BILL ANALYSIS
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|Hearing Date:April 27, 2009 |Bill No:SB |
| |725 |
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SENATE COMMITTEE ON BUSINESS, PROFESSIONS
AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod, Chair
Bill No: SB 725Author:Hancock
As Amended:April 14, 2009Fiscal: Yes
SUBJECT: Regional occupational centers or programs: California
Apprenticeship Preparation Program.
SUMMARY: Enacts the California Apprenticeship Preparation Program Act
of 2009 to authorize regional occupational centers or programs, upon
approval and certification by the Superintendent of Public
Instruction, to offer a California Apprenticeship Preparation Program
that meets specified criteria.
NOTE : This measure was heard in the Senate Education Committee on
April 1, 2009, and was passed out of that Committee by a vote of 6
to 0.
Existing law:
1)Creates various career technical education programs for public
schools including but not limited to regional occupational centers
and programs (ROC/P), partnership academies, adult education
programs and career technical education programs in secondary and
postsecondary institutions.
2)States legislative intent the ROC/Ps provide career technical and
occupational instruction so that students are adequately prepared
for employment in the area in which the training was provided or
have the required skill levels necessary for enrollment in advanced
training programs.
3)The Shelley-Maloney Apprentice Labor Standards Act of 1939
establishes the California Apprenticeship Council (CAC) and governs
apprenticeship programs in California.
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This bill:
1)Establishes California Apprenticeship Preparation Program Act of
2009.
2)Authorizes ROC/Ps, upon approval by the Superintendent of Public
Instruction, to offer California Apprenticeship Preparation Programs
(CAPP).
3)Requires the SPI to approve and certify an ROC/P as a CAPP if the
ROC/P does the following:
a) Offers state-approved sequence of courses.
b) Ensures that instructors have the appropriate designated
subjects career technical education credential issued by the
Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC).
c) Enters into at lease one memorandum of understanding (MOU)
with a local building trades and construction apprenticeship
program that has graduated at least one apprentice in the past
five years and has been certified by the Division of
Apprenticeship Standards (DAS), and requires the MOU to:
i) Outline the roles and responsibilities of the
apprenticeship program to provide occupational and academic
support that includes, but is not limited to, advisory
committee input, joint use of facilities and equipment and
guest lecturers.
ii) Ensure that pupils who complete the sequence of CAPP
courses will be given credit or preferential consideration
toward admission to an apprenticeship program, related and
supplemental instruction hours or credit for hours needed
toward successful completion of an apprenticeship program.
iii) Specify the criteria for granting preferential
consideration towards admission to a program approved by the
DAS and states that preferential consideration provided
pursuant to the MOU is not a violation of the Labor Code or CAC
regulations.
iv) Outline the criteria by which pupils who complete a CAPP
may be awarded a skills certificate, as specified.
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4)Requires MOUs with joint labor management apprenticeship programs to
include labor and management signatures.
5)Requires the California Department of Education to collaborate with
representatives from building trades and construction apprenticeship
training organizations and ROC/P faculty and curriculum coordinators
to develop curriculum covering all aspects of the building trades
and construction industry and requires the curriculum to do the
following:
a) Align the State Board of Education's approved career technical
education (CTE) model curriculum standards and building trades
industry standards agreed upon by building trades and
construction representatives, including standards adopted by the
CAC.
b) Begin the sequences of courses with an overview of all aspects
of the building and construction trades using the CAC Orientation
to Apprenticeship course curriculum as a resource and include an
overview of employee rights and responsibilities.
c) Structure subsequent courses so as to provide pupils
trade-specific instruction that offers them increased exposure to
specific trades and permits to be accomplished with projects that
involve all or most trades to allow pupils to concentrate on one
specific trade.
d) Requires each course to include either the cooperative CTE or
community instructional methodology pursuant to current law.
e) Requires CAPP outreach efforts to include a targeted effort to
include female students.
6)Specifies that any ROC/P that offers a CAPP program to comply with
existing law governing biennial program review requirements and
annual local school district assessment of 11th and 12th grade pupil
ROC/P participation rates.
7)Authorizes a ROC/P offering a CAPP to exceed its enrollment limit if
the local building trades and construction apprenticeship program
funds the instructional costs of pupils enrolled above the
enrollment limit.
8)Authorizes both labor-management and unilateral nonunion
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apprenticeship programs approved by the state to enter into an MOU
with an ROC/P.
FISCAL EFFECT: Unknown. The measure is keyed "fiscal" by Legislative
Counsel.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose. According to the Sponsor, the State Building and
Construction Trades Council of California (Building Trades) , this
legislation directly addresses the gap between record high school
dropout rates and need for highly skilled workers through awareness
of the construction industry and the high wage jobs it can provide
by creating access to new apprenticeship preparation programs. The
Building Trades also states this measure provides the framework and
guidance to ROC/PS and their Building traces partners to create and
strengthen relevant curriculum and a sequence of courses leading to
a certificate for students who demonstrate proficiency and
commitment to learning a craft.
2.Background. CDE 2006-07 data shows that, statewide, California has
a 67.6 percent high school graduation rate and 24.2 percent dropout
rate. Graduation and dropout rates vary among counties and the same
data illustrates the following dropout rate disparities among ethnic
groups:
Ethnicity Graduation Rate Dropout Rate
White 84.8% 15.2%
African American 58.4 41.6
American Indian 68.7 31.3
Asian 89.2 10.2
Filipino 88.1 11.9
Hispanic/Latino 69.7 30.3
Pacific Islander 72.1 27.9
Other CDE data on CTE indicates that the number of CTE classes
declined approximately 24 percent between 1997-98 and 2006-07.
