Governor Newsom proclaims Apprenticeship Day 2025

PROCLAMATION

National Apprenticeship Day is a nationwide celebration recognizing apprenticeships as a vital career pathway that is key to the prosperity and vitality of our state. We are proud to be a national leader in growing the number and type of apprenticeships, enabling more Californians to pursue rewarding careers while strengthening our economy.

Apprenticeships are integral to California’s Master Plan for Career Education, a pragmatic strategy for career readiness that prioritizes hands-on learning and real-life skills in career education. Working in coordination with the California Jobs First Economic Blueprint, the Master Plan takes a bottom-up approach to workforce and economic development that is responsive to the emerging needs of the economy and specific to sectors, regions, and individuals’ skills and experience.

The state has made historic efforts to increase access to apprenticeships across industries, proudly supporting 91,493 active registered apprentices. We are invested in initiatives to sustain and scale registered apprentice programs, through initiatives like Apprenticeship Innovation Funding, which has made $52 million available in its third round of funding to reimburse the program and training costs for growing apprenticeship programs.

All Californians deserve the opportunity to gain the skills that build a lasting career. Through the California Opportunity Youth Apprenticeship Grant program, the state is committing an additional $16 million to expand access to pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship opportunities for young people. This investment, together with the Equal Representation in Construction Apprenticeship Grant, is expanding pathways into the construction industry and helping ensure that California’s skilled workforce reflects California’s communities.

Apprentices offer an impactful alternative to traditional education paths that benefit employers as well as workers by filling skill gaps in critical areas and helping businesses grow. Supporting the next generation of skilled workers is how we have built the fourth-largest economy in the world – and a workforce that is the envy of the world.

NOW THEREFORE I, GAVIN NEWSOM, Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim April 30, 2025 as “Apprenticeship Day.”

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 30^th day of April 2025.

 

GAVIN NEWSOM
Governor of California

ATTEST:
SHIRLEY N. WEBER, Ph.D.
Secretary of State