What do John Deere, Tyson Meats, and the Mississippi Valley Workforce Board have in common? They all rely on and support the SAL Community Service’s (SAL) Early Childhood Educator Registered Apprenticeship program. Since 2023, SAL has recruited and trained the workforce behind the workforce in the Quad Cities and beyond in Illinois and Iowa.
In previous months, I’ve introduced you to Registered Apprenticeship (RA) programs in early childhood education (ECE) across the country. This month, I want to tell you the story of an employer turned group sponsor who is partnering across sectors and agencies to ensure that the Quad Cities have high-quality child care with a highly skilled, highly qualified workforce.
The States
SAL Community Services, a nonprofit organization that meets a variety of needs from early care and education to crisis assistance and stabilization services based in Moline, Illinois, has a bi-state, 17-county regional footprint from the Quad Cities to the Peoria area. SAL joined the University of Illinois-Chicago’s Illinois Early Childhood Apprenticeship Pilot as an employer and learned how RA can help address the state’s child care crisis. Impressed with the RA model, SAL wondered whether it could bring the ECE RA program to Iowa as well. However, Illinois and Iowa are very different states. They have different rules and regulations for both ECE and RA. RA program components, such as teacher-to-child ratios, starting wages, and wage scales, had to be customized to meet state requirements and could not be the same across both states.
Despite these challenges, in October 2024, SAL, in partnership with the Early Childhood Workforce Connector (ECWC), registered the first ECE RA program in Iowa. Iowa had recently been recognized by the US DOL as a State Apprenticeship Agency (SAA), and SAL and ECWC worked closely with the newly minted SAA to ensure the program was high-quality and tailored to the needs of their community.
In Illinois, SAL is an employer with UIC’s group sponsorship. In Iowa, SAL is the program sponsor. The addition of this new sponsor role – a heavier lift for the organization – was challenging for SAL. Through the partnership with ECWC, SAL now sponsors a successful RA program in Iowa, in addition to being a successful employer in Illinois.
The Partners
In addition to ECWC, SAL has partnered with local employers and workforce boards to ensure the success of their RA programs. John Deere refers employees’ families to SAL’s Skip-A-Long Childhood Centers and Early Head Start Child Care Partnership because the company knows SAL provides stable, high-quality care and education. Without the RA programs, SAL would have fewer open spots for the children of John Deere employees. Tyson Meats has employees working second and third shifts, which is a good fit for home-based family child care (FCC). The company refers its employees to SAL, which has a contract with the local FCC network and offers incentives for FCC providers who cover later shifts.
SAL has intentionally developed strong relationships with the workforce development boards across and beyond the Quad Cities. The American Job Centers in Illinois and the IowaWORKS Centers have highlighted the ECE industry as one with an elevated need/priority, connecting employers who need child care for their employees as well as job seekers looking to work with small children to SAL’s RA programs. They have also provided wraparound services and funds for higher education fees associated with the programs. For example, through its partnership with the Mississippi Valley Workforce Development Board, SAL participates in job fairs for job seekers interested in alternative employment pathways.
This tale of the Quad Cities demonstrates that the workforce behind the workforce thrives when systems truly align. SAL’s partnerships spanning the Mississippi River demonstrate what is possible when employers, state agencies, and workforce boards unite to elevate high-quality child care as a core workforce strategy. When we appropriately empower and equip child care providers by expanding ECE RA pathways and investing in the wraparound supports early educators need, we strengthen not only the child care workforce but every industry. SAL and its partners have given us an impactful model for supporting the workforce behind the workforce.
Who’s next?
