Today, the NJ Senate Labor Committee unanimously voted four additional apprenticeship bills out of Committee, allowing for their consideration by the NJ Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee:S-3062 (A-2049) - provides businesses with a tax credit for each employee in a registered apprenticeship program, with additional incentives for employing apprentices from under-represented groups or people who face barriers to employment;
S-3064 (A-4656) - establishes a task force to develop a state plan to diversify apprenticeships through industry-specific recommendations;
S-3068 (A-4829) - establishes a peer-to-peer statewide apprenticeship mentoring program for people who are under-represented in registered apprenticeship programs--including women, people of color, and people with disabilities--in order to improve program retention and completion rates; and
S-3070 (A-4667) - provides funding for the New Jersey Pathways Leading Apprentices to a College Education (NJ PLACE) program that would enable apprentices to receive college credit for their training in apprenticeship programs.Just last week, the NJ Senate passed the following three apprenticeship bills: S-3061 (A-4603) - provides tax credits and grants to offset apprenticeship start-up costs;
S-3063 (A-4655) - provides tuition fee waivers for apprenticeship courses at public colleges and universities, and county vocational schools; and
S-3065 (A-4657) - establishes a three-year youth apprenticeship pilot program in the Department of Education for high school and college students ages 16-21. Having passed through the Senate, these bills will now head to the General Assembly for consideration. These are seven of the 10 bills introduced as a package by Senate Education Committee Chair M. Teresa Ruiz and a group of other leading legislators that would implement recommendations in our latest report, Becoming the United States of Opportunity: the Economic Equity and Growth Case for Apprenticeships.