Can I Sign Montana Banking Work Order

Can i industry sign banking montana work order

it's noon perfect all right good afternoon everybody i'd like to welcome you to uh dli's employer town hall today thank you for joining us these town halls are something that we started probably near the end of march beginning of april in an effort to address questions that were coming at us from employers and employees alike related to the pandemic and covid and impacts that everyone was feeling and they turned out to be a really great forum for us to be able to reach out and address the needs of employers across the state so we have branched out beyond topics related strictly to covet or the pandemic and today is one of those days and one of those topics um that i'm really pleased to bring you today and to visit and share the information about how registered apprenticeship can work um for our employers across the state but also employees who are interested into learning more about all of the details of that program so before we kick that off just some logistics and housekeeping for all of you this is recorded we will be placing it on our website uh i know rebecca is in the background and she will put that on our on the chat box for you so you can see where it will be placed so you can go back and reference it later we also have a chat box so if you have any questions as we are going through here feel free to throw them in the chat if we are not able to get to them today or don't have the answers we will we'll circle back around to make sure that you get that information and also place the information on our website for others who may have the same uh questions so with that um let's kick this off again we're talking about registered apprenticeship today this is something that has been kind of a tried and true tested method of transferring skills and knowledge and craftsmanship from one generation to the next but our our registered apprenticeship program here at dli does really good work and has been really creative in branching out into other industries and reaching more and more people um as more and more people learn what the the benefits of this is and how easy it is actually to implement it and make it work so we've got some really great panelists with us here today i'm going to allow them to introduce themselves i want to thank them for joining us mark i'll start with you if you would like to introduce yourself and tell everyone a little bit about what makes you an expert we'll have everyone introduce themselves and then we'll kick into questions so mark we'll start with you all right kathleen well thank you very much uh my name is mark wilrows and um i've been with the registered apprenticeship program for just about five years right now and it's been a been a very exciting time to be part of the apprenticeship program i've had the opportunity to be involved with uh design implementation and assisting business in setting up registered apprenticeship programs um which we've seen quite a bit of growth and stuff like that which we'll get into here in a little bit but um thank you very much and i'm excited to be here all right awesome thanks so much mark christie would you like to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what your world looks like yes thank you i'm christy ferguson with beyond the box out of billings and we're a kitchen and bath showroom with a kitchen and bath design team so basically we help people with new construction or remodels with the biggest investment of their lives so nice awesome christie can you just give us a a brief overview of how you have used apprenticeships um the apprenticeship program has really helped with our workforce there's just a lacking and qualified personnel and so being able to have a clear-cut training program has really helped us add to our staff we just have grown for our second apprentice over the last three years that's very helpful nice awesome thank you all right miles hickman now what can you tell us about yourself and how you have used the apprenticeship program oh i can expound on that a little bit i'm uh miles hickman i'm from eureka montana i own the pit stop quick lube we're uh basically a pit stop we do auto repair and flash repair glass replacement and if any of you know eureka it's a pretty small town there's not a whole lot of people to to choose for your workforce so you pretty much have to train them and this is an excellent opportunity for me to do that we've been uh working with program for since may uh and so far it's done really well my guys are happy with it and i'm happy with it nice excellent thank you for joining us today miles all right james last but certainly not least what can you tell us about your world and also how you use uh apprenticeships you kathleen i'm james lane vice president of those body shop um well you know kind of like miles in our small valley having the qualified technicians for the collision repair industry is hard to come by um and and even just management staff so we've uh over the last five years we've been able to train over half of our our employees between management and technicians and then we started the apprenticeship program just about two years ago now and it's it's really been it's really been great for us um of being able to develop and uh train the skill sets needed for our technicians and we currently have uh two two uh apprentices enrolled in the apprenticeship program and and where you know two years ago they were making fourteen dollars an hour and now they're working their way up to making 28 an hour so it's it's really been rewarding to uh you know build their skill sets and train them where it's hard for us to have the resources to hire the uh the trained um technicians to do the work but it's been it's been really uh rewarding for all of us in the company and the employee the technician hey thank you so much james all right mark do you want to kick us off a little bit and just kind of give us a rundown an overview of the program what it is you guys do here at dli and give us some stats and data as well sure so thank you um so first of all what do we do here at dli for a registered apprenticeship program well we um are a red the program is located throughout the state of montana so first and foremost it's not gonna matter where your