The Alabama Office of Apprenticeship and FuelAL, a program under the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama (EDPA), are pleased to announce their partnership in hosting the Third Annual Alabama Summit on Talent Retention & Work-Based Learning. Set to occur at Regions Park in Birmingham, Alabama, from April 8th to 10th, the Summit aims to convene employers, educators, economic developers, and workforce professionals from across the state to explore best practices in talent retention and workforce development.

Building on the breakout success of the 2023 conference, this gathering will feature speakers and panelists from various sectors, offering unique perspectives on how talent retention and work-based learning initiatives can contribute to a thriving economy. Attendees can expect a range of breakout sessions and panels addressing key topics such as apprenticeship programs, career pathways, and other resources for work-based learning. The summit promises to equip participants with valuable tools and resources for effective workforce development.

“To keep Alabama’s top talent in the state, it is essential we understand how to give what bright, young professionals really want,” stated Miller Girvin, Executive Vice President of Innovation & Talent at EDPA. “This Summit offers an opportunity for those who can make a huge difference in this space – employers, career-development offices and community leaders – to share best practices and learn how to showcase the promising careers and lifestyles that Alabama can deliver.”

Director Josh Laney of the Alabama Office of Apprenticeship expressed enthusiasm for continuing the AOA’s promotion of work-based learning. “Since 2019, Governor Ivey has pushed our state to become a national leader in work-based learning as we continue to tackle the challenges of labor force participation. WBL creates meaningful work experience for citizens to get the skills they need to do the jobs our employers need filled.”

A highlight of the conference will be presentations from the winners of the 2024 Alabama Seal of Excellence in Work-Based Learning. These programs have demonstrated exceptional quality, unique approaches, and replicability that will inspire others around the state to follow their lead.

• The Birmingham Promise K12 Internship
•  JF Ingram State Community College Registered Apprenticeship for Incarcerated Individuals
• Troy City and Pike County Schools Registered Apprenticeship for Early Education Teachers
• Calhoun Community College Cooperative Education Program

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Register for the conference and view hotel block information below:

About EDPA:

The Economic Development Partnership of Alabama (EDPA) is a private, nonprofit organization supported by over 60 Corporate Partners. It is governed by a board of directors comprised of the state’s top business leaders, dedicated to Alabama’s economic growth. EDPA supports various initiatives including economic development research, workforce development, talent retention, innovation, entrepreneurship, and community development.

About The Alabama Office of Apprenticeship:

The Alabama Office of Apprenticeship (AOA) aims to expand the use of registered apprenticeships and other forms of work-based learning. Collaborating with employers and training providers across the state, AOA develops high-quality career training to foster the prosperity of workers and employers, contributing to the continued economic development of Alabama.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Feb.16, 2023) – The Alabama Office of Apprenticeship and FuelAL, a program of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama (EDPA), are proud to announce partnership in hosting the Second Annual Governor’s Summit on Talent Retention & Work-Based Learning. The Summit will take place in Mobile, Alabama, at the Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza Hotel, May 3-5, 2023.

The Summit will bring together employers, educators, economic developers and workforce professionals from across Alabama to learn best practices in talent retention & workforce development. Keynote speakers and panelists representing each sector will share their unique perspectives on how talent retention and work-based learning can benefit each component of a successful economy.

The Summit will also offer various breakout and panel sessions focused on topics such as apprenticeship, career pathways, and other work-based learning resources. Attendees will gain valuable workforce development tools and resources to better equip them.

Read More and Register For the Summit!

Alabama Survey of the Alabama Unemployed and Underemployed 4.0

The Governor’s Office of Education and Workforce Transformation and the Alabama Workforce Council conducted the fourth iteration of the Alabama Survey of the Unemployed and Underemployed to measure awareness and attitudes towards new job training programs in Alabama among underemployed and unemployed Alabamians.

The survey was conducted by Cygnal between January 4 and January 16, 2023, and 500 underemployed and unemployed Alabamians responded to the survey. 48% of respondents were male and 52% were female. The results of the Alabama Survey of the Unemployed and Underemployed underscores that fact that COVID-19 as a barrier to employment has almost entirely evaporated, although 45% of respondents claim COVID-19 has contributed to their current state of underemployment or unemployment.

At least three-quarters of respondents are very likely to seek entry to workforce in 2023. The number of men that responded to the survey that have been underemployed longer than 6 months have decreased, while the number of underemployed women has increased. Women are 11% more likely than men to have been underemployed longer than 6 months. Workers over the age of 35 are over 20% more likely to be underemployed for more than 6 months than workers under 35.

