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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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.

In 2018, Governor Ivey established the Success Plus postsecondary education attainment goal of adding 500,000 credentialed workers to the workforce by 2025.

With labor market conditions nearing full employment in Alabama, meeting the Success Plus goal requires increasing Alabama’s labor force participation rate (LFPR). The LFPR is the percentage of the civilian non-institutionalized population age 16 and older who are employed or actively looking for work. As a result, Governor Ivey set a goal of surpassing the national LFPR by 2025.

With a November 2023 non-seasonally adjusted LFPR of 57.1%, Alabama ranks 47th in the nation (tied with Kentucky and above only Mississippi, South Carolina, and West Virginia). A one-percentage-point increase in Alabama’s LFPR represents approximately 23,000 additional Alabamians participating in the labor force. Increasing Alabama’s LFPR to the national average of 62.8% would add 131,100 Alabamians to the labor force. Alabama’s 78.4 percent prime-age labor force participation rate (25-54) also lags 4.9 percentage points behind the national average of 83.3 percent, which represents a delta of 112,700 prime-age Alabamians who are not working.

Our state will not reach its goals with nearly half of its working-age people on the sidelines. Alabama must, and can, do better, but it will require realignment of Alabama’s public workforce system to make it more effective and efficient. We must address postsecondary attainment and labor force participation together. Economic growth is booming in areas across Alabama with the highest levels of attainment and labor force participation. In the counties with a low LFPR, there is also limited postsecondary attainment and economic growth.

There are more available jobs than there are unemployed Alabamians. Therefore, we must focus on increasing the number of people participating in the labor market and coordinating our workforce programs. We must focus our efforts on increasing the LFPR with the same passion and focused leadership that we have placed in past years on important issues such as literacy and high school completion. Increasing the LFPR requires shared goals, coordination, and shared accountability metrics.

In the next legislative session, it is time to finish the job of aligning our workforce programs to meet the demands of our economy. Alabama must be a leader in all endeavors, with a particular focus on our workforce. We want Alabama to be a model for talent training and development, inspiring other states to aspire to become as good as Alabama.

This report outlines steps that should be taken through executive action and through the legislative and budgetary processes to align Alabama’s workforce system. These recommendations are focused on efficiency and cleaning up the motley mix of programs that are serving far too few of Alabama’s employers and job seekers.

This report was developed with the people of Alabama, and the taxpayers of Alabama, in mind. Achieving government efficiency often “ruffles a few feathers,” but we present this report as both the customers of, and funders of, Alabama’s public workforce system. With that in mind, we offer this report and recommendations for reforming Alabama’s public workforce system.

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!

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.