Santa Cruz, CA - The California Community College’s Chancellor’s Office has awarded Cabrillo College two planning grants of $120,000 each for the development of new and innovative apprenticeship programs. The first grant is for a Community Health Worker (CHW) apprenticeship program and the second is for a Computer Information Systems (CIS) apprenticeship program.

The goal of the California Apprenticeship Initiative (CAI) 2022-23 grant program is to create new and innovative apprenticeship opportunities in priority and emerging industry sectors or areas in which apprenticeship training is not fully established or does not exist.

The CHW apprenticeship program will aim to address the shortage of skilled workers to deliver health literacy and affordable health care in the community. This apprenticeship program will seek to expand the workforce supply to meet the demands of local workers with policy changes as California approves Medi-Cal reimbursement for CHWs in 2023. The CIS apprenticeship program will address the shortage of qualified IT support workers that are in high demand among local employers.

Both of these planning grants will work to develop a plan for an implementation grant to be applied in the near future. The implementation grant for CHW and CIS/CSS is expected to register an apprenticeship program with the Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS), develop a model for student engagement, recruitment and retention, and identify long-term funding sources for program sustainability.

In addition, Cabrillo College is expected to receive a subaward of $353,882 from San Jose City College’s application for a three-year CAI implementation grant focused on Education. This implementation grant will address the teaching shortage that exists throughout the county and help engage K-12 school districts in an aligned pathway for students to obtain their teaching credential. The implementation grant will start on July 1, 2023, and end on June 30, 2026 with San Jose City College serving as the primary applicant and sub-award funds to Cabrillo College.

The Cabrillo College apprenticeship programs will be developed with the engagement of employers and partners to build capacity within Cabrillo’s Employment & Internship office on outreach and employer engagement.

Cabrillo College is committed to creating new and innovative apprenticeship opportunities that will benefit the community and address the shortage of skilled workers in priority and emerging industry sectors.

For more information, please contact the Career Education Department at Cabrillo College at 831-477-5672 or visit their website at www.cabrillo.edu.