Eight Indiana organizations have nabbed a collective $12.9 million in grants to develop a statewide on-the-job training initiative, courtesy of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation.
The first cohort of high school students will begin apprenticeship programs in the new Indiana Career Apprenticeship Pathway in the fall of 2026, according to a Wednesday news release.
Participants will do at least half their training in the workplace and the rest in the classroom. They’ll be paid by their employers and work year-round.
Programs for adults will be available “in later years,” the announcement continued.
The initiative will be “a vehicle for employers and educators to collaborate in a process that serves both students and industry,” said foundation President and CEO Claire Fiddian-Green.
Indiana secures $6.25 million to advance apprenticeships
“It promises to revolutionize the way Indiana equips people for careers and, as a result, prepare Indiana for long-term economic growth,” she added.
Fiddian-Green is also co-chair of CEMETS iLab Indiana — the coalition of more than 300 Hoosier leaders from an array of industries, schools, nonprofits, philanthropies and governments that will lead the foundation-funded effort.
CEMETS iLab Indiana leaders want the Indiana Career Apprenticeship Pathway to provide education and training to 50,000 Hoosier students by 2034, per the release.
The initiative was modeled after a Swiss program in operation since the 1970s.
The dollarsAscend Indiana, of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, will use a five-year, $9.6 million grant to keep managing CEMETS iLab Indiana operations and support statewide employer bodies dubbed industry talent associations.
It will also regrant $1.2 million to regional “intermediaries” that will “serve as bridges” between the industry talent associations, schools and students. And it’ll do marketing for the initiative.
The foundation also made two grants to launch a pair of new employer groups:
- The Indiana Construction Roundtable Foundation received a two-year, $380,000 grant to launch the Construction Industry Talent Association.
- The Indiana Chamber Foundation received a one-year, $160,000 grant to serve as an incubator for an Information Technology Industry Talent Association and prepare it to operate as a separate entity by 2026.
Other grants will go to the organizations supporting four existing industry talent associations. Those were launched last year with Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation help:
- $180,000 to BioCrossroads, via the CICP, for the Healthcare Industry Talent Association and the Life Sciences Industry Talent Association
- $130,000 to Conexus Indiana, via the CICP, for the Advanced Manufacturing and Logistics Industry Talent Association
- $130,000 to the Indiana Bankers Association for the Banking Industry Talent Association
The foundation additionally granted $1.7 million over three years for the Indy Chamber to promote the initiative and generally “boost awareness of career opportunities” — and make a playbook for other Indiana regions to do the same.
EmployIndy also will receive a one-year, $430,000 grant to fund the three cohorts operating under the current Modern Apprenticeship Program and help facilitate the transition to the new initiative.
“Developing a new model for Hoosier students and a stronger talent pipeline for Indiana employers is a huge undertaking; that is why we’re bringing in more organizations with specific expertise and built-in stakeholders to make it work,” said David Becker, CEMETS iLab Indiana co-chair and chairman. He is CEO of First Internet Bank.
The foundation has, since 2016, awarded nearly $25 million in grants for youth apprenticeship pilot programs and the education and training pathway “now known as” the Indiana Career Apprenticeship Pathway, the news release said.
Richard M. Fairbanks, the late founder and owner of Fairbanks Communications, established it in 1986 to “strengthen the city of Indianapolis and perpetuate the Fairbanks legacy in the city where the family prospered for over a century,” according to the website.
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