The current major obstacle to full employment is now transportation, followed by personal health, and familial obligations. 21% of Alabama jobseekers cited transportation as their greatest barrier to full-time employment, and 31% said it was their primary reason for being either unemployed or underemployed. Lack of transportation is particularly daunting for low-income and urban jobseekers, while older workers are hampered more by health issues. Women are three times more likely than men to cite familial obligations as a barrier to work.

Earning more money has become the preeminent reason for changing industries for both men and women, though women tend to place greater emphasis on reducing stress and a flexible schedule. The top concerns at the height of the pandemic, stability, and consistent wages, have fallen to secondary concerns. High-income earners are more likely to seek out an industry that has a more flexible workload and schedule. 83% of unemployed and underemployed workers are willing to apply for non-remote work, which is up from 77% during the height of pandemic.

When it comes to free training programs, business administration, human services, and information technology garner the most interest. A plurality of respondents said earning a certificate or license is their main goal when receiving job training or education. 41% of respondents said additional training is too expensive. A plurality of unemployed and underemployed workers see value in obtaining a credential before seeking full-time employment. Only 20% respondents completed additional job training while underemployed or unemployed.

At least 85% of respondents said they were more likely to apply for a job after reading about available programs and resources. Men and workers under 35 prefer skills training programs when considering applying for jobs, while women and workers over 35 are more interested in pursuing resources like community college, job fairs, and career coaching.

The Alabama State Board of Education took two momentous steps forward during their November 10, 2022, meeting.

The Board approved an administrative rule code that will require students to complete at least one college or career readiness indicator prior to graduating, beginning with the class of 2028. The Board also passed a resolution enabling the State Department of Education to collect data on teacher absenteeism.

The Alabama Workforce Council (AWC) was proud to lead the charge on these two policies as part of the AWC’s 10 points on K-12 education. The AWC worked alongside Governor Ivey and the Business Education Alliance of Alabama for five years on the College and Career Readiness Policy and for over two years on the teacher attendance resolution.

Dr. Mackey and the State Board of Education are to be commended for their leadership. The College and Career Readiness rule passed by a vote of 5-2 and the attendance resolution passed unanimously.

Prior to the vote on the college and career readiness policy, Governor Ivey stated, “. . . closing the gap between the graduation rate and the college and career readiness rate is about more than just numbers—this is about closing opportunity gaps by making sure that our students are ready to take the next step.”

“Since the rule does not take effect until 2028, we have plenty of time to work with local school districts to expand access to a variety of college and career readiness indicators to meet the interests of every student.”

“This is not about adding one more requirement, it is about measuring what matters. This vote will focus our attention and energy on making sure resources are where they need to be.”

“There is nothing more important we can do than graduate our students ready for the next step.  The adoption of this rule signals our commitment to this most sacred duty.”

Governor Ivey’s words are not only true but serve as a road map for implementing these new policies.

The fact that the State Board of Education amended its budget request to add a $25 million college and career readiness attainment fund, coupled with the five-year implementation timeline, will give us time to expand access to quality career readiness indicators that meet the interests of all students and prepare them for in-demand careers.

At first glance, the college and career readiness completion policy and the attendance data collection policy do not seem connected.

When we consider teacher chronic absenteeism—defined as missing 10 percent or more of the school days during a single school year—is linked to student college and career readiness, the connection becomes obvious.

When a teacher is absent, students do not receive the same level of instruction that they are accustomed to receiving.

Why measure teacher absenteeism?  Because a student’s leader in the classroom is the teacher.  If leaders are not held accountable to high standards, then it is useless to try and hold students to the same high standard.  The federal Office of Civil Rights (OCR) reported that 37 percent of Alabama’s teachers were chronically absent during the 2017-2018 school year; however, OCR stopped reporting these data the following year.  We currently do not know if teacher absenteeism has remained high since the 2017-2018 school year because Alabama has not been collecting the data necessary to make that determination.

Since the 2017-2018 school year, the Legislature passed legislation sponsored by Rep. Allen Baker’s that allows teachers to roll over unused sick days. Prior to that legislation, teachers may have inadvertently contributed to the chronic absenteeism rate as reported by the OCR due to the fact that they had to use their unused sick days or lose them

The lack of available data is the reason why the AWC and Governor Ivey wanted to work with Dr. Mackey and the State Board of Education to pass the teacher attendance data resolution.

The new policy will create an additional burden on our teachers and schools.  Local school districts already have the necessary data; it just needs to be tracked.

The resolution is not about singling out teachers. People must miss work for a variety of legitimate reasons, and teachers have fought hard over the years to earn the paid leave they have available. Nevertheless, data is needed to help us understand the comprehensive effects of student and teacher absenteeism on student achievement.

If a student is absent 18 days (10 percent of the 180-day school year) and their teacher is absent 18 days, that is potentially 36 days of missed instruction, which equals 20 percent of the school year.

