The ASME Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, has been awarded a $3.975 million four-year grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to develop and implement a national apprenticeship program in mechanical engineering technology. The ASME Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) will provide additional education and training for 270 community college engineering graduates and place them into entry-level engineering technician positions. The grant period runs from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2028. The first training cohort is scheduled to begin in April 2025; applications will open in January 2025.

The DOL’s Apprenticeship Building America grants, announced July 11, “will help build the skilled, diverse workforce needed to support President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, including the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the CHIPS and Science Act, and reach communities across the country through 52 grantees located in 32 states.”

"This milestone grant addresses the critical shortage of skilled technical workers that puts our national economy at a disadvantage for innovation and progress," said Stephanie Viola, executive director of the ASME Foundation and managing director of ASME Philanthropy. "Apprenticeships are a proven pathway to well-paying technical jobs for diverse community college students and will help close the engineering employment and equity gap, boost economic competitiveness, and significantly advance global sustainability." 

ASME will collaborate with Stevens Institute of Technology, the National Institute for Industry and Career Advancement (formerly the National Institute of Innovation and Technology), and SimInsights to launch the program. The ASME RAP will engage community colleges, employers, and local workforce boards to assist individuals who have completed associate degrees but still lack critical skills to bridge their skills gaps. The program will ultimately lead participants to a role as a mechanical engineering technologist or technician. ASME will initially develop the RAP for job roles in manufacturing and advanced manufacturing. Over the course of the grant period, ASME will expand the RAP for roles in clean energy, supply chains, semiconductors, and nanotechnology.           

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than three million technical jobs are currently unfilled in the United States, including approximately 3,700 job openings for mechanical engineering technicians projected each year with an average starting salary of $60,000. Contributing to the employment gap is a severe equity gap, with women representing only nine percent of U.S. mechanical engineers and members of BIPOC communities only 11 percent. The ASME Foundation’s philanthropic programs in engineering education, career resources, and innovation support aim to correct these inequities by empowering more people from underrepresented groups to pursue technical careers.  

Using a “Learn While You Earn” approach, the ASME program will contribute to the development of a skilled, retainable, and sustainable workforce and includes strategies to address diversity, equity, and inclusion. The program will consist of 144 hours of related training instruction for participants who have completed a two-year degree in engineering or a closely related field of study. The instruction will be provided by Stevens Institution of Technology, accredited by The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), and will include a combination of augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) instruction developed through SimInsights. The instruction will be followed by at least 2,000 hours of on-the-job learning with workforce partners. The National Institute for Industry and Career Advancement is responsible for deploying a strategy to build the talent pipeline to support strategic industry sectors and is the nation’s leader in semiconductor talent pipeline development. The $3,975,420 Federal grant will finance 85% of the cost of the ASME program and 15% or approximately $600,000 will be financed by non-governmental sources.  

The ASME Registered Apprenticeship Program is an extension of ASME’s Community College Engineering Pathways program, which connects community college and career technical education (CTE) students to opportunities for specialized training, internships, apprenticeships, and jobs. At the same time, it provides resources to community colleges to expand their employer networks and align curricula to the needs of local and national employers. A companion program, HBCU Engineering Pathways, helps engineering students at historically Black colleges and universities expand their professional networks, participate in ASME student sections and activities, and connects employers to graduates of HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions. 

For more information, visit www.asmefoundation.org and www.asme.org.