New Jersey Pathways Leading Apprentices to a College Education (NJ PLACE) - Under the leadership of the State Employment and Training Commission, New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development and the NJ AFL/CIO, a collaboration that included New Jersey's 19 community colleges, organized labor, and several state agencies, developed a statewide model to award college credit for participating registered apprenticeships in the building and construction trades.

NJ PLACE recognizes college-level learning taking place in union apprenticeship training programs and, accordingly, awards credits (a) toward associate degree programs in NJ's 19 community colleges and, shortly, as part of the next phase of the NJ PLACE initiative, (b) toward baccalaureate degrees in New Jersey’s senior colleges and universities.

To translate apprenticeships into college credits toward a degree program, entails a two step process:

1. Rigorous Evaluation of Apprenticeship Training Programs:

Each apprenticeship training program underwent a rigorous evaluation of its curriculum, teaching objectives and learning assessment tools by the American Council on Education (ACE)’s College Credit Recommendation Service.  (ACE is a nationally recognized leader in evaluating nontraditional learning programs for collegial learning level equivalency and has its New Jersey ACE affiliate in the Office of Corporate-Higher Education Programs, Thomas Edison State College.)

The ACE evaluation resulted in recommendations that map the classes and on-the-job training of apprenticeship programs to specific areas of instruction and learning deemed worthy of a specified number of college credits.

2. Articulation of Credit Recommendations into College Degree Programs: 

In turn, New Jersey’s Community Colleges (1) developed an Associate in Applied Science (A.A.S.) degree in Technical Studies that included concentrations in Construction Management, Business Management or Advanced Technical Studies and (2) determined the number of ACE-recommended credits of apprenticeship programs in the building and construction trades that applied toward this degree.

For each of the 5 trades currently participating in NJ PLACE, community colleges are awarding a minimum of 25 credits toward an AAS degree in Technical Studies.  To complete the requirements for this degree, apprentices will take a core of general education courses (math, science, language arts, history) as well as courses in their chosen concentration (construction management, business management or advanced technical studies).

To date, in this two-step process for NJ PLACE :

1. The apprenticeship training programs of five building and construction trades' unions have been evaluated by the American Council on Education for college level learning.  The participating unions are: the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers, the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators & Asbestos Workers, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the NJ Regional Council of Carpenters, and the United Association of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry.

2. NJ's 19 community colleges have developed statewide articulation agreements with these labor organizations and will accept a minimum of 25 credits towards an associate in applied science in technical studies degree.

NJ PLACE is in the process of expanding articulation agreements between New Jersey’s community colleges and its senior colleges and universities to develop an educational pathway from apprenticeships to baccalaureate degrees.

A Key Purpose of NJ PLACE:

This initiative should help to remove the wall that traditionally separates vocational and academic courses of study.  It values the skills that people attain through apprenticeships and rewards the attainment of those skills with college credit.  An important goal of NJ PLACE is to provide students, parents, teachers, and school counselors with a new understanding of apprenticeships and other experiential learning – not as an alternative to a college education, but rather as a pathway – a very exciting and promising pathway – to a college degree!

For more information, please contact New Jersey Council of County Colleges at 609-392-3434 or by email at info@njccc.org.