What is A Registered Apprenticeship Program?
A Registered Apprenticeship Program is a structured workforce training program overseen by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Employee apprentices learn the glazing trade through a combination of on-the-job training provided by their employer and classroom instruction. Apprentices who complete programs using the NGA Glazier Apprentice Curriculum earn certification from the Department of Labor and the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER) indicating journey worker-level competency.
How Apprenticeship Benefits Companies
Apprenticeship helps connect your company to employee pipelines and projects, further positioning you as an employer people want to work for.
Glazier Recruitment & Retention
91% of employers who use apprenticeship programs say it helps them find better job candidates and improves employee loyalty.
Access to Public Works Projects
Employers with apprentices can bid Public Works/ prevailing wage/ Davis Bacon projects using their own employees and pay apprentice wages on projects.
Expanded Glazier Candidate Pool
Employee pipeline organizations prefer to work with companies that participate in apprenticeship programs because they provide a career path and wage structure.
Join or Start an Apprenticeship Program
In most states, employers can start and operate their own Registered Apprenticeship Program or join a multi-employer group program. These instructions, and the map below them, will help you get started.
In nearly all circumstances, your company must have, or be part of, a Registered Apprenticeship Program to hire an apprentice. That apprentice is an employee of your company.
Apprentices can come from a variety of sources, such as:
- Current employees
- Employees hired with the intent of enrolling them in apprenticeship
- Employees hired for other roles who would make good apprentices
- Partnerships with high school career technical education (CTE) programs and other programs designed to prepare individuals for work and connect them to jobs
- IUPAT also offers a nationwide network of established registered apprenticeship programs. Reach out to your local district council for more information.
NGA has partnered with several organizations to offer group glazier apprenticeship programs. With these programs, the organization—called a sponsor—handles the program administration and classroom learning for your company, for a fee. In some cases, the sponsor also provides labs and hands-on workshops to complement on-the-job training.
Use the map at the bottom of this page to find the contact info for an existing group Glazier Registered Apprenticeship Program in your state. Learn more about how to enroll apprentices from the sponsor.
Before starting your own program:
- Examine your resources. Ask yourself:
Do I have staff available to handle the administration? Administration includes applying for a Registered Apprenticeship Program with the state; providing program reports to the state as needed; tracking apprentices’ on-the-job training hours; tracking apprentices’ classroom curriculum progress; and other tasks.
- Contact your state apprenticeship office (see the map at the bottom of this page). Your local representative will walk you through the process of getting a program approved. Your state may also offer grant funding and/or tax credits to support Registered Apprenticeship Programs, which your state apprenticeship office can provide.
- Download the NGA Glazier Apprentice Curriculum to send to your apprenticeship office.
Your local apprenticeship office will ask you to provide information on the classroom curriculum (also called related technical instruction) your program will use. The NGA Glazier Apprentice Curriculum, available as e-learning via MyGlassClass.com, meets Department of Labor requirements.
Should your state require additional documentation regarding the curriculum, please contact NGA at apprenticeship@glass.org.
- Contact NGA at apprenticeship@glass.org to learn how to enroll apprentices in the NGA Glazier Apprentice Curriculum. Our team will train your program administrators and help set up your program for success on MyGlassClass.com.
How NGA Can Help
The NGA team is here to answer your questions and provide assistance as you explore glazier apprenticeship.
Contact the team at apprenticeship@glass.org for:
- Documentation requested by your state or the U.S. Department of Labor
- Information about existing programs
- Apprentice enrollment
- Administrator training
- New program creation assistance.