership with Johnson and Johnson. And those are some, I think, really great examples and an illustration of how a lot of those companies are setting forth their industry best practices around recruitment strategies, which include the Registered Apprenticeship Model. We also are consistently under the leadership of the administration, looking to strive toward the future. What are the jobs of Tomorrow? How can through the Registered Apprenticeship model? Can we strengthen current training protocols for some of our in demand roles? Some examples include New and Development, an exciting statewide teacher apprenticeship initiative that we're embarking on on behalf of the administration. This groundbreaking statewide initiative will offer pilot evidence based strategies that will improve outcomes by integrating the Registered Apprenticeship Model and aligning it with California's rigorous teacher credentialing requirements. And we're confident that we will ultimately see an increase in the number of not only eligible applicants, but diversification of the pipeline, which is so important, and then also providing more resources to students, districts, other stakeholders that are really committed to ensuring that we have highly skilled teachers in the classroom to teach future generations. Another area that we're really focused on when thinking about the future are climate jobs, including those that are falling in our transportation sector, focusing, for example, on the Zeb mandate for zero emissions by 2035. That's exciting to think about. Another example is recently bolstered by the Chips Act, the passage of the Chips Act and really creating those forward thinking, technologically forward chips manufacturing jobs so that our country is keeping manufacturing in this country, and that includes California as the national leader really leading the charge in that area. One of the other examples, I think, in terms of thinking about jobs of the Tomorrow is a recently developed apprenticeship program that we developed in artificial intelligence AI, all the while ensuring that when we do this that we are not losing workers, but we're creating even more jobs and building on the technologies built around artificial intelligence that touches every sector. We also are excited about building on some of the success that we've had within our own state governmental apparatus. We've developed a ton of programs as the state of California as an employer, upskilling in It and healthcare roles and financial services by extending that success to local government. So we're embarking on something in collaboration with the Institute for Local Government that will allow for local governments to really take advantage of the model as well. And then finally, we currently have about 300 active educational partners, long standing partners in fact, including high schools, adult ed, county offices of education, our community college partners. But what's happened over the last couple of years is that we're also seeing an increase in our four year colleges and universities. As we've begun to look at more complex roles that require upper division coursework, it has necessitated to expanding and forming new partnerships with our CSUS and UCS, both in the four year undergraduate degree track as well as contract ed which as you know typically focuses on credentials, industry needs and certifications. This momentum has seen now partnerships more recently with UC, Riverside, Sac State, Cal, Poly, Pomona, CSU, San Bernardino and soon partnerships that will be formed in the coming months with UCLA, UC, Berkeley and Stanford. Four year degreed partnerships will culminate in apprenticeship programs that are degreed apprenticeship programs and they're on the rise. And I fully expect that as we're looking at the future that postgraduate registered apprenticeship programs will not be too far behind. And that's really exciting.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:30:04]:
Thank you so much for those examples. I heard a little bit about and you touched on it, but I know there's more to it about the intentionality in creating a more diverse workforce.
Kelly Mackey [00:30:19]:
Thank you so much for that question and such a huge priority for the administration. Opening up the talent pipeline aperture to a new crop of motivated individuals who are eager to contribute to the success of businesses is a win win proposition and we need to do more. I talked about this earlier, but diversity of thought and experience can only enrich an organization's DNA. And this is really about paving new career pathways for people who have historically been underrepresented and frankly left behind in our economy. And this is also about investing in a company's future. It's an investment in the communities across California. And it's like I said, that win win proposition. What we know about registered apprenticeship is that when organizations embed it into their recruitment strategy, it will allow businesses to attract that untapped talent. One great example that I'm often asked when I meet with employers is we have this really incredible internship that we've had for many, many years. Why do we need to look at registered apprenticeship? And that's such a great question. It's a fair question. I wish I had an hour. I could give you many examples of why the registered apprenticeship model far exceeds outcomes than the internship model. And I think it's largely why companies are moving away from that internship model into the registered apprenticeship model for a multitude of reasons. But as it relates to diversity, there are a lot of individuals from all walks of life that covet moving into internships. But because so many of them are either unpaid or they are compensated through a stipend which is far below that of a livable wage, they're denied these opportunities and it impacts mostly people of color from marginalized community. And so it really denies them the opportunity to get that work based learning experience, that relationship building with an organization. And