Skip to main content

About the Youth Apprenticeship Program

Recognizing industry’s demand for more skilled labor in the region, coupled with the need for an alternative career pathway for high school students, community leaders in Charleston came together to develop the region’s first United States Department of Labor (USDOL) Youth Apprenticeship Program.

This sector partnership, which began in September 2014, includes high schools in all four area school districts, Trident Technical College, and a consortium of industry partners. It represents a community-wide collaborative approach to creating a seamless pathway for students from secondary to post-secondary education into the skilled workforce.

Youth Apprenticeship Signing Day 2015

Youth Apprenticeship Signing Day 2014

Employer’s Role

  • Hire the apprentice and allow him/her to work part-time during the school year and full-time during the summer

  • Oversee apprentice's on-the-job training

  • Evaluate apprentice’s progress before recommending advancement to the next pay level

  • Recommend Award of Completion certificate when an apprentice has satisfactorily completed the required course and on-the-job training

  • Commit to retain employee for the duration of apprenticeship

Partnership Benefits

  • Work with educators to develop curriculum based on industry needs

  • Recruit and screen potential employees

  • Improve competitiveness in the global marketplace

  • Qualify for a $1,000 tax credit per apprentice

  • Workers compensation coverage of apprentice provided by TTC

  • All tuition, books and other fees covered by the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce

Become an Industry Partner

We are seeking additional companies to participate in the 2016-17 apprenticeship program. Hire just one youth to become an industry partner. For more information call Mitchell Harp, TTC’s director of apprenticeship programs, at 843-574-6979 or email mitchell.harp@tridenttech.edu.

Child Labor Laws and the Program

Employment Standards for Hazardous Occupations contain exemptions for 16- and 17-year-old apprentices provided they are employed under the following conditions:

  • The apprentice is employed in a craft recognized as an apprentice trade;

  • The work of the apprentice in the occupation declared particularly hazardous is incidental to his or her training;

  • Such work is intermittent for short periods of time and is under the direct and close supervision of a journeyman as a necessary part of such apprentice training; and

  • The apprentice is registered by the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training of the U.S. Department of Labor as employed in accordance with the standards established by that Bureau, or is registered by a state agency as employed in accordance with the standards of the state apprenticeship agency recognized by the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training, or is employed under a written apprenticeship agreement and conditions which are found by the Secretary of Labor to conform substantially with such federal or state standards.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Child Labor Bulletin 101 (WH-1330, revised February 2013), page 24.

Industry Partners List