AN ACT Relating to apprenticeship; adding new sections to chapter 49.04 RCW; creating a new section; and making an appropriation.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds that the traditional apprenticeship system which combines training on the job under actual employment conditions with related course work in schools, vocational technical institutes and/or community colleges, under standards proposed by joint apprenticeship committees and approved by the state apprenticeship council, has demonstrated unequaled effectiveness in the development of job skills, work career successes, higher quality of work, and increased productivity. However, the legislature also finds that these benefits of the apprenticeship system have largely been restricted to a relatively small portion of the labor force in a relatively few industries, trades, occupations, and professions. The legislature, therefore, declares it to be the public policy of the state of Washington to develop apprenticeships in trades, occupations, professions and industries which have not used the apprenticeship system created under this chapter, and particularly in new and emerging trades, occupations, professions and industries.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 49.04 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The director of labor and industries shall establish a unit within the division of apprenticeship and training for the express purpose of assisting labor, employers, and educational entities to extend the apprenticeship system of training to trades, occupations, professions and industries which are not currently enjoying the advantages of the apprenticeship system.

(2) The director of labor and industries may establish ad hoc joint advisory apprenticeship councils in various regional or local areas of the state. Each ad hoc council shall consist of equal representation of labor and management in and of trades, occupations, professions and industries which are not presently enjoying the benefits of the apprenticeship training system. Each such ad hoc council shall consist of not less than three labor and three management representatives nor more than six of each: PROVIDED, That each trade, occupation, profession or industry represented on such ad hoc council shall also have equal representation of labor and management. The ad hoc joint advisory apprenticeship training councils shall investigate the advantages of incorporating apprenticeship standards into training where they have not previously been used and shall report back to the director within six months following their appointments as to the probable efficacy of adopting and using such standards, with recommendations as to which trades, occupations, professions or industries will benefit most and how the department may encourage such developments.

(3) The director may request the commissioner of employment security, the federal bureau of apprenticeship and training, the state superintendent of public instruction, the director of community colleges, the executive director for the commission for vocational education, and/or the various area vocational technical institutes or community colleges to nominate knowledgeable persons from their respective staffs. The director may appoint one or more such persons as nonvoting members of the local or regional ad hoc councils as may be deemed necessary for effective implementation of this section.

(4) The ad hoc joint advisory councils shall operate under guidelines adopted by the state apprenticeship council established under RCW 49.04.010.

(5) Members of the ad hoc councils shall not be compensated but members who cannot otherwise be reimbursed by public moneys shall be reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses as provided in RCW 43.03.050 and 43.03.060.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 49.04 RCW to read as follows:

The director of employment security is hereby authorized to encourage the development of apprenticeship training standards in those trades, occupations, professions and industries which have not previously enjoyed the benefits of such standards, particularly in those highly skilled trades in which the demand for trained personnel exceeds the supply, in apprenticeship programs developed in response to section 2 of this act, using funds available from the federal jobs partnership training act, and from other sources within the guidelines specified by federal law or regulations governing the funding of training unemployed or underemployed disadvantaged persons.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. There is appropriated to the department of labor and industries for the biennium ending June 30, 1987, from the general fund the sum of two hundred fifty thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary to carry out the purposes of this act.