Recent research by Kenneth C. Gray and Edwin L. Herr of
Pennsylvania State University indicates that while many high
school students matriculate to college, relatively few go on to
both earn a college degree and work in a job requiring a college
degree. Gray and Herr argue that providing a range of
educational coursework, including opportunities for contextual
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and applied learning and rigorous academics, creates more
alternatives for high school students and enables them to make
more informed choices about career pathways following high
school.
3.California Research Bureau's (CRB) Careers Project Report.
Earlier this year, the CRB released its Careers Project report which
examined the preparation all students in public- and middle-high
schools receive to explore career options and the relationship
between that preparation and California's state and regional
economies. The report was done at the request of a bipartisan group
of 11 members of the California Legislature and funding support from
the James Irvine Foundation. The study consisted of three distinct
phases - a statewide survey of middle- and high-school counselors
and principals, an economic analysis and survey of representatives
of business and industry in California and school focus groups.
The following are the findings relevant to this legislation:
There are limited resources available to all students in
grades 7 through 12 for career development.
Half of all respondents reported that their schools
offered a curriculum for career development, less than half had
developed such a curriculum, and about half had provided career
development to all students. This indicates that the provision
of career development information for all students regarding
the various careers and industries in the state is not a high
priority for school districts and schools.
Of the schools providing career development services, only
10 percent had evaluated the effectiveness of their career
development activities, programs or tools. Moreover, of the
schools that had engaged with local businesses, about a fifth
had evaluated the effectiveness of these partnerships.
Schools not providing career development to all students
or not engaging with entities in their local community (such as
community colleges, local businesses or other community
organizations) might provide it if they had more staff.
Principals and counselors concurred that students are
interested in receiving more career development information,
since this was the least cited reason for not providing career
development to all students.
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1.BP&ED Informational Hearing on Workforce Development. On March
23rd, the Committee on Business, Professions and Economic
Development held an informational hearing entitled "The Role of
Private Education Institutions in Preparing California's Diverse
Workforce: Meeting the Challenges of our Workforce and Job Training
Needs." The hearing examined the ability of private postsecondary
institutions to fill the career preparation needs of California's
workforce and evaluate policy options that allow them to expand
their workforce development programs with the requisite amount of
oversight required to protect students.
Automotive, biotech, construction, health and manufacturing industry
representatives were invited to participate in the hearing and they
offered testimony on their industries' difficulty in difficulty in
hiring qualified employees. They also provided the Committee with
information on workforce development programs in which they have
engaged to help address those workforce shortages. This information
provided the basis for one of the hearing's main findings;
specifically, that industries are facing shortages in hiring workers
with the minimum skills needed for entry into the field.
2.State Approved CTE Curriculum. The State Board of Education adopted
model curriculum standards for career technical education in May
2005 and adopted the curriculum frameworks for those standards in
January 2007. The standards are organized in 15 industry sectors of
interrelated occupations and broad industries. The standards also
identify 58 career pathways and the academic and technical courses
required for each pathway.
3.Regional Occupational Centers and Programs (ROC/Ps). ROC/Ps
provides students opportunities to attend CTE programs. ROC/P are
designed to provide a focused occupational training and typically
include more advanced capstone courses that students take during
grades 11 and 12 to prepare them for entry level jobs or transition
to postsecondary education, technical training, or apprenticeships.
This bill seeks to create specialized ROC/P programs that will
prepare pupils to enter postsecondary apprenticeship programs and to
provide guidance to schools seeking to develop apprenticeship
preparation programs.
4.Apprenticeship Programs. Apprenticeship programs are postsecondary
educational programs that prepare participants for specific
high-skill occupations; programs typically include theoretical
instruction and on-the-job training and last from one to six years,
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depending upon the trade. Most programs are about four years long.
Program completers earn a Certificate of Completion of
Apprenticeship from the Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS)
indicating the holder is prepared to serve at the journeyperson
level in the specified trade.
Apprenticeship training programs must be certified by the DAS and
operate in accordance with standards set by the CAC and state and
federal laws. Apprenticeship programs may be sponsored by joint
labor and management apprenticeship committees, unilateral union or
management committees or individual employers.
5.Related Legislation. AB 2515 (Hancock, 2008) would have authorized
(ROC/P), upon approval and certification by the Superintendent of
Public Instruction (SPI), to offer a Preparation for Apprenticeship
Program (PA program). This measure was held in the Assembly
Appropriations Committee and is substantially similar to SB 725.
AB 2448 (Hancock, Chapter 72006) 572, Statutes of 2008) phased out
the number of adults that can be served through ROC/Ps, implemented
several recommendations by the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) to
refocus ROCP services to high school students and ensure the courses
are part of occupational course sequences, and makes various
revisions to the operation and administration of ROC/Ps.
6.Arguments in Support. The California Federation of Teachers
(CFT) writes in support of SB 725 because it provides guidelines
for ROC/Ps to develop contracts with industry and trade
organizations for the development of coursework that is directly
related to the skills necessary for students to enter into
apprenticeships upon the completion of the skills certificate
program. They state that by providing structured collaboration
between schools, ROC/Ps, industry and trade organizations,
California will be able to provide a better education system in
this arena.
SUPPORT AND OPPOSITION:
Support:
State Building and Construction Trades Council of California
(Sponsor)
California Federation of Teachers
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Opposition:
None received as April 20, 2009
Consultant: Sieglinde Johnson