April 30, 2025
Contact: Melissa Villarin
Office: 916-327-5365
Office E-mail: MVillarin@CCCCO.edu
System’s commitment to apprenticeships to play driving force in Governor’s Master Plan for Career Education
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Momentum is carrying the California Community Colleges, the nation’s largest workforce development and training provider, toward a key milestone — 100,000 registered apprenticeships. This comes as the system’s 116 colleges, along with their partners across the state, celebrate National Apprenticeship Day today.
Apprenticeship programs offer cutting-edge, hands-on career training and classroom learning, paving the way for higher-wage, high-growth careers. The California Community Colleges is playing a crucial role in Gov. Newsom’s goal of training 500,000 apprentices by 2029 and in the newly released Master Plan for Career Education. To date, there are more than 96,000 registered apprentices in the system. This is about 20% of the goal, with four years still to go.
The Master Plan for Career Education offers a strategic framework for tackling the evolving challenges in California’s labor market and education. The California Community Colleges system will be instrumental in this by leveraging its statewide reach to align regional business needs with career education and workforce training. This regional approach will connect local employers directly to the talent pipelines that will fuel their future growth. While traditional pathways can still meet labor market needs, California’s community colleges will fill the gap through targeted workforce initiatives that make training more accessible, relevant, and responsive to real-world demands.
“Apprenticeships represent the gold standard for work-based learning — offering students the chance to gain real-world, hands-on experience while earning a paycheck. Expanding apprenticeship opportunities is a top priority for both the state and California Community Colleges’ Vision 2030. Through strong partnerships with employers, labor, and regional leaders, we are building scalable models that offer meaningful, paid training and clear pathways to upward economic mobility. We are setting a national example of what’s possible when education and industry come together to take care of students, communities, and our shared future,” said California Community Colleges Chancellor Sonya Christian.
Vision 2030 aims to create a workforce that thrives on innovation, inclusivity, and skills-based education. As California’s engine for social and economic mobility, and with colleges in many communities across the state, the California Community Colleges system is uniquely positioned to adapt to local and regional workforce needs and provide students with the skills needed for high-demand jobs in key industries such as healthcare, climate action, agriculture, technology, and artificial intelligence. One such program, a new apprenticeship at Foothill College, aims to increase the pipeline of skilled labor for the growing semiconductor manufacturing sector.
Merry Ramirez was part of the first cohort that graduated in December. After working for years to help her family, she decided to go back to school. When she found the Foothill College apprenticeship program, she knew she had to sign up.
“It’s a really good program and I think it’s very necessary right now. There’s such a focus on tech, and usually it’s on the programming and computer science of it all. I think there should be more focus on the practical, physical things that need to be done.”
Ramirez’s apprenticeship at Infinera, a telecommunications tech company, led to a permanent job with the company, and she hopes to keep learning in order to move up in the industry and land an engineering role.
California has more than 200 Career Education programs across the state and leads the United States in the number of apprentices and apprenticeship programs. For more information, and to read more student success stories, visit the Apprenticeship Programs page of the California Community Colleges website.
The California Community Colleges is the largest system of higher education in the nation, composed of 73 districts and 116 colleges serving 2.1 million students per year. California community colleges provide career education and workforce training; guaranteed transfer to four-year universities; and degree and certificate pathways. As the state’s engine for social and economic mobility, the California Community Colleges supports the Vision 2030, a strategic plan designed to improve student success, our communities and our planet. For more information, please visit the California Community Colleges website or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter).
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