An award-winning apprenticeship program for individuals in the employment development field celebrated another milestone.

The Workforce Development Professional (WDP) Certificate Program at the College of Continuing Education (CCE) welcomed its second group of graduates. Fourteen participants completed the certificate program in June, with seven being registered apprentices with the State of California.

The program earned the 2017 Engagement Award from the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) West Region. Babette Jimenez, a CCE senior program strategist who’s been with the program from the beginning, said the graduates’ final projects were ”truly inspiring.”

“The participants’ passion for their work and the relationships they’ve built in this program have had a positive impact in their lives,” she said. 

“Our participants completed 12 courses, 132 hours of classroom instruction as well as a capstone presentation in the final class. The capstone presentations were fabulous and demonstrated how much the participants learned and have already applied to their workforce centers.”

Capstone presentation topics included:

• Ex-offenders services and resources
• Older workers in today’s workplace
• Sacramento City Unified School District’s integrated education and training program for specific occupational clusters
• Convergence of partners in Amador County showcasing the services in the Motherlode region
• Career Centers: Best kept secret: How do customers find out about our centers?
• YoloWorks: highlighting the combined Employment Services Branch of the Health & Human Services Agency of Yolo County

“With the apprentices’ completion of their on-the job-training hours, the program will have a total of 57 Workforce Development Professional ‘journeymen’ and ‘journeywomen’ across the state,” Jimenez said.

According to Steve Gutierrez, CCE’s State of California Division of Apprenticeship Standards liaison: ”This is a record number for a new apprenticeship program.”

Photo Courtesy: Roy Kim, deputy director of workforce development at the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency, June 2018.

Back row, left to right: Diana Symmonds, Susie Alcala, Monica Mercado, Kim Oliver and Sean Fitzgerald

Front row, left to right: Juliana Vasquez, Marco Contreras, Mei Chin, Karen Perez, Eileen Prince, Elizabeth Martinez, Keisha Powell and LaVonnia DeLoach

Graduate not pictured: Kim Speers