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WTIA Honors First Apprenti Cohort

This month marked the beginning of 41 promising tech careers.

On May 5th, the first cohort of apprentices in the Apprenti™ program gathered at the World Trade Center, where they were honored by Governor Jay Inslee with a pinning ceremony. The invite-only event was a celebration of this first wave of the hundreds of Washington apprentices that will start work over the next few years. Governor Inslee declared the week of May 1-5 Registered Technology Apprenticeship Week.

Apprenti is the only technology industry apprenticeship program registered with the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries and also the US Department of Labor. The program focuses on recruiting under-represented groups including women, people of color, and veterans. Apprenti helps bridge the skills and diversity gap while also providing urgently needed talent to the state’s high-wage tech sector.

Each apprentice receives up to five months of technical training and then a one-year paid apprenticeship with a mentor and additional training provided by WTIA member companies. The first cohort of apprentices will be working in technology jobs at Amazon, Microsoft, Avvo, Comtech, F5 and Silicon Mechanics. The jobs for this cohort include web developer, software developer, network security administrator, Windows system administrator, Linux system administrator, cloud support associate, and IT support professional.

These 41 apprentices are pioneering a bright and more egalitarian future for the Washington tech industry. We can’t wait to see where each of them ends up.

Author

  • Ellen O’Brien

    Ellen O’Brien is Apprenti’s Program Admin. Prior to working at Apprenti, she gained experience at other non-profits as well as providing administrative support in a variety of other industries. She is glad to be part of a team working to help people advance their careers. Ellen has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Washington Bothell. When not at work she enjoys volunteering, traveling, experimenting with new recipes, and spending time with her three cats and her husband.

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