America Makes, a Manufacturing USA institute, and the Robert C. Byrd Institute, in partnership with Tooling U-SME, the National Coalition of Advanced Technology Centers, and AST2, proudly announce that the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship has officially approved their first-ever, industry-vetted Additive Manufacturing (AM) Technician Registered Apprenticeship.
Today’s announcement fittingly coincides with National Apprenticeship Week, observed November 12–18, 2018, a national celebration that offers leaders in business, labor, education, and other critical partners a chance to demonstrate their support for apprenticeships. The week-long celebration highlights the benefits of apprenticeship in preparing a highly-skilled workforce to meet the talent needs of employers across diverse industries.
“The approval of the AM Technician Registered Apprenticeship by the DOL is the accumulation of a great deal of work and learnings, many of which were leveraged directly from the America Makes Workforce and Education Roadmap,” said America Makes Executive Director Rob Gorham. “We are proud to have played an important role in this initiative to empower employers nationwide to develop and customize AM apprenticeships to create a much needed, highly skilled additive workforce.”