Talent Ready Utah

A workforce initiative of the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, Talent Ready Utah optimizes efforts made by education and industry partnerships, working collectively to build a highly-skilled workforce while providing students with increased career and education opportunities. Below are some of the programs designed to support that mission.

The Utah Adopt-A-School initiative unites boardrooms with classrooms, and workplaces with learning places. It connects Utah’s businesses with Utah’s students, for a partnership that will impact Utah now and for years to come.

Community partnerships with Utah’s education system ensure the collective success of communities, industries, and individuals in this inclusive, proactive industry-with-education approach.

The Talent Ready Apprenticeship Connection (TRAC) is an industry-recognized apprenticeship program, adopted from the Swiss apprenticeship model, that provides students opportunities to earn while they learn.

TRAC’s first program launched in 2019, a partnership with Stadler Rail, Salt Lake Community College, and Salt Lake City School District. Students who enroll in this apprenticeship program starting as high school seniors can finish school with a high school degree and an associate of applied science (AAS) degree in advanced manufacturing. This first TRAC cohort will finish the program in summer 2022.

Last year, Stadler Rail employed 29 apprentices in the TRAC program. One apprentice even traveled to Washington, D.C. to talk about their apprenticeship experience with Swiss President Guy Parmelin, First Lady Jill Biden, and several other U.S. and Swiss government officials.

In partnership with Salt Lake Community College, Talent Ready Utah is developing additional TRAC apprenticeships for the medical device and life sciences industries. Talent Ready Utah has also engaged the aerospace and defense industry in Northern Utah to create a program that would provide apprentices with composites fabrication, aerospace assembly, and machining skills — all skills the sector desperately needs.

Through the Utah Works program, Talent Ready Utah partners with the Utah System of Higher Education to design pre-employment, short-term training programs that prepare participants to fill in-demand jobs with specific industry skill sets. Between the three partnerships established with Davis Technical College, Ogden Weber Technical College, and SLCC, the Utah Works program has trained and placed 418 individuals in jobs with participating aerospace and defense, commuter rail, medical device, thermoforming, and advanced manufacturing companies.

The Utah Works program also provided the framework for the recent Learn & Work In Utah initiative, a program requested by the state Legislature in response to the workforce impacts of COVID-19. Learn & Work In Utah received federal CARES Act funds to provide 300 short-term certification and creditbased training programs that increased access to sustainable employment for displaced workers. Tuition assistance has been extended to 5,456 students for Learn & Work programs in the business, information technology, energy, construction, manufacturing, and healthcare sectors. An additional 5,550 students are receiving training in 2022.

Talent Ready Utah continues to work closely with industry partners across the state to identify short-term and longterm workforce strategies for Utah’s growing economy. The initiative partners with the Utah System of Higher Education, Utah State Board of Education, Utah Department of Workforce Services, and many other stakeholders to deliver high-quality training programs that help fill talent pipelines throughout Utah.

To learn more, visit business.utah.gov/tru.

Listen to this Business Elevated podcast to learn more about the TRAC program: qrco.de/tru-trac