 So good morning on behalf of the partnership to advance youth apprenticeship It's my pleasure to welcome you all here this morning to the partnerships national meeting at Trident Technical College I am Taylor white, and I'm part of team PIA at New America By now you're probably familiar with the acronym that's been in your inboxes for the last six weeks But for anyone who hasn't yet deciphered it PIA is the partnership to advance youth apprenticeship And for those of you who have mastered the acronym, but don't aren't familiar with New America We are a civic enterprise with core expertise in research reporting and analysis across a wide range of disciplines Including both education and workforce development, which brings us here today as an organization We deploy this expertise to confront the challenges caused by rapid technological and social change And driven by the goal of American renewal. We work diligently to help communities seize the opportunity The opportunities those changes create We believe youth apprenticeship is a strategy for doing exactly that By connecting the learning needs of students with the talent needs of industry youth apprenticeship can be a strategy for building a more inclusive economy This belief is at the heart of PIA, and I suspect it's what has motivated many of you to join us here in Charleston this morning We're glad you're here Though New America leads PIA we rely on the support Expertise in collaboration of many partner organizations to fuel our activity We would not be here today were it not for the support of our funders the Annie E. Casey foundation the Balmer group Bloomberg Philanthropies JP Morgan chasing co the Joyce foundation and the Siemens foundation who jointly support the work of PIA I'd like to quickly recognize these folks We've got many of their staff in the room and to thank you for your support and your continued engagement Another group of organization that deserves our recognition this morning are the eight national partner organizations that make up the partnership Each of these organizations contributes unique expertise and experience to the partnership Many of you may already be part of the networks that they run Working cooperation with their staff to improve workforce and education outcomes in your communities if you are You're already well aware of the value they bring to this work, and if you are not familiar with these organizations I promise you will have a chance to meet their staff during tomorrow's breakout sessions if not before To our partners from advanced CTE career-wise Colorado the Charleston Regional Youth Apprenticeship Program Education Strategy Group JFF the national partners national partnership National Alliance for Partnerships and Equity the National Fund for Workforce Solution and the National Governors Association Thank you both for your collaboration and for your ongoing engagement in all things PIA I Would be remiss if I dot-dot give a very special thanks to the staff from Trident Tech Who in addition to operating? Who in addition to operating the Charleston Regional Youth Apprenticeship Program and serving as a PIA national partner are also our hosts today and tomorrow? Thank you for having us So now you have a sense of who we are. It's a big P in partnership. There's a lot of us We that's everybody and everyone who's behind that big capital P But I'd like to take a moment to help those of you who we've not yet met or worked closely with Understand the mission of the partnership and why it is we've brought you here today PIA is a multi partner multi-year initiative to support efforts in states and cities to expand access to high quality apprenticeship opportunities for high school age youth We believe youth apprenticeship can transform how the nation's education system prepares young people for careers and launches them successfully into adulthood And we understand that for the field of youth apprenticeship to meet its transformational potential We must strive for growth that is deliberate Purposeful and driven by a common understanding not just of what youth apprenticeship is But also how it works under what conditions where and for whom With that in mind PIA has three key objectives that guide our work as a partnership We strive to improve public understanding and awareness of the potential of youth apprenticeship We generate and share better information about what it takes to build Sustain and scale high-quality youth apprenticeship programs and the important partnerships that undergird them And finally we provide support to cities states and regions that are looking to develop and grow youth apprenticeship opportunities for young people These objectives guide the communications research and field-building work We in the PIA national partners endeavor to do over the next few years together Through our work and through opportunities like the national meeting that's brought us here together today PIA seeks to advance a shared sense of what youth apprenticeship is and how it must function to produce the transformational results young people in our communities deserve To that end in October the partnership released a definition for high-quality youth apprenticeship and a set of principles That set a high bar for quality in the field First the definition This definition may be familiar to many of you in the room, but it bears repeating nonetheless Youth apprenticeship programs are structured work-based learning programs that are designed to start when an apprentice is in high school High-quality youth apprenticeship programs include four key elements They provide paid on-the-job learning