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Community Based Organizations (CBOs)
Many pre-apprenticeship programs are known as "community based organizations" or CBOs. These can be non-profit organizations whose mission is to help people get ready to be selected into apprenticeship programs. This means teaching pre-apprenticeship participants everything from remedial math, language skills, career counseling, soft skills, and basic technical skills.
The Challenge
Pre-apprenticeship programs face many challenges in achieving their mission. They have to recruit participants. They have to recruit sponsors and partners. They have to execute their learning program. They have to ensure program graduates are placed into apprenticeship programs or find other employment. Then, often times, these pre-apprenticeship programs continue to help coach program graduates as they find their way in their career field. Pre-apprenticeship programs have to accomplish all this on a very limited budget and with very limited staff.
The Technology Gap
Microsoft, Google, and other "productivity" software providers exist. They have spreadsheets, databases, and other one-size-fits all tools that can be used to address the technology requirements of pre-apprenticeship programs. There are enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) that could be configured to get close to addressing the needs of pre-apprenticeship programs. But ERPs are so expensive that they are typically better suited for much larger organizations with hundreds of employees. There are learning management systems (LMS) but these are limited to curriculum management and learning. None of these options are purpose-built specifically for skilled trades workers, the organizations they interact with, and that can serve the worker over the course of their career with multiple employers.
Organizations that employ basic productivity software are limited by the fact that the individual worker does not control or manage their personal data. Contact information gets stale. Worker experience is not updated. The worker receives no benefit with regard to being found for employment opportunities. Affiliated organizations like pre-apprenticeship programs receive no reporting on the success of their graduates over the long-term. Larger organizations simply cannot keep up with managing the data of their participants over time.
Improve Program Effectiveness and Efficiency with TradesFactor
Pre-apprenticeship programs can use TradesFactor right now with their program participants for FREE. Students can create their profile on TradesFactor.com. Program coordinators can register their organization and connect to their program participants. Coordinators can connect with sponsors and partner organizations. All of this facilitates the ecosystem and pipeline for pre-apprenticeship program participants to feed directly into registered apprenticeship programs or regular employment.
Students and workers can update their experience, certifications, skills, education, availability dates, and more. They can use TradesFactor's certification management module to digitize their paper certifications and prevent losing original documents. Companies seeking skilled trades workers can find them more easily and reduce any unemployment time for workers. Organizations can leverage the embedded Microsoft Power Business Intelligence (BI) dashboard for reporting and analytics.
TradesFactor was built to support the individual worker first. Improve your pre-apprenticeship program participant support and your program administration now. If you need support, feel free to use the "Feedback" button at the bottom of any page on TradesFactor or our live chat feature. Come and knock on our door. We've been waiting for you. :-)
