As part of the 7th annual National Apprenticeship Week, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted has been stopping in different parts of Ohio to hear more about the ApprenticeOhio programs that are going on around the state.
One of those stops was in Lima, to talk with representatives from local career tech schools as well as Sprint Electric Inc. to hear about the company’s use of apprenticeships. They also discussed the TechCred program, which is a grant that helps fund coursework for businesses to train their apprentices and employees.
Husted has been a big proponent of apprenticeships for the state of Ohio.
"You can develop job skills that lead to great careers without the high cost of a college education," said Husted. "More and more people are choosing this path because more and more employers want people with these kinds of skills, technical skills, the kind of skills where you need some work experience."
Ohio has seen success with apprenticeship programs - data from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services says that the state is ranked number one in the Midwest and 3rd nationally for their number of apprenticeships, with over 19,000 participants in over 600 programs statewide.
One of those programs is located locally at Sprint Electric, where they prepare apprentices for anything that they might be encountering while on the job.
"We have eight or nine apprentices right now, in different years and TechCred allows us to get better training for them to put them on a job right away," said Sprint Electric co-owner Bryan Brooks. "They got a step up above going into a leadership role and actually running jobs and being job foremen for us."
And that training can play a big role in helping a student who is completely new to a field to be on their way to starting a new job - like Jared Walters from Apollo.
"Through this apprenticeship, I’ve came out knowing a lot more than what I came into; learning what I need to learn, but still there’s a lot in this trade that I need to learn," said Walters. "Right now we’re doing troubleshooting, which is something that I’m learning pretty quickly."
If you are looking for more information on these programs, you can check out apprentice.ohio.gov for more details on how students can get involved.
