The Washington Technology Industry Association (WTIA) today announced an event to honor the first cohort of apprentices in the Apprenti™ program on Friday, May 5, 2017. Governor Jay Inslee will attend to declare the week of May 1-5 Registered Technology Apprenticeship Week. Apprenti is the only technology industry apprenticeship program registered with the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries and also the US Department of Labor. The program focuses on recruiting under-represented groups including women, people of color, and veterans. Apprenti helps bridge the skills and diversity gap while also providing urgently needed talent to the state's high-wage tech sector.
WTIA honored the first cohort of 37 apprentices in the Apprenti program. Each apprentice receives up to five months of technical training and then a one-year paid apprenticeship with a mentor and additional training provided by WTIA member companies. The first cohort of apprentices will be working in technology jobs at Amazon, Microsoft, Avvo, Comtech, F5 and Silicon Mechanics. The jobs for this cohort include web developer, software developer, network security administrator, Windows system administrator, Linux system administrator, cloud support associate, and IT support professional.