Do you believe today’s workers’ movement would benefit from more women staffers and leaders?  Are you interested in bringing in fresh energy to your organization’s work? Are you finding it time consuming to recruit and vet entry-level staff? Consider hosting a 2020 WILL Empower apprentice. 

WILL Empower (Women Innovating Labor Leadership) is now accepting applications for host sites for the 2020 WILL Empower apprenticeship.  You can find out more about the apprenticeship on this information sheet, and you can apply here.  The deadline for host site applications is March 31, 2020.

The WILL Empower apprenticeship serves as an on-ramp to try out a job in unions and other worker movement organizations.  Apprentices work full-time for three to twelve months. Host sites determine the focus of the apprenticeship, such as communications, politics, policy, organizing, research, etc.   Host sites can be anywhere in the U.S.

Each WILL Empower apprentice has two female mentors: one inside the organization and one from outside.  The apprentices will begin work in the fall of 2020, and will have an orientation and training at Georgetown University.  Start and end dates are flexible. Apprentices are often recent college graduates or rank-and-file activists; they are not full-time students.  

You can learn more about the 2019 apprentices and host sites on this blog post. 

Past apprenticeship host sites have included: Jobs with Justice, the Teamsters, APALA, Jobs to Move America, the NC State AFL-CIO, Campus Workers United / CWA, the Street Vendor Project, UNITE HERE Local 25, the Memphis Central Labor Council, Bargaining for the Common Good and more.  The 2020 class will be the third cohort of apprentices. Thus far, sixty percent of WILL Empower apprentices are women of color.  

“WILL Empower did a great job of picking good candidates, who were thoughtful and committed to the work. Our apprentice had real integrity, and a strong sense of self.  Whatever you did for recruitment worked,” said one former WILL Empower apprenticeship host site. 

Contact us with any questions, or to discuss the program further, at willempower.labor@gmail.com.

WILL Empower is a joint project to identify, recruit and support women’s labor leadership.  It is a joint project of Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor and Rutgers University, SMLR, Center for Innovation in Worker Organization.