business lives or where you live we have um field staff located throughout the state and our primary um thing that we're tasked with is to work with business um if there's interest to start a registered apprenticeship program and so that's that's exactly where a registered apprenticeship program starts with it starts with an employer and we call that employer in our world a sponsor so they're a sponsor of an apprenticeship and that's the only way an apprenticeship can start it can't start with an individual job seeking or anything like that so the first thing that we do is we work with uh different employers who are looking to um figure out a way uh kind of a different way to go about training um how to find skilled workers and getting people up and going in their um in their business so the the actual um apprenticeship uh sponsor which is shown right here in this illustration it's just an example of clyde's construction is we have three different sponsors on the phone with christy miles and james and those are the employers um and that's who the program staff throughout the state would work with to set up the apprenticeship program um as kathleen said keep keep apprenticeship simple it's it's not a complicated um thing to do essentially is what you're doing is you're you're developing a formalized training program that will operate within your business to help get people skilled up to where they need to be to obviously uh help your business um be more efficient so the first one of the first steps is is once we start working with an employer is they would identify an occupation that they're perhaps having trouble filling or they can't find someone who has that unique skill set already and um one of those as you can see in this example there's electrical plumbing and carpenter as potential occupations for clyde's constructions so once the occupation of the business has been identified um we will work alongside the business to um kind of put the different components of the apprenticeship together which is um the related coursework that would go with learning what that occupation is as well as the on-the-job learning steps all the different in uh unique different um tasks that an individual would need to um to learn to become proficient at that job and it's it's fairly simple it's as simple as that and then after that we sprinkle in there is a wage schedule uh with the apprenticeship program where as an individual who's working for someone takes different coursework and as that individual works through some of their different on-the-job learning tasks they will work up towards um an increased wage so um so once the apprenticeship program once we kind of identified a business and once once we have an apprenticeship program up and running um this this kind of does a few different things uh for the business that we've kind of heard throughout the years um some of the benefits to the business so if you have a training program that is formally developed and running within your business that would take somebody who let's say off the street has never worked on a car before has no idea about kitchen and bath and then over here on this side if we were to take that individual and skill them up to say here is someone who is fully proficient at that actual job so that is essentially what the apprenticeship program will do for the apprentice it'll bring somebody in who has who is not skilled in that position and it'll bring them to a fully skilled position and it's what that has done um that we've seen over time is it has um allowed the employers to kind of throw a different uh net when they put out jobs so if you're having a hard time finding someone with skills to fill a position within your business if you considered a registered apprenticeship program working with some of our staff throughout the state to set up a custom program for you that will take somebody with um who doesn't have those skills to full skills then when you do your job description and when you put that job out um on the internet to to get candidates to hire someone um you no longer have to put in your job description that you're looking for someone with um i need someone who's you know changed out an alternator someone who knows how to paint a hood someone who has some plumbing experience to do some work in the kitchen or the bathroom um because you're gonna train that individual and once that is when you send out that job description since you're training that individual since your mindset is kind of changing instead of going out and kind of searching for those skills you're going to provide the skills and the training so then that will allow you to maybe focus on some of the soft skills and get a totally different pool of candidates that could potentially work for your business so as an actual individual as an uh the the actual employee of the business is the actual apprentice um who would be hired for into an apprenticeship program that individual will then work through the related instruction and they would work through the on-the-job learning tasks and then that individual at the end of an apprenticeship program they would receive a nationally recognized credential in that occupation that they chose and we have um we have statistics to show that that's gone a long ways to really uh increase retention um with an individual in an apprenticeship program because of the of what you're offering that individual so rebecca i think we can jump slides here all right so obviously the state of montana total sponsor since 2000 as you can see that um we've worked with apprenticeship um sponsors employer partners throughout the state of montana obviously in western montana where some of our larger cities are located we've had more sponsors than others we can go ahead and move along rebecca so mark when you're looking at that i think the point is we want to get out to employers again as that regardless of where you are located in the state this is a program that can benefit you right right okay thank you yeah keep going rebecca all right projected annual demand a principal versus already apprenticed in montana this is a statistic that our economists uh were able to put together for us one of the facts so currently in the state of montana if you were to take all of the different occupations that currently