Apprenticeship Host Site Applications are Now Open!

Is your organization committed to building a new generation of women leaders for the labor and workers’ justice movement? Are you eager to have an early-career activist share in your organization’s work? Have you been thinking about hiring an intern, but are daunted by the recruitment and vetting process?

Consider applying to be a host site for the 2019 WILL Empower Apprenticeship Program.  Applications are now open, and are due April 1, 2019. The next WILL Empower Apprenticeship class will begin work in September, 2019.

The WILL Empower Apprenticeship Program is a recruitment and on-ramp platform for women’s labor leadership.  This program recruits and vets recent college graduates and/or rank-and-filers and places them in three to twelve-month paid staff apprenticeships with unions and worker organizations across the nation. The apprentices may work in a variety of capacities, including organizing, research, communications and policy. WILL Empower host sites are chosen carefully through a selective process.

The WILL Empower Apprenticeship Program kicked off in 2018, and the inaugural class included five apprentices at four host sites: the North Carolina AFL-CIO (Raleigh); Jobs to Move America (New York); the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (Washington, DC) and Jobs with Justice (Washington, DC).

“We plan to at least double the size of the WILL Empower apprenticeship class for 2019,” said Lane Windham, WILL Empower co-director, who is based at Georgetown University.  “We know that people’s early job experiences can put them on a lifetime path of movement building, and we’re looking for at least ten organizations that are eager to nurture and develop that next-gen leadership.”

Each WILL Empower apprentice has two female mentors, one inside the host organization and one who is external to the organization.  WILL Empower apprentices will participate in an orientation and training in early September, before beginning their placements. 

The apprenticeships offer organizations the chance to bring in women with untapped talent who are at the beginnings of their careers. The host site benefits from WILL Empower’s comprehensive and strategic recruiting and vetting system, as well as WILL Empower’s ongoing support and training of the apprentices. Host sites serve as the apprentice’s employer, and are fully integrated into the selection process.  WILL Empower provides salary subsidies on a case-by-case basis. 

WILL Empower recruits widely in order to build a robust apprenticeship pool, and works through unions, worker organizations, universities and economic justice organizations to spread the word.  Apprentices then fill out an application, and we interview a select few. From those interviewed, we make the best matches with available apprenticeship placements.

WILL Empower host site applications are due April 1. However, we encourage interested organizations to apply as early as possible. Early applications allow us to concentrate our recruitment efforts in the geographic and job concentration areas that are most suitable to your job opportunity. 

For more information on being a WILL Empower host site, see the information guide here.  You may also contact Lane Windham at 202-687-0492 or email us at willempower.labor@gmail.com.

WILL Empower (Women Innovating Labor Leadership) is a multi-pronged initiative designed to identify, nurture, and train a new generation of women. It is a joint project of Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative forLabor and the Working Poor and Rutgers University SMLR’s Center for Innovation in Worker Organization.