Given all the other disruptions during the school day (i.e., assemblies, pep rallies, student organization meetings, etc.), is it unacceptable that students are potentially missing 1 in 5 days of instruction due to the collective effects of chronic absenteeism?

Once we collect the data, we can dig deeper and begin to unpack the reasons leading to student and teacher chronic absenteeism.  For example, how do school culture and climate affect attendance? How do building and district leadership impact attendance?

As we are celebrating increased scores on the Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program (ACAP). Alabama moved substantially up in the National Assessment of Education Program rankings primarily because Alabama students returned to school faster during Covid than other states.  . However, once the rest of the country gets back to the classrooms we could fall back in the rankings once more.  We must continue to measure performance and improve in the areas where we are weakest.    Getting to the bottom of chronic absenteeism is one way to do so.  We need to measure our performance and determine the root causes of chronic absenteeism to make improvements.

Measurement of performance goes hand in hand with leadership. Effective leaders constantly analyze data to make better decisions to improve performance.  Leadership matters.

Due to the strong leadership of Governor Ivey, the Alabama Legislature, the State Board of Education, the State Department of Education, and education advocates in business and industry, Alabama’s historically anemic student proficiency scores and national rankings are beginning to move in the right direction.

This didn’t happen by accident. Governor Kay Ivey is Alabama’s education governor, and she has done more to transform Alabama’s K-12 education system during her five years in office than any of her predecessors.

From the beginning of her term as Governor, Kay Ivey has always said that literacy and numeracy are the “blocking and tackling” of education. During her first term, Governor Ivey set the bar for the Legislature and Alabama State Department of Education, and the Alabama State Board of Education to begin the hard work of improving Alabama’s education system to produce the educational results that Alabamians deserve.  Under Governor Ivey’s leadership, wise investments have been made to lay the foundation for excellence in literacy and numeracy.

Governor Ivey signed the Alabama Numeracy Act into law in May 2022, which places the same level of focus on mathematics that the Alabama Literacy Act placed on reading in 2019.

Alabama’s business community, through the work of the Alabama Workforce Council and other advocacy groups, have worked in conjunction with Governor Ivey to implement much-needed educational improvements.

Unfortunately, Alabama’s educational assessments, standards, and state superintendents have been altered or replaced every other year for a decade. Typically, change affects performance.  Alabama’s constant changes in leadership, assessments, and standards may have something to do with our low educational test scores. To maintain our current momentum, we must stop the standards war driven by reactionary voices that continue to push to change our standards every other year.

Continued changes in tests and standards confuse students, parents, and educators.  It also hinders our ability to determine student progress over time. It is extremely important to consistently maintain standards over a long enough period to accurately compare current performance to prior performance. Without consistency in standards and testing, confusion reigns.

We are pleased that Alabama’s 2019 Mathematics and 2021 English Language Arts courses of study were developed by Alabama’s teachers and members of business and industry.

Alabama has a new assessment system, the Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program (ACAP).  Hopefully, our leaders will stick with the new assessment program for a long enough period to eliminate confusion.

Consistency will allow all Alabama education stakeholders—parents, students, educators, businesses, and citizens—to understand our educational goals and test results.

Due to Governor Ivey’s strong and consistent leadership, strong standards, and an assessment system aligned to the standards, we have already seen some limited growth on the 2022 Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program (ACAP), which is Alabama’s annual summative student assessment given in grades 2-8.

Every grade in K-12 saw improvement in scores on the ELA ACAP from 2021 to 2022, with the largest increase in 2^nd grade whose proficiency increased from 43% to 49%.

The National Assessment of Education Progress, commonly referred to as NAEP (pronounced “nape”), is the only educational test that compares student performance across the country. In 2022, Alabama’s 4^th grade NAEP math ranking improved from 52^nd in the nation to 40^th..  Alabama 4^th grade ranking in reading increased from 49^th  in the nation in 2019 to 39^th place in 2022.  Alabama’s ranking for 8^th grade mathematics improved from 52^nd 2019 to 47^th in 2022.  Since 1992 Alabama’s 4^th grade students have never been ranked in the top 40 nationally.

Our state’s national rankings in reading and math improved in relation to other states, but our nominal test scores were not significantly improved.  In other words, our rankings improved in relation to other states because our students’ scores did not drop from prior years as much as other states did.  That means that our students’ loss of learning was significantly lower than other state’s students.

Keeping students in school during COVID-19 is certainly one variable that helped Alabama hold its own during a dramatic national decline.

Kudos to our state’s leadership, starting with Governor Ivey, to make the tough decision to place our children’s education above the national hysteria about COVID.  Our state’s leadership worked very hard to minimize the effect of COVID on our children’s loss of learning.

Alabamians should be proud that we held our own and did not experience as much COVID-19 learning loss as other states; however, our results should not be cause for us to become complacent or rest on our laurels.

