LONGMONT — The Longmont Economic Development Partnership and CareerWise Colorado, a nonprofit group that provides three-year apprenticeship programs for high schoolers, are partnering on an effort to connect students with local businesses in need of employees to work in hard-to-fill positions.

“Apprentices are identified by businesses through a competitive hiring process so employers can select the right fit for their organization,” Brad Revare, CareerWise director of business partnerships, said in a prepared statement. “CareerWise is designed to be ROI positive for employers based on apprentice productivity. In that way it’s much different than an internship — apprentices are a part of your team, ultimately freeing up other employees to do higher-value work. For three years businesses have a highly-productive worker at a fraction of the cost of an adult trainee.”

This partnership bolsters Longmont EDP’s wider workforce development efforts.

“With the recent launch of Longmont’s updated economic development strategy and collective impact framework, Advance Longmont 2.0, we set a goal related to talent that Longmont successfully recruits and retains new, needed talent while building an industry- and future-responsive talent infrastructure,” Longmont EDP President Jessica Erickson said in a statement. “Our priorities in pursuing that goal include building industry-relevant pipelines to respond to current demands and designing effective career pathways to meet future demands. CareerWise Colorado, with the youth apprenticeship infrastructure it has already built, will serve as a crucial partner in our success.”

Interested businesses can contact Longmont EDP director of strategy and collaboration Morgan Smith at 303-651-0128.