exist in the states all of our jobs around 30 of them that are apprenticeable um currently have an apprenticeship program up and running in them and then um 70 of those occupations that are out that could that could utilize an apprenticeship program currently are not um so is what this is showing us is that the the demand for what an app for an apprenticeship is certainly going to be going up into these occupations right i would add that the demand is going up regardless of its apprenticeship bill or not what's nice about this program is because of the support you receive from the employers and also from the state with on-the-job training and the coursework the retention level is incredibly high for these individuals that enter this program which benefits the employer in the in the long run um uh for lack of you know they don't have to go over the through the turnover and things like that so um uh this is certainly the way to go i think for anyone who is looking for changing job markets or for employers who are looking to pull from a different pool right and i and from the um employees from the apprentices perspective when you go to work for a business and on your first day you're kind of you're presented with here's here's everything that we're kind of looking for you to learn here's the related coursework that we would like you to take uh throughout over time over a year or two to learn and to skill you up and here are the different wage increments we're gonna give you um that changes the your employees mindset your apprentice's mindset is going to go from job to wait a minute this is a career i'm going to get a nationally recognized credential i can see that i'm being skilled up and i'm learning um a skill so that individual's buy-in to your business is increased which is the employee's side of the retention so perfect thanks mark we have one more slide rebecca um i put up a couple we we collectively chose a couple of uh kind of some of the highlights over the last couple of years that you know apprenticeships contribute to the economic success of montana's you can see right there it's 11 600 higher than the statewide average so apprenticeship programs installed in businesses go a long ways to create a really good high paying job for montana the second bullet point is all about retention helping retain skilled workers a few years ago in apprenticeship as most of you may know it's kind of got um the trades kind of foundation or background to it where that's where apprenticeship started right is it kind of started more in the trades however over time as businesses has become more customized and they've needed more skilled workers apprenticeship has really made sense to be considered in different occupations and that's what this third highlight talks to is that 82 different unique occupations we have three on the phone you have master brewer you have cna lpn medical coders uh we have paralegals so there's just a whole plethora of occupations which um i'll list my our website um on this which you can check out later um the next the next bullet point or one of the other highlights um it's 77 of the candidates who are apprenticing for businesses throughout the state of montana are between 16 and 34. so the word apprenticeship is no longer or it's let's say it's trending away from kind of like what's that secret word what's it mean whereas over time we've really seen people have it is the word apprenticeship is just becoming more mainstream then the last point kathleen that's probably our best and most awesome point um is our growth in apprenticeships where we've been uh adding women into our apprenticeship programs um four percent of apprentices and wenty percent to almost 22 in 2019 and i anticipate that to continue to go up so yeah i love that stat i love all of these stats but i really like that last one down there thanks mark i'm going to kick this over to our panelists to hear just a little bit about their stories on how this has been successful for them christie probably go to you first just alphabetically um can you talk about maybe what has been the biggest surprise for you working with the apprenticeship program um when i first heard about the apprenticeship program it was through the homebuilders association here in billings and they were talking about it more specifically for the trades and we didn't know that we were going to fit into that so being able to have glenn was our guy he was absolutely awesome when he reached out we were on a list for a long time but when he did he made it so easy to actually build the program and then to get it through into the registered apprenticeship so that was literally the biggest surprise that it was easier than i thought it would be and the support that he gave us throughout it anytime we needed anything he was johnny on the spot for answering questions and then also just really from the employer standpoint very supportive of like no you need to give them the homework they need to be taking that home on the job they need on-the-job training and they've got to go home and do their work so that was refreshing nice excellent thank you miles what about you you're just kicking this program off so do you want to tell us about just what it's been like for you the last couple months sure so far been fairly simple there was a little a little bit of learning curve on setting up the tracking for the apprentices and and uh for the ojt mostly but other than that was really easy it was really nice there's a lot of grant programs that are available for uh schooling and everything that made it a lot easier it just it's been a really good thing for me so far i really enjoy it excellent thank you james what about you what's been a surprise for you in working with the apprenticeship program uh the surprise for us was how easy it was to work with our representative terry and develop the program they had a four-year program and but nobody would in in my in the collision repair industry was utilizing it and just to be able to condense that down to a two-year program and implement the coursework that our industry uses which is uh icar just the the simplicity of it it was very easy and that easier than we thought it was going to be to be able to put it together and put it in place and get people enrolled on it nice thank you