Longmont EDP, CareerWise Colorado partner on youth apprenticeship program

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.

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“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.