Concord, N.H. (September 5, 2024) – ApprenticeshipNH, a workforce training program of the Community College System of NH (CCSNH), is growing again, this time expanding into another area of critical workforce need and market demand in New Hampshire. ApprenticeshipNH and A Place to Grow LLC, a nature-based early learning center in Brentwood, N.H., have collaborated with New Hampshire’s Office of Apprenticeship and other stakeholders to create the nation’s first Registered Early Childhood Director Apprenticeship Program approved by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). By pioneering an Early Childhood Director apprenticeship, New Hampshire is leading the way to create a career pathway to encourage individuals to enter the field, as well as vital education and training to help build needed additional childcare capacity in the Granite State.
This new Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) develops entrepreneurial and small business skills so individuals with early childhood education experience have a pathway to own or manage childcare facilities. “It was a team effort to secure a rare federal approval of a new Registered Apprenticeship occupation. Our program will serve as a model for other states,” said Christopher Lalmond, Hub Developer at CCSNH’s ApprenticeshipNH.
As a federally approved program, apprentices in the Early Childhood Director program are eligible to receive up to $2,000 in federal scholarship funds and up to $1,500 for support services to help remove barriers to accessing the educational component of the apprenticeship, such as the cost of books, testing fees, and background checks. Coursework focuses on developing entrepreneurial and small business management skills and may be completed online or in-person through any of the CCSNH’s seven colleges. The coursework is combined with two years of formalized, paid, on-the-job mentorship and learning.
Before this new registered apprenticeship was established, childcare operators typically learned to run a business through daily experience and trial and error. The Early Childhood Director apprenticeship provides the childcare field with a continuum of training and education that supports individuals from entry-level jobs to management positions.
As of March 2024, there were more than 53,000 children under the age of six in New Hampshire’s working families, yet the state’s childcare facilities offered only 31,000 total spots. According to statistics compiled by Child Care Aware® of America, 46 percent of Granite Staters live in a “childcare desert,” defined as areas with so few childcare options that three children are waiting for each childcare slot available.
“Clearly we need more childcare centers, but we need to have more well-trained professionals capable of opening more centers and operating a business, whether it is a small childcare business in a home or a much larger facility,” said Jennifer Legere, founder of A Place to Grow who played a lead role in helping design and build this new partnership.
The DOL requires that RAPs be industry-led to ensure they reflect real world needs and align with industry standards. As owner of a childcare facility, Legere’s involvement was essential to both the development and approval of the new apprenticeship. “Jen saw there was a gap in industry training and came to us with a need for small business education to complement childcare experience. She aligned the actual on-the-job training tasks with New Hampshire credentialing standards and brought in an entire world of new education and training so all future childhood director apprentices will receive small business education complementing their childcare experience. Her work is groundbreaking,” said Lalmond.
In January 2024, CCSNH provided a $25,000 planning grant through ApprenticeshipNH to fund Legere’s work laying the groundwork for the new, two-year RAP. Numerous stakeholders were involved in the planning process, including the DOL Office of Apprenticeship-NH, the Coos County Director Network and other childcare providers. ApprenticeshipNH and Legere also consulted with leaders involved with one-year, state-approved early childhood director programs in Kentucky and Massachusetts.
The formal application for federal approval of a new Early Childhood Director apprenticeship program was submitted to the DOL in March 2024, supported by letters from New Hampshire’s members of Congress and national childcare and business leaders. Federal approval was granted in July 2024.
Visit ApprenticeshipNH.com for more information.
ApprenticeshipNH
ApprenticeshipNH is a workforce training program of the Community College System of NH (CCSNH) to promote high-quality Registered Apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs throughout the state. The program offers technical assistance to employers in creating such programs, provides financial support to apprentices and pre-apprentices, and coordinates pre-apprenticeship opportunities with employers and high schools. The program is funded by U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration grants.
The total funding of the ApprenticeshipNH initiative is $9.57 million with 99% funded through the following US Department of Labor-Employment and Training Administration Grants at the dollar amounts indicated: State Apprenticeship Expansion Formula (SAEF) Grants-$3.77 million and Apprenticeship Building America Grant (ABA) – $5.8 million. VisitApprenticeshipNH.com for more information.
