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76 SMT007 MAGAZINE I FEBRUARY 2026 register national program standards of apprentice- ship with the U.S. Department of Labor on behalf of the electronics manufacturing industry. We started with two occupations, followed quickly by a third one, as apprenticeships must be very specific. We have been acting as both sponsor and interme- diary, working with employers across the United States to adopt these apprenticeship standards so they can have a means to standardize their work- force training efforts, and to utilize some of the funding available specifically for apprenticeships. We have helped them determine how to upskill existing workers and recruit and retain new work- ers for the industry. How do you act as a sponsor and an intermediary? Blaylock: Our role as a sponsor in the land- scape of national apprenticeship stan- dards means that we have done all the heavy lifting for employers. We have gone through the paperwork and vetting from the Depart- ment of Labor for approval for employers who may not have dedicated resources internally for workforce development. So, we've eliminated a lot of the red tape that exists in that system. As an intermediary, we act as a convener and connector to employ- ers, workforce boards, high schools, CTE programs, and others in the community. We bring everyone together to see what's available and to maximize participation in programs like these. What does it mean to become officially endorsed or recognized by the U.S. Labor Department? What does compliance look like? Blaylock: Our employers are already used to doing a lot of compliance, following IPC standards, for instance. There are things that are parallel and adjacent to their other compliance work: agree- ment forms that must be signed, tracking appren- ticeship hours and competencies. Those things are already happening in some form at employers, so we are formalizing and standardizing the process. With the Department of Labor, an apprentice- ship training representative (ATR) works with us to ensure that we stay compliant. The information is inputted into a tracking system called Work Hands, and all our employers and apprentices have access to it while they're in the program. As an intermediary, do you proactively find groups of students and approach industry companies to become involved in internships, or do they reach out to you? Blaylock: It's a little bit of both. One of the incentives for employers to participate has been the funding that Vicki has secured on their behalf by working as an intermediary and making those connections with the local workforce boards and other partners on state and federal levels. Vicki, did you create this funding piece of the program? Hawkins: Yes, Cory joined the Association in April 2023, and I was hired in Novem- ber, but we had already been work- ing together, sharing a vision to make this apprenticeship oppor- tunity available to employers in the industry and to identify fund- ing to help support that effort because we realized how critical the funding piece was. In that first year, we developed relationships with other intermedi- ary agencies that have federal funding to support apprenticeship, and in that process, I began learning the landscape of the state and local funding resources that exist. We built up a foundation, and the grants we received in that first year allowed us to launch the program. We had immediate interest from some employers, but, as we had anticipated, their ability to participate was completely dependent upon funding to support them. Fortunately, due to our early efforts, the Asso- ciation had funding available to support participat- ing companies during that first year, which was criti- cal to getting the program up and running and prove out its success. As a result, employers found that the program was successful and helped them in several ways. The word spread that the Association has an apprenticeship program that could help employ- ers upskill existing employees or train new ones, and we began hearing from more employers who were interested. V i c k i H a w k i n s