State leaders and labor outline HRCC apprenticeship pipeline, Caltrans partnership and barriers to scaling
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Summary
State and labor representatives described the High Road Construction Careers program’s 13 pre‑apprenticeship partnerships, ties to Caltrans projects through SB 150, supportive services (childcare, stipends), and capacity challenges that limit how many apprentices can be placed on public projects.
State workforce staff, CalSTA and labor leaders briefed the California Workforce Development Board on the High Road Construction Careers (HRCC) initiative and how pre‑apprenticeship partnerships are linking to Caltrans infrastructure projects.
State staff described HRCC as a demand‑driven model that supports 13 pre‑apprenticeship partnerships designed to prepare participants for apprenticeship openings. Training uses the MC3 multicraft core curriculum and pairs classroom and hands‑on instruction with supportive services that include stipends, childcare, transportation assistance and tool allowances to increase retention, presenters said.
Allison Jo, deputy secretary for equity and workforce at the State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), said the agency is working to align district‑level Caltrans pipelines with local workforce partners and noted adjustments to contracting and DBE (disadvantaged business enterprise) processes in response to federal interim final rulings.
Jeremy Smith, representing building trades interests, emphasized on‑site learning as essential to apprenticeship training and highlighted supports that help trainees persist through the early years of apprenticeship, including childcare stipends and tool vouchers. "Construction apprentices don't sit at a table in a room behind computers ... they're on a job site," he said.
Leonard Gonzales, executive director of the Northern California Laborers Training and Retraining Trust Fund, provided training system metrics: his organization runs about 4,200 apprentices, received roughly 10,000 applications last year, onboarded about 2,600 new apprentices, graduated about 1,000, and recorded roughly 1,100 terminations; total training hours cited were about 420,000.
Board members and presenters discussed persistent friction points: employers' hiring and dispatch practices, jurisdictional ratio rules that constrain apprentice placement on individual job sites, geographic variation in signatory contractor participation, and the mismatch between apprenticeship supply and project demand. Presenters said these are structural issues that must be addressed through stronger local partnerships and project planning, not immediate program rule changes.
The meeting produced no motions or votes on HRCC or related items; staff and labor representatives committed to continued coordination across CWDB, Caltrans, local workforce boards and the building trades to improve alignment between training pipelines and employer demand.