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The US Department of Labor (DOL) launched the American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) in October 2015 to expand registered apprenticeship in the United States into sectors with few apprenticeships, such as healthcare and information technology (IT), and for populations underrepresented in apprenticeship. In 2016, DOL commissioned an evaluation of the AAI grants to build evidence about the effectiveness of registered apprenticeship for apprentices and employers. The evaluation will also generate lessons for developing and operating these programs, particularly in occupations that do not traditionally use apprenticeship for training.

This is the first of three reports presenting findings from the implementation study. It answers the following research questions: (1) How are AAI apprenticeship programs structured? How are programs designed? Which entities - that is, grantees, employers, other partners, or a combination - are involved in program design? What is the nature and content of related technical instruction (RTI) and on-the-job learning (OJL)? What supports are available to apprentices? (2) Who is responsible for registration? Where are programs registered? (3) How do grantees identify employers for apprenticeships? (4) What strategies do grantees and employers use to identify strong candidates for apprenticeships? (5) How are pre-apprenticeship programs structured? The data presented in this report depict the status of grantee activities about four years into the five-year grants when grantees likely implemented most planned activities and grantee activities were operating at a steady state. The report documents the design and operation of the grantee apprenticeship programs and identifies potentially promising practices and challenges that can inform policy and program design.

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The US Department of Labor (DOL) launched the American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) in October 2015 to expand registered apprenticeship in the United States into sectors with few apprenticeships, such as healthcare and information technology (IT), and for populations historically underrepresented in apprenticeship, including women, racial and ethnic minorities, and veterans. To learn more about grantee activities, employer experiences, and apprentice and pre-apprentice outcomes, DOL commissioned an evaluation of the AAI grants in 2016. The AAI implementation study aims to document the design and operation of grantee apprenticeship programs; identify promising practices and challenges that can inform policy and program design; and provide important context for the other sub-studies.

This report first describes the goals and design of the implementation study. It then presents the 10 grantees selected for site visits, Including the selection criteria and grantee characteristics. Next, it describes key findings of visits to the 10 grantees. Each grantee's AAI-funded program is described in more detail in the grantee-specific profiles. The primary data source for this report is interviews with grant staff and partners conducted during a spring 2019 site visit to each of the 10 grantees and follow-up telephone calls with grant staff in fall 2020. The report documents the design and operation of grant activities and identifies potentially promising practices, implementation challenges, and lessons for future initiatives.

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