james i can each of you just kind of explain what you have your apprentice doing miles i'll start with you and then james and christy on a day-to-day basis or yeah what is it that they're they're doing for your business or what are they learning well i've got two uh technicians in the program at the moment one of them is a lube tech and the other is my lead tech for for auto repair and they're both taking courses through pen and foster uh online courses and then i'm a master certified mechanic and i supervise their ojt and they just whatever comes through the door is what we do we really don't have any control over you know what's going to break that day but they could be doing anything from water pumps to windshields to just changing oil and it all counts towards zero jt some thanks miles james what what do you have your apprentices working on when they when they first come in and start on the apprenticeship program uh we start them off at you know just the basics of taking a car apart and organization with the hardware and everything like that um personal safety and uh items like that and then they have um coursework with icar that follow uh those specific skill sets as well and um and then they just they go through it's an eight course or eight quarter um long course and so each quarter we once that time has come up we go back and reevaluate um their skill sets and talk with their mentor um and make sure that they've developed those uh specific skill sets for whatever quarter they're in confirmed that they've completed the coursework and we also look at efficiency we we kind of look at how many hours that they're actually working on a car to how many hours they they've you know been at the shop to make sure that uh you know they're developing in the right direction so currently my two apprentices that we have on the uh apprenticeship program um they i've got one that's uh on quarter number seven so he's only got one more quarter to go and then he graduates from the program so it's you know there's just different uh skill sets that are required for each quarter and it just steps them up a little bit more each quarter on what they need to be able to know how to do to repair a vehicle properly and safely and and then also following the uh the coursework uh provided by icar thank you james christie what about you what is your apprentice doing for you um we pair our apprentice up with a experienced designer and basically they they follow them around for the two years so they become their assistants so that starts out with learning to read a tape measure learning commitment job site going on a cabinet delivery going on a cabinetry install the countertop install of course the design process where they're learning to make sure all the doors in the drawers that your cabinetry open the colors all work together uh the cad program that's always a big one because everyone loves it and computers so learning that aspect of it and then the customer service relationship part because how you communicate with your client is so important we tend to in the trades talk in the way that we understand things which doesn't always mean our client does so teaching them that is a very valuable aspect and then they do their book work their national kitchen and bath association book work at home awesome thank you so all three of you kind of touched on the coursework a little bit mark i'm gonna flip to you and have you talk about what exactly is the coursework component for this and how does the industry recognize credential come into play okay um so one of the just one of the basic three components to an apprenticeship program uh is the coursework it is or it is a requirement um there there has to be it can be industry um vendor uh community college local community college um it can be icar so the coursework is what that is that's kind of the meat on the bone so that's the the why that's the science behind what what they're doing so it is a requirement of an apprenticeship program um and we do need to have every single year there does need there needs to be some coursework involved and as registered apprenticeship field staff that are located throughout the state that's what we do we assist you in finding that perfect thank you uh to our panelists i'm going to ask each one of you christy you alluded to it and james i think as well what is the industry recognized credential that they will end up with when they are finished with your with the apprentice with your business so the national kitchen and bath association requires a two years of experience in the industry and that can be schooling or on the job experience to end up being an associate kitchen and bath designer so then they get some additional credentials along the way like certified living in place professional and those are the two that we use nice excellent and how where is the coursework coming from for your apprentice national kitchen and bath association okay okay thank you what about you miles what is the industry recognized credential well actually we have two programs that we're using we're using the same as james's we're using icar and ase so at the end of the program both of my texts will be certified master text through ase and they'll also have icar certifications and other areas that we do like glass repair glass replacement nice excellent james did you want to add anything to that um yeah just uh with the coursework that we use of icar each time they complete an icar class which is an online course sometimes they're a live video courses once they complete those they do get a certificate that they've completed that and then once they have a certain number of credits of icar classes for their specific skill sets as they go through the program they do they have you know an icar gold and then they get more credits and then they can become like our platinum and so at the end of the program they they do become icar platinum to where they've completed all the icar courses and there's really no uh you know like ase certification in our in in our side of the collision repair industry it just comes down to having the continued knowledge and continued training through icar perfect thank you can each of you kind of touch on a little bit of what the benefits are of allowing an employee to do on-the-job training but also