The South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation is providing $270,000 to help businesses pay for apprenticeships in the state. Employers can receive $1000 for hiring new people into existing apprenticeships and $500 for their current apprentices.
Tara Bartekoske is a labor program specialist with the Department of Labor. She says there are more apprenticeships and the investment programs bring awareness to hands-on training opportunities.
She says apprenticeship programs offer training flexibility to businesses that are facing a retiring workforce.
“They were looking at, like seven different occupations that they were like, ‘We could create an apprenticeship program for this,’ and I think the more that businesses realize that – that they can customize this training program to fit their needs, and to fit their own business’s demographics and their culture – the more that those will continue to grow.”
Another labor program specialist with the Department of Labor says apprenticeships are typically found in construction and building trades.
Rebecca Long says there are also demands in other areas that create a focus on work-based learning.
“In the Midwest, there are more jobs than there are people and then, looking at specific skills and knowledge needed, that pool becomes much smaller. So, businesses and employers are trying to be more creative in their recruitment and what they need to do.”
Long says apprenticeships are successful in Countries like Germany and Sweden where they are more common.
She points to industries like technology and healthcare as areas of growth.
-Contact SDPB’s David Scott by email.