that's where the registered apprenticeship model bring in an opportunity for them because they're being paid and compensated, the access. To resources, including workforce grants, is another valuable tool to help us tap into these populations. Our Workforce Investment Boards throughout the state are long standing partners with the registered apprenticeship model and have frequently seen many of their recipients of Weowa dollars move into registered apprenticeship programs. So we will often collaborate with them when looking at finding on ramps for individuals that they're looking to serve in their respective communities. And these are vulnerable populations that are, frankly, looking to secure career pathways into good paying, high quality jobs. And that's where workforce boards come in. And it's largely why, when we were awarded a $10 million grant from the US. Department of labor recently, we awarded it to four outstanding Workforce Investment Boards who could partner with us to make that happen. CBOs as I alluded to earlier, these community based organizations are another great example of those practitioners, that ecosystem of partners that we look to for helping to build out our registered apprenticeship programs. And they are critical collaborators in that process because they are zeroed in on those populations, whether they're dislocated workers or if they are veterans or disabled communities, including Neurodiverse communities, women, minorities. And so we are increasingly seeing community based organizations be a vital part of the development process of our registered apprenticeship programs. And at the end of the day, our workplaces should really reflect the great diversity of our state. And so I want to throw out a couple of stats that I think will speak to the question that you asked a very compelling statistical subset of data that will give you a window into why registered apprenticeship is so valuable in that process of diversification of the workplace. So 78% of our apprentices, of the almost 100,000 we currently have, just a little north of 93,000 are minorities, 27% are women. And we're continuing to build on that momentum as we're looking at different occupational roles. Almost 7% are veterans. And then one stat that I think is really compelling is that 31% of all of our apprentices are youth apprentices. Those are individuals from age 16 to 24. How is that for ushering in a next generation of young talent? That is a strong set of statistical data that suggests that the takeaway is that apprenticeship, by extension, really lends to diversification of the workforce. And that's a very compelling and powerful value proposition for workers, for businesses, and for communities across our state more broadly.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:35:22]:
Agreed with you completely. Thank you for sharing that with us. Our work through the lens of DEI is not only important, but it's imperative. It is crucial and it's intentional. You've shared quite a bit here, but I know there's more. And I suspect that at our Future of Work conference, you'll be unpacking that just a little further and sharing more about that lens.
Kelly Mackey [00:35:47]:
Yeah, I'm excited. Thank you again for allowing me to speak today to your listeners, and I'm really excited to continue that dialogue at the Future of Work conference, and we definitely are going to be unpacking even more about what I talked about today with respect to the model and how beneficial it is. And of course, again, why we always prioritize the development work that we do through the lens of ensuring that we don't have communities that are left behind in our state. It's imperative that when we're looking to help employers, that we're thinking about this through a worker voice as well. And that includes from workers, potential workers from all areas of our state, from all different backgrounds. And I'm just excited to be a part of this upcoming conference. I think it's going to be amazing, and I appreciate the opportunity to give a little bit of a window and an introduction to some of what I'm going to be talking about when I'm there in attendance.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:36:44]:
Excellent. Well, we definitely look forward to it, if any one of our listeners, whether it's an educator or an employer, partner, if they'd like to connect with you, what's the best way that they can connect with you?
Kelly Mackey [00:36:54]:
Yeah, so they can reach out to me directly at my email address. I'm interested to hear from anyone that's interested in building a very robust registered apprenticeship program to help serve the needs of their community. So whether you're an employer, a local education agency, a workforce board, a governmental entity, or a private citizen, please reach out to us and we can get you started on day one to begin developing your registered apprenticeship program that will be specifically tailored and customized to your needs.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:37:25]:
Fantastic. We'll be sure to enter your contact information into the Show Notes for our listener who would like to connect with Kelly Live and really listen in to the conversation and lean in to the conversation as well. Feel free to join us on October 26 at our Future of Work Conference and we'll be sure to enter that in the Show Notes as well. Kelly, thank you so much. Please thank your team as well. They were very gracious to work with us. Thank you and we'll see you soon.
Kelly Mackey [00:37:50]:
Thank you, Salvatrice I appreciate being here.
Salvatrice Cummo [00:37:54]:
Thank you for listening to the Future of Work podcast. Make sure you're subscribed on your favorite listening platform so you can easily get new episodes every Tuesday. You can reach out to us by clicking on the website link below in the Show Notes to collaborate, partner, or just chat about all things Future of Work. We'd love to connect with you, all of us here at the Future of Work and passing us to the college. Wish you safety and wellness.