being cognizant of the fact that they are are doing book learning or course work off-site miles do you want to touch on that at all um well i i usually give my guys a couple hours a week to do their online courses at the shop i provide them with laptops and and the ability to do their online training um so far they're doing really well with it so i think it gives them a benefit of actually learning more than just auto repair because it does touch on other things so they'll end up with a bachelor's degree when they get done with it oh nice nice christie what about you um well that's an interesting question so we have had one apprentice graduate then we hired a graduate from the interior design program out of bozeman and definitely the amount of training between the two and the capabilities are night and day i don't want to knock on formal education at all but having that on-the-job training it makes all the difference in the world they just really can our job is to make the next guy's job easier so how we design a kitchen really makes a big difference for the countertop installer and the contractor and it's i would choose an apprenticeship program every time our our subcontractors that we work with appreciate that we send our team out to to install cabinets because there's just less mistakes in the end perfect thank you that's a really good point i i think one of the the leading benefits of this program is the fact that employers really do get what they need um and have a hands-on approach from the very beginning and making sure that that the end result for is what they is what they need for their business but their employees also gaining from that as well james did you want to touch on that at all um what was the question again uh how does the course work um and the on-the-job training component work for you do they do coursework on-site or is that something you allot time for or is that after work hours how does that work it's uh since they you know they've got a a three-month uh time period to complete the coursework um they they each in each employee that we have in the company has their own login credentials to the icar website so they do have the opportunity to complete those on their own time at home on the weekends but we do offer for them if they need or want they can use one of our computers here in the office or one of our laptops to work on their coursework it's it is kind of hard to have them do that during the work day because right now we're in our busy our busy season and so pulling them out of the off the line and out of the shop into the office to work on that type of stuff it does get a little bit difficult but sometimes we do have to do that but typically it's it's on their own and it's been working really good they usually get it done in uh in no time way before the uh the quarter is up perfect james and i'm going to go back a little bit to something you mentioned earlier that i'd like to touch on that initially the program when you were researching it was a four-year program and you thought that the two-year would work better can you talk a little bit about how that process worked and then how you were able actually to change it to the two-year yeah the when we were looking at it the outline of of what the apprenticeship program initially was with the four-year program it just didn't really kind of fit in with the way our industry has advanced nowadays and to have a four-year program we kind of wanted we kind of needed to scale that down and develop skilled technicians quicker so we we kind of me and the owner dusty we kind of brainstormed with um uh our representative terry and told him what we were looking for and what we needed and he kind of asked the question of you know well what do you guys do for continued training with your technicians and that's where we started talking about icar and we all felt that was going to be the best route that way we can get the icar training and certifications in there that our industry requires and um use that in the in the coursework as well to kind of you know that saying it kill two birds with one stone perfect perfect so i'm just going to go to each one of you and have you kind of touch on just from the the time you started working seriously with someone in the apprenticeship program um to when you were able to gain a little benefit timeline wise i'm interested to find out how cumbersome that that process was or how easy it was and then when were you able to to get someone in and start using the program miles i'll start with you and then go to james and christy well i've been working with programs since may so i really don't have that much time involved in it yet but i was always hesitant to start the program because i figured it would take a long time and during the the covid thing we had a lot of down time at the beginning of it so i thought that was a good opportunity to get this off and running and my guys were pretty enthusiastic about it so i really haven't seen any benefit yet that's all in the future you know the benefit for myself and my employees i can give my customers uh the peace of mind knowing that i have trained employees and you know i'm able to pay my employees more they have the knowledge to to do the job that i need them to do so it's a good benefit for me i believe all right excellent thanks so much miles james what about you i'm setting up the program was it cumbersome easy what are your thoughts on that um it was easy um it didn't it didn't take that long to do um and then once we had you know once we had the program all set up um presenting it to um uh a few of our employees that we have and they were they were really excited about it being able to develop develop those specific skill sets and get the get the training that they need to move forward in this industry to develop a career you know because right now it's just the the demands of the consumer is getting more complex and it's it's making it harder and harder to to hire people and when you do higher you still need to train um and then being able to train our staff here you know you're always training but now we've got the ability to have a road map for that training and uh track the records um and you know where where they came from to where they're at now with specific skill sets it's it's great for the