under the supervision of skilled employee mentors and They complement that learning with related classroom-based instruction at the same time Students learning is assessed on an ongoing basis Against established skills and competency standards and at the conclusion of high-quality programs students earn a portable industry-recognized credential and post-secondary credit We often hear that it is difficult to explain this concept to people unfamiliar with youth apprenticeship and its potential We believe that establishing this clear shared definition is an important first step But to help this definition come alive and to explain how it works in practice We're happy to share with you this morning a one-page infographic that you can find in your folders Looks like this So you are the first people to see this document So we are very happy to share it with you and I will get yelled at if I don't tell you to take pictures of it and Tweet it and hashtag it Paya an easy one to remember, but it is here and one thing I want to point out quickly about the Infographic is that it's intended to be a prototype rather than a prescription It's entirely possible for a program to meet the definition of high-quality youth apprenticeship without following the same exact three-year trajectory And that's okay. We understand that local context and resources require these variations and we welcome them They are important to helping us understand the strategies and conditions that make youth apprenticeships successful But as the field of youth apprenticeship continues to grow and evolve Paya believes firmly that we need shared principles for what quality looks like regardless of how your program is designed Or who your partners may be Our partnership has to this end developed the Paya national principles for high-quality youth apprenticeship You can also find these in your folder and they are in this four-page thing Green on the front. They're in the they're in the middle We believe That to be high quality youth apprenticeship programs must be whoop career-oriented equitable Portable Adaptable and accountable These five principles are structured to be both practical and aspirational They're designed to provide clear guidance for the many different actors from industry Education government and community organizations who must work together in partnership for youth apprenticeship programs to be successful And at a more macro level they're meant to set a high bar for program design Outcomes and continuous improvement and to communicate that high bar to the growing field of youth apprenticeship practitioners. I Don't have time this morning to walk you through each of these principles in great detail though. I would like to But I encourage you to read through this document and to familiarize yourself with them You will see they are ambitious, but achievable and you will also notice that they are embedded throughout the two days You will spend with us here at Trident This is intentional over the next few days Our hope is that you gain an understanding of how these principles work in practice in a sense for why they matter for quality Not just in the abstract but within the context of the communities free within sorry within the context of communities in which you live And work our agenda is jam-packed with opportunities for you to learn from practitioners Whose work is shaped by these principles and to troubleshoot and brainstorm with people from around the country who are tackling similar challenges within each of these five domains It's no accident then that our program begins today with a deep dive into the Charleston regional youth apprenticeship program Led here at Trident by Melissa Stowasser and Mitchell harp and their teams Since it launched with 13 apprentices in 2014 the Charleston regional youth apprenticeship program has experienced tremendous growth and Along the way the team at Trident has learned a lot about what it takes not only to build a program But to serve as a coordinating intermediary for a growing partnership of partners Through Paya and the research that preceded it We have had the opportunity to learn a great deal from their experience and the Experiences of their partners and their apprentices today. You will too Among the many things Melissa Mitch and their staff have taught us about building and leading high-quality youth apprenticeship partnership is the importance of leadership a Key feature you'll find embedded in the accountability principle They are resolute in their belief that the program would not have come to fruition or experience its remarkable growth Without the unwavering support of the college's leadership and in particular the leadership of the college's president Dr. Mary Thornley who joins us here this morning Dr. Thornley has been president of Trident technical college since 1991 but she has been a consistent presence on campus since the early 1970s When she joined the college as an English and speech teacher, I'm sure you will have some tips for me when I'm off the stage Over her long tenure at Trident Dr. Thornley has been guided by her belief in the transformational power of education and her passion for the community college's role in Making our communities and our nation stronger more adaptable and better able to face the challenges of the future In just one moment Dr. Thornley will replace me on this stage to share this passion with us and to help us better Understand how youth apprenticeship fits into and advances her vision for the college Please join me now in thanking her again for hosting us on campus for the PIA national meeting this week