The Registered Apprenticeship Occupations and Standards Center of Excellence is a joint initiative of the Urban Institute and the US Department of Labor. It aims to help Registered Apprenticeship Programs by providing the resources apprenticeship sponsors need to design and enhance their programs.

Each apprenticeship sponsor is required to create training standards for its program. Sponsors may customize apprenticeships to their needs, but it can be difficult to know where to start.

To address this need, the Center of Excellence is creating a comprehensive collection of apprenticeship standards and National Occupational Frameworks in collaboration with the US Department of Labor, employers, and industry experts. Our goal is to connect sponsors with registration best practices and ultimately support the development of a sustainable, high-quality registered apprenticeship system.

With funding and support from the US Department of Labor, we have developed

• a library of thousands of approved apprenticeship standards from two dozen states;
• dozens of National Occupational Frameworks to help streamline the apprenticeship development and registration process for sponsors; and
• other resources to help sponsors, federal and state policymakers, and communities learn more about how to create and register gold-standard apprenticeship programs.

This site was funded by the US Department of Labor. We are grateful to them and to all our funders, who make it possible for Urban to advance its mission. The views expressed are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the Urban Institute, its trustees, or its funders. Funders do not determine research findings or the insights and recommendations of Urban experts. Further information on the Urban Institute’s funding principles is available at urban.org/fundingprinciples.