company and because we were developing uh great employees in uh great [Music] quality of work and the specific skills and they're they're developing a career and to where they are going to be a stand-alone technician and even if they leave here we do give them a binder that we keep track of all the stuff in to act as kind of like a portfolio for them and uh to so that way they can look back and see where they started and where they're at now nice nice christy you touched on this a little bit earlier about how easy the process was did you want to add anything to that i think the only thing i'd add in is once we got the person started it took about a year and they were able to really just step up and we didn't have to manage them quite so much because that training program was so streamlined nice nice so yeah you talk about the streamline program chris i'm gonna go back to you and then we'll hit james and miles but um what are your future plans for using apprent ceship would you change anything from what you're doing now do you plan to continue using it uh christy you and then miles and james we will definitely continue to use it like i said we've had the one graduate we have our second apprentice starting we'd actually like to start an apprentice program on the shop side of our company so for those cabinetry installs just because again there's a lack in the qualified workforce and where do people where are they supposed to get trained there's not a college program for that so yes most definitely we'll continue to use it all right excellent miles i know you're just stepping into this is there anything you would change or or um view differently going forward based on the few months that you've been in the program well actually yes we've uh we're going to add a youth component to it oh nice we're going to try to get some kids from the high school to come over you know start out sweeping the floors and and there's our the state of montana has programs that will pay part of their wages and and all that so they're going to work for me for six months and then if they're still interested if they develop an interest in the mechanic program then the apprentice program is available for them as well all right perfect excellent that's exciting james what about you um no i don't think we have any plans to change anything with the program um we feel like it's uh it's being very it's very successful for us right now um i've watched these uh two technicians that are on the program or apprentices that are on the program they are currently developing into being [Music] very well skilled technicians and we also use it as a guideline for uh you know employees that haven't enrolled in the program so we kind of use it as a guide and uh they're you know they're being they're developing the skills and the knowledge and growing we are we are wanting to hopefully in 2021 develop a program for our paint uh side of the industry uh to be to develop and train paint technicians as well so that's something that we're looking forward to working on and try to develop and come up with a program for that excellent i love that mark i'm going to pivot to you for a couple questions here um there's a couple questions in the chat box one related to age is there an age limit for apprenticeships when we're talking about youth uh to be in the registered apprenticeship program um for most occupations you do need to be 16 years old okay okay perfect also um do you want to touch on some of the other areas that we're going into that are maybe a little bit non-traditional when we think about apprenticeships there is a question in the chat box about um specialty office apprenticeships such as i.t or accounting and do you want to dive into that a little bit yeah um the uniqueness of the three of the three that we have with us today christy myles and james is the same uniqueness that we can offer throughout the state of montana so the occupations and as we kind of move towards um just a more diversified um economy with everything there's going to be a lot of these little unique uh different types of jobs i.t accounting we do have um we have a couple of different it programs that aren't even closely um remotely related to each other but that's that really just kind of explains or describes kind of the business environment that exists so um we do have accounting programs uh the apprenticeship program our job is as staff is to work with the business to help you develop your program so the occupation itself um in the mass majority of cases we we can make it an apprenticeship we can we can apprenticize that so um that's just kind of what we do um yes we do have i.t and accounting apprenticeships currently so i think the message for employers out there is if they are interested at all to get a hold of your program correct mark and you can dive in to find out what exactly it is they're looking for and then you kind of custom design what it is so it fits their need is is that correct that is correct all right perfect thank you i want to ask you a little bit miles talked about this mark can you talk a little bit about the cost of this program and maybe also some of the resources we have available to employers as they move through the apprenticeship program uh yeah so um there there is no cost to starting a registered apprenticeship program we will that that is our job is that we uh we'll work with you um to do that um what was the second part of that kathleen oh resources okay yeah there's um well first off let's start with the tax credit that's right on the website um all apprentice all apprentices who are part of the program the the sponsor which is the employer again um not the apprentice it would be the one who's eligible for the tax credit um that's 750 um per apprentice and if that apprentice happens to be a veteran um then that apprentice um is up to fifteen hundred dollars per year that the apprentice is in the program so if they're in three years for three years you better do that um and then we also have a different program here at the department of labor called incumbent worker training iwt there's a little bit of criteria on that which i won't go into the detail with but they can provide uh training dollars to help and assist that um help and assist with the cost so i guess the at the initial there's