2024 Noncredit Exemplary Award Winner

CREDIT WORKFORCE PROGRAM
Houston Community College, TX
TRIO Electric Pre-Apprenticeship Program

Houston’s continued economic growth over the last decade has spurred a thriving job market with high demand occupations in almost every sector. But with this success, the Houston region also faces a vast skills gap in middle skills occupations—those requiring more than a high school diploma but less than a four-year degree. In particular, the skills gap has widened in the construction sector where an aging incumbent workforce nears retirement and yet new jobs continue to be created because of the robust economic growth. Electricians, specifically, are in high demand in the region and will continue to be so in the future.

TRIO Electric, an electrical design, construction and service firm based in Houston, Texas, is trying to combat the issue. In 2013, TRIO developed an in-house Department of Labor (DOL) approved 4-year electrical apprenticeship program called the TRIO Apprenticeship Program (TAP). In 2017, Houston Community College, Spring Branch ISD, and TRIO Electric formed a three-way partnership to offer an industry-led, pre-apprenticeship, dual credit, electrical technician training program to high school students. The TRIO Pre-Apprenticeship Program (TPAP) gives high school students the opportunity to learn valuable skills in a high demand, high wage field before graduation.

TPAP gives high school students who are not bound for a four-year institution a skillset in a high wage, high demand field within a dual credit setting. This skillset enables students to obtain employment upon graduation in an industry with a tremendous and long-term upside. The wages earned in the electrical field combined with the stackable credentials received during high school give students many options—continue their career, go to college, or both.

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