San Diego Continuing Education (SDCE) was part of the four-college consortium assembled by San Diego City College to meet the regional need for improved apprenticeship preparation. The four consortium members, which includes Palomar College and Southwestern College, have more than 179,000 enrolled students and provide comprehensive CTE, apprenticeship and continuing education programs.
The objective of the San Diego County Apprenticeship Preview and Preparation (SD-APP) project is to create a regional framework to strengthen pathways into existing registered apprenticeships and to improve the preparation of students who may be interested in or who plan to enter one of the six following areas: carpenter, electrician, machinist, pipefitter (including welding), plumber, and sheet metal worker. Attention will be given to increase the number of veterans, women, minorities, and other underserved populations to participate in the apprentice preparation and training programs developed through the project.
During Year One, the consortium will develop, align, and implement curriculum that prepares students to enter apprenticeship pathways and will expose students to the six identified disciplines and feed into CTE and apprenticeship programs offered by entities in the consortium. The outcomes of the SD-APP project will facilitate the increase in the number of students who are able to successfully compete for apprenticeships in the trades and successfully complete coursework in apprenticeship programs. Preparatory curriculum will be developed in such a way that it can be adopted and adapted by any education provider in the region or state. All five program outcomes required by the State will be achieved through this project:
· Classroom and hands-on training for underrepresented groups,
· Evaluate participation
· Expansion of partnerships to improve completion rates
· An increase in eligible apprenticeship applicants, and
· Establishing links with registered apprenticeship programs.
SDCE will develop non-credit course curriculum geared toward preparation for careers in the trades and technology in the first half of Year 1 to address skill gaps for students who plan to pursue apprenticeships to become carpenters, plumbers, HVAC technicians, welding or sheet metal workers. This preparatory course, called Industrial Math relevant to CTE trades (welding, auto, plumbing, HVAC) will contextualize the applicable mathematics in both theory and hands on application in our various heavy vocational programs.
In the first half of Year Two, SDCE will develop a second preparatory course integrating existing HVAC curriculum with energy efficiency requirements to upgrade the offering to today’s industry demand to meet the reduced energy consumption requirements mandated for California by 2020.
As a result of the effort from all four institutions, it is anticipated that at least four or five new courses will have been implemented, and at least 200 students will have enrolled in new preparatory courses developed by the consortium by the end of Year Two.