no cost to start an apprenticeship program with the state but the related technical instruction the icar uh the kitchen and bath association coursework or the you know any sort of college coursework um that needs to that that that's a cost of training which would be um that's something the state doesn't get into the middle of too much um we we can help you navigate um figuring out who's gonna pay for the cost but we've had a lot of situations where the apprentice pays for it up front and then they're reimbursed or sometimes the business just picks up that cost because it's a cost of being in business um so that that would basically be it as a related technical instruction and then um there are the incumbent worker training program here at the department perfect so really we can get pretty creative depending on the situation and the needs of both the apprentice and the employer uh you know whatever it is that they are looking for i so we have talked a little bit uh about james i think you touched on how you're tracking the hours so i think i'll go to you first and then christine miles can we talk a little bit about um is is the paperwork or the tracking component the requirements for you as an employer or sponsor is it cumbersome what does it look like is it time intensive james christian and miles no it's not really that time consuming um the the apprentice is supposed to is already keeping track of uh the time spent on each car um which is you know has a has an ro number that's how we track the vehicle through our computer system and then they they turn that in um during every pay period every payroll so we just we just keep that and then when the quarters up we take a look at that and each quarter um we've we've came up with um our our thoughts on efficiency of you know well you know 25 percent efficiency 50 efficiency and it just increases um through each quarter so we can just kind of balance that with how much time you spent on a vehicle um total hours based on how many hours clocked in uh being here at uh uh on the clock at that at the shop all right perfect christy do you want to touch on that we're pretty similar to that we obviously we use our t-sheets for normal tracking of everybody's hours that's on the job and then we use an excel spreadsheet for the homework log and every time they do any homework they just pencil it in there say what they did and it calculates their hours out i do want to just touch it briefly um we were actually able to get the uh apprenticeship grant which was a surprise for the program too so mark didn't touch on that but that was really helpful for us and some of the certification processes and our additional um education that we use oh perfect thank you christy for mentioning that miles did you want to talk a little bit about the tracking component have you dived into that too much yeah we developed an excel spreadsheet using some examples that terry provided for us and uh the college courses as they finish it they obviously give us their grades and uh we can track their hours through that and like christy said with the grants we're actually we have two different grants one for each uh technician one we have the incumbent worker grant for one guy that's been working for me for a while and then we have the apprenticeship grant uh for the other individuals working for me so both of them are are covered in different ways and i'm really looking forward to that tax credit at the end of the year as well perfect thank you miles all right next question for the three of you what advice would you give to an employer or a business who might be struggling to fill a specific role and how apprenticeship would would maybe be their answer miles i'll start with you and then christy and then james well when you're looking for an apprentice you want you want to find somebody that has an interest and wants to do the job that that's a struggle lately um you know i would have them do a uh a period of time they're working for you and make sure that they're interested and they're just not doing the job because grappa wants them to or or whatever it's they have to be have an interest in what they're doing and once you've established that they're willing to do just about anything to learn the job and this is an avenue for them to learn it and it's very effective and i'm i'm enjoying the program so far all right perfect i think i said christy next on that question what advice would you give to a business that may be struggling to find the the right fit in a trained employee i mean miles definitely said it the ability to hire based on character and personality versus just technical skills is awesome i would just say like just jump in and do it like it's not as hard as it seems it's just a matter of following through to the end and then you can put that out there and you can kind of see what happens i know with our apprentice the first one she thought our ad was fake and was like this is too good to be true there's no way they're going to take me i have no experience just very entry level skill sets and i mean it's crazy because now she's she cries about it when she tells the story about how she's now getting her she's about to test for her certification it's just really neat to see that uh personal growth as well so just just do it that's my advice all right thanks christy james what about you what about someone who might be considering using apprenticeship what would your advice be to a business that hasn't tried the program before well you know sound like a broken record here but uh it's it come it comes down to the personality um and like miles said uh you know and see testing and you know put them on the line and and making sure that you know they're gonna it's gonna be a good fit for them uh you know they've got to have uh you know in the automotive side of it they've got a they've got to have some mechanical uh inclination on you know how you know what this is and what that is and how to use it um but uh you know they've got to have the personality they got to have the drive they've got to want it and um you know so if if you've got that type of personality i agree um it's a great way to develop and grow employees and you know it retains employees i think that's the biggest benefit that we see is in the last five years of all the