Apprenticeship oversight.

Existing law requires the Division of Apprenticeship Standards within the Department of Industrial Relations to randomly audit all apprenticeship programs during each 5-year period commencing January 1, 2000, to ensure compliance with specified requirements, including any industry-specific training criteria established by the California Apprenticeship Council. This bill would eliminate the requirement that the division conduct random audits during 5-year periods and would instead direct the division to conduct audits of apprenticeship programs generally. The bill would further require the division to audit a new or newly expanded building and construction trades apprenticeship program one year after its approval for creation or expansion, and would require the division to immediately conduct an investigation of an apprenticeship program of this type to determine whether an audit is necessary if the division finds evidence that the program has purposely misstated information provided to the division. In addition, the bill would require the division to schedule an audit of a program of this type within 3 months if the program has been the subject of 2 or more meritorious apprentice complaints within a 5-year period or if the program's annual apprentice completion rate is below 50% of the average completion rate for the applicable trade. Existing law authorizes the Chief of the Division of Apprenticeship Standards to approve an apprenticeship program in any trade when specified conditions are met. This bill would prescribe requirements for an application by a building and construction trades program for approval of a new or expanded apprenticeship program. The bill would require the program to submit a written plan to the chief listing the number of apprentices to be enrolled in a new program, occupation, or geographic area during the subsequent 5 years and evidence of sufficient commitments from employers. The bill would also require that an applicant submit to the chief a plan for selection and recruitment of new apprentices, including information on advertising and outreach programs. If the chief does not approve an application, the chief would be required to provide the applicant, within 90 days, a detailed explanation of the deficiencies in the application, and the applicant would be authorized to submit a new application within 90 days. This bill would require that each building and construction trades industry apprenticeship program provide a semiannual statement to the apprentice listing the number of hours of training received and the number of hours remaining for graduation from the program. This bill would also require that every building and construction trades industry apprenticeship program submit monthly specified data relating to apprentices in an electronic format to the Division of Apprenticeship Standards.