The results from this year’s ACAP and NAEP are reason to double down and saddle up for the hard work that lays before us.  We have a head start on many other states. Let’s keep going! We are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it is a long tunnel.

The Alabama Workforce Council will continue to fall in beside Governor Ivey, Superintendent Eric Mackey, the Alabama Legislature, and the members of the Alabama State Board of Education to continue pushing for improvements in our children’s education because, as we all know—leadership matters!

Alabama’s need for aviation mechanics and technicians is soaring and a new registered apprenticeship program will begin filling that need with trained and qualified individuals.  The Alabama Office of Apprenticeship has partnered with M1 Support Services and the Alabama Aviation College to develop an apprenticeship program that combines paid work experience and classroom instruction, all while earning a portable, nationally recognized credential.

”We are proud to see  M1 Support Services developing a joint apprenticeship program to help meet the critical workforce needs for skilled aviation mechanics and technicians in the Fort Rucker area”, said Josh Laney, Director of the Alabama Office of Apprenticeship.  We are very thankful to the company and the union for helping us set a high standard throughout the program’s development and we look forward to the years of growth and success ahead for everyone involved.”

At the successful completion of the program, students will have a nationally recognized credential and a pathway to a high-wage and high-demand job.  The paid, on-the-job training that they receive through the apprenticeship program sets them up for success while providing a pipeline of qualified workers for M1 Support Services.

A signing ceremony was recently held for the apprentices and M1 Support Services at Enterprise Community College.

On July 14, 2022, Governor Ivey  shared that Alabama is making substantial progress toward reaching her postsecondary attainment goal. Also known as Governor Ivey’s Success Plus plan, the attainment goal aims to add 500,000 individuals with postsecondary credentials to the state’s workforce by 2025. The governor is proud to report that since launching the plan in 2018, Alabama has added 214,922 credentials, according to the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness (CREC). The progress report shows that Alabama’s workforce is skilling up and well on its way to meet the goal of the Success Plus plan.

“Here in Alabama, we are laser-focused on bringing good-paying jobs to the state, and very importantly, we want to ensure we are providing opportunities for Alabamians to be the most equipped for those jobs,” said Governor Ivey. “I am proud of our progress and predict we are well on our way to surpassing the goal of adding 500,000 additional credentialed individuals to our workforce by 2025.”

Governor Ivey, collaborating with AlabamaWorks! and the Alabama Workforce Council, partnered with Credential Engine and the CREC to measure the progress.

“I am extremely proud of the work the Alabama Workforce Council has done in advancing Governor Ivey’s Success Plus initiative and helping Alabamians earn post-secondary credentials that will set them up for success,” said Alabama Workforce Council Chair Tim McCartney. “It is evident we have more work to do to carry this goal to completion, but we are on the right path and have the right leadership with Governor Ivey at the helm.”

The progress report shows that since 2018, Alabama has made progress toward the Success Plus goal of adding 500,000 credentialed adults ages 16 to 64 to the workforce by 2025. Of the more than 200,000 added credentialed individuals, 137,848 newly credentialed individuals were in the 16 to 24 age group, and 38,240 were in the 25 to 64 age group. Governor Ivey is a national leader on workforce development efforts. As she speaks to company officials in this country and around the globe, she consistently touts the state of Alabama’s strong workforce.

“Alabama’s current and future economic growth depends on a highly skilled workforce. That’s why I am so proud of the progress we are making in increasing our postsecondary education attainment goal,” said Alabama Commerce Secretary Greg Canfield. “We are on track to meet our goal, which will result in more Alabamians in the workforce.”

The information included in the Success Plus plan progress report provides a clearer picture of the credential landscape and statewide progress toward the attainment goal. The report also advances transparency and connectivity across credentialing systems.

Beyond grouping by age, another focus was measuring credential attainment by region. Of the progress made since 2018, 44,469 credentials were attained in region 1; 12,045 in region 2; 24,956 in region 3; 38,441 in region 4; 33,155 in region 5; 17,791 in region 6; and 44,065 in region 7.

Broken down by credential, from 2018 to 2021, 145,194 first degrees were attained from public and private postsecondary schools; 33,059 first certificates were attained from public and private postsecondary schools; 1,430 people attained licenses as their first credential; 34,552 attained a certification; and 668 people completed an apprenticeship.

“Success Plus has required focused efforts across multiple state agencies, the private sector and community-based organizations,” said AIDT Executive Director and Deputy Commerce Secretary Ed Castile. “I am proud of the progress we have made thus far, and I am even more excited about the progress we will make between now and 2025.”

Through Governor Ivey’s leadership and focus on carving a path for Alabamians to be highly skilled and successful, the state is well on its way to achieving her Success Plus goal.