Apprenticeship: developmentally disabled persons.

Existing law establishes the Interagency Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship (committee) within the Division of Apprenticeship Standards within the Department of Industrial Relations, and requires that committee to provide advice and guidance to the Administrator of Apprenticeship and the Chief of the Division of Apprenticeship Standards on apprenticeship programs, standards, and agreements, as well as preapprenticeship, certification, and on-the-job training and retraining programs, in nonbuilding trades industries. Existing law requires the membership of the committee to be composed of specified ex officio members of various departments and 6 persons appointed by the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development who are familiar with specified apprenticeable occupations that meet specified requirements. Existing law authorizes the committee to create subcommittees as needed to address specific industry sectors or projects. This bill would add to the ex officio members of the committee the Director of Rehabilitation and the executive director of the State Council on Developmental Disabilities. The bill would require the committee to create a subcommittee to address apprenticeship for the disabled community. Existing law states that it is the intent of the Legislature that the department will encourage greater participation for women and ethnic minorities in apprenticeship and preapprenticeship programs. This bill would add that it is the intent of the Legislature that the department will encourage greater participation for the disabled in apprenticeship and preapprenticeship programs.