We are available to mentor your search and offer certified apprenticeship opportunities. We collaborate one-on-one to understand your interests and talk about your options.
To learn more, please email KellyCooper@LivableWageJobs.org with your contact information. You can also call 559-670-0352. I will email the next steps, and we will meet on Zoom. You may participate from any state or any location within the US.
There are two parts to certified apprenticeships:
- Related Instruction (RI) is 150 unpaid hours per year of exploring and practicing for work, to be a valuable team member to an employer. We will discuss credit for prior learning with you, which includes past classes or experiences that demonstrate you are proficient at some of the RSI bullets noted, and reduce the hours of RI required. Most RI hours take place online or at a local volunteer activity, depending on your interests and availability. We mentor you throughout.
- On-the-Job is approximately 2,000 paid hours that can take place over as long a period as you choose. You may elect to work part-time or full-time (also dependent on employer priorities). Our programs are competency-based rather than hours-based. You may complete competencies sooner or later than 2,000 hours. Completion is based on successfully demonstrating the competencies.
Next Steps:
- Review the Occupation details below this list.
- Email or call Livable Wage Jobs. KellyCooper@LivableWageJobs.org or 559-670-0352
- Access the introduction email sent after your initial email or phone call, and use the calendar link provided to book a Zoom call.
- Meet with Kelly on Zoom to review apprenticeships and discuss the Explore, Practice, Apply approach of LWJ Apprenticeships.
- Submit personal documentation for beginning the certification process, and receive a login for the Related and Supplemental Instruction community of practice.
- Complete approximately 50 of the 150 hours of Related and Supplemental Instruction to qualify for apprenticeship placement, through a combination of virtual learning, in person activities, credit for prior learning, and regular Zoom meetings.
- Collaborate with LWJ to secure on-the-job employer placement and continue to progress with Related and Supplemental Instruction.
- Meet monthly in a one-on-one progress session, or request meetings more often.
- Complete Related and Supplemental Instruction.
- Complete Apprenticeship Competencies toward permanent hire.
Explore Your Apprenticeship and Career Options
Choosing an apprenticeship starts with understanding the work you would be learning to do. This guide introduces ten pathways and describes the kinds of questions, projects, and responsibilities you would encounter. As you read, consider which activities you would like to explore and practice over time.
Our approach is Explore, Practice, Apply. Related and Supplemental Instruction (RSI) gives you structured opportunities to study, practice, and receive feedback. Employer-based training gives you opportunities to apply developing skills to workplace responsibilities. Together, they support preparation for career-level work in organizations using current and emerging technologies.
These pathways involve a significant commitment of time, sustained practice, and continued learning. You will work toward demonstrating that you can complete tasks, explain your decisions, collaborate with others, and improve your work after feedback. Whether you are entering the workforce, changing careers, or updating skills after years of experience, the goal is to build practical capability you can carry forward.
The RI hours can start when you sign up, after we talk. The paid on-the-job portion of the apprentice begins when we agree you’re prepared and fit the employer’s requests. That timeline is up to your efforts.
The examples below illustrate possible learning activities. Specific projects, tools, and responsibilities will depend on the employer, your learning plan, and your progress. These descriptions introduce the pathways; they do not confirm current openings or guarantee placement, a particular job title, or earnings.
Explore the pathways
Technical Sales Representatives
Mechatronics and Robotics Technicians
Project Management Specialists
AI/Machine Learning Specialists
Technical Sales Representatives
O*NET code: 41-4011.00
In technical sales, you help a customer understand whether a product or service will solve a real business problem. You learn how the product works, ask questions about the customer’s requirements, and explain the benefits, limitations, costs, and support involved. Your work could include researching prospective customers, preparing a demonstration, answering technical questions, or helping an existing customer make better use of equipment or services. Listening carefully and following through are central to building a working relationship.
During this apprenticeship, you would practice the full sales process, from finding a potential customer to confirming an order and coordinating follow-up. You would learn to assess needs, interpret specifications, prepare estimates and proposals, and discuss pricing, credit terms, warranties, and delivery expectations. You would also work with contract templates and approval procedures, maintain customer relationship management records, and track opportunities and commitments. A practice assignment might involve researching a customer’s business, demonstrating a suitable solution, and explaining your recommendation in a written proposal. Handling objections, resolving complaints, preparing reports, and discussing responsible product use and disposal are also part of the learning.
This pathway prepares you to contribute to a technical sales team and build toward greater responsibility for customer relationships and sales opportunities. It may interest you if you enjoy learning how things work, explaining ideas clearly, and helping people make informed decisions. Expect to spend time on product research, cost calculations, accurate records, and coordination with colleagues as well as customer conversations. Ethical judgment matters: customers need reliable information, realistic commitments, and respect for their privacy.
Mechatronics and Robotics Technicians
O*NET code: 17-3024.00
Mechatronics brings together mechanical parts, electrical circuits, electronics, and computer controls. In this work, you help equipment operate safely and reliably, whether that involves an automated machine, a robotic assembly, or a drone-related system. You might investigate why a motor is not responding, check a sensor reading, replace a worn component, or help install and test new equipment. Finding the cause of a problem often means understanding how several parts of a system affect one another.
During this apprenticeship, you would study electrical and mechanical fundamentals and practice reading wiring diagrams, blueprints, and technical drawings. You would learn to use meters, oscilloscopes, calipers, and other instruments to measure, test, and calibrate components. Activities would include assembly, wiring, soldering, preventive maintenance, and troubleshooting hydraulic and pneumatic systems. You would also explore computer-aided design, microcontrollers, industrial computer networks, and programmable logic controllers, which control machine actions. A practice project might involve assembling a sensor-controlled mechanism, testing its behavior, locating a fault, and documenting the repair. Equipment isolation procedures, hazard assessment, and verification of safe operation are part of the work throughout.
This pathway builds toward technician responsibilities in the installation, maintenance, testing, and improvement of automated equipment. It may appeal to you if you enjoy careful hands-on investigation and the connection between physical machinery and software. Expect repeated measurement, methodical troubleshooting, and detailed maintenance records, alongside collaboration with engineers, operators, and other technicians. You would develop the judgment to work within your training and authorization, explain what you found, and help users operate and maintain equipment correctly.
Project Management Specialists
O*NET code: 13-1082.00
Project management helps a team turn a goal into an organized, deliverable result. You work with people to clarify what is needed, identify the steps and resources involved, and keep track of progress, costs, risks, and decisions. A typical assignment might involve coordinating part of a software rollout, gathering requirements for a new workflow, or helping a team resolve a dependency that is delaying delivery. The work combines planning with frequent conversations and adjustments as new information becomes available.
During this apprenticeship, you would practice gathering requirements, writing clear deliverables, developing schedules, tracking budgets, and facilitating useful meetings. You would explore Agile, traditional, and hybrid approaches and learn how to choose planning tools that fit the work. You would also support vendor coordination, quality checks, change reviews, risk escalation, and implementation handoffs. This pathway includes technical project exposure: cloud resources, data dashboards, workflow automation, software testing, system connections, and exploratory AI projects. A practice assignment might involve planning a small automation pilot, tracking its tasks and costs, recording test results, and presenting a recommendation. You would learn enough about the technical work to coordinate effectively with specialists and document dependencies accurately.
This pathway develops the skills to contribute as a project coordinator or specialist and, with experience, take on broader project leadership. It may interest you if you like organizing complex work, asking clarifying questions, and helping people reach a shared outcome. Expect careful documentation, persistent follow-up, and conversations about competing priorities. You would practice reporting problems early, using evidence to explain progress, and adapting to different industries while respecting their privacy, security, and governance requirements.
Cybersecurity Specialists
O*NET code: 15-1212.00
Cybersecurity work helps an organization protect its systems and information while keeping them available to the people who need them. At the beginning of this pathway, you would learn to recognize common risks, follow established security procedures, and support experienced colleagues. Your work might include reviewing an alert, checking whether a device has received an update, confirming a user’s access permissions, or documenting a suspicious email. Careful observation and knowing when to escalate a concern are important parts of the role.
During this apprenticeship, you would learn the principles of confidentiality, integrity, and availability and connect them to everyday security decisions. You would practice account setup and deactivation, multi-factor authentication, permission reviews, secure file handling, and basic security documentation. Guided activities would introduce vulnerability scanning, endpoint protection, firewall logs, secure remote connections, and cloud permission checks. A practice scenario