people that we've uh trained from you know from the ground up at entry level up to you know clear up to where they're now in management has benefited our cust our company by retaining and just you know go for it do it it's actually a really simple program and you'll see the benefits uh you know once you once you get into it just a little time there on it you'll see the benefits perfect thank you yeah the retention factor is amazing and 84 of the apprentices have graduated before 2015 we're still working for that same employer five years later so certainly whatever investment you are making in that employee being able to retain them and allow them to grow with your business over time is is a benefit to everyone involved uh mark did you want to touch on the apprenticeship report that we just released we're getting close to an hour here so i want you to be able to to touch on that a little bit um one thing i i want to mention really quick christy is you and i i think all three of you uh talked about the apprenticeship grants um at one point in time we did have um some grant dollars available from the department of labor to assist in that uh that was a pool of money and we did uh exhaust that pool of money so that's that's just i just want folks to know that there is a it's a distinguish between that and um are you talking about kathleen the labor market index report the just the apprenticeship report that was just recently released or where would anyone go if they want some information mark about the apprenticeship program you would go to our website apprenticeship.mt.gov we've put a lot of work into the website as of recently and we're continuing to look at that and update that you're able to contact us on the website and then on the home page of it at the very bottom you scroll down to the very bottom we have an awesome um an infographic and you can pull up just your county you can pull up um there's this you can see who the other sponsors are the other employer partners of the apprentices you can look at the apprentices uh you can see all the different and unique occupations that you can look at as well as there's a contact us on there which will get you in touch with our staff and like i said we are located all across the state of montana and so we're local just like you thank you mark i think message to anyone that out is listening it if there is any position that you are having difficulty filling or retaining please reach out to the good folks here at the registered apprenticeship program they can really dive in and be creative and find something that works for you and i think part of why we have such a high retention rate after people graduate from the program is because everyone has to put something into it everyone has a little um skin in the game right you know the employee has to put some extra hours in for the coursework uh beyond the job training there's an investment from the employer on the front end so the program really does lend itself to success and the more that it is evolving the more we are able to reach into some really non-traditional roles and that you wouldn't normally define um as something that you would see an apprentice in so if you have any questions at all any difficulty filling a position i highly encourage you to take a look at this website mark's information is on the screen there give him a call or any of the good people that work with him as well we're getting close to an hour here i'm gonna just run through the panelists one more time to see if there's if there was one takeaway that you would want someone who is listening to this today um what you would want them to walk away with what would that be um let's see miles we will start with you all i can say is i i don't see a downside i would just jump right in with both feet and do it all right awesome christy what about you well now i'm the one that sounds like a broken record i'm gonna go ahead and agree with miles just go ahead just do it just get it done it's it feels good to you know give people that opportunity for growth as well and showing them that career path and the investment that they have in in your company is very awesome as well like it's just good all the way around all right thank you so much christy james what about you yeah i agree um it's just you gotta you gotta try it you gotta see you know the growth of the employee and not only that but it grows um it grows the the company as well um there's just i didn't i don't see any downside in it you you do recover uh your cost if you have any costs into it um you know you d get that in return so it's it's something it's something that uh we're really proud of doing and and uh we we're gonna continue to use it and uh you know hopefully develop even more programs in our company all right thank you so much james mark what about you any any parting thoughts from you words of wisdom you know it's easier than doing uh it's easier than doing your taxes and um don't listen to mark listen to the listen to the business owners who have actually installed this in their business and what they've done and think of the state as you just lean on us as your resource to help you build your customized registered apprenticeship program i like that lean on us we're all partners and trying to figure out how to make our economy grow here on montana so uh we are down to an hour here i just want to thank all of our panelists christy ferguson with beyond the box out of billings miles hickman with the pit quick lube out of eureka and james lane with o's body shop and kalispell thank you so much for joining us today and sharing an hour of your time uh to share the word and spread the the good news and um your experience with the apprenticeship program mark i want to thank you as well i it we really do make an attempt to make this as easy as possible for the employers around the state and i do think that it's a really viable option for people that are really struggling to fill positions uh we do have a workforce shortage even now in the pandemic there is still a workforce shortage uh so thank you again to the panelists i really do appreciate your time today uh for all of you that are listening please reach out we are happy to serve and provide any answers and help guide you along this path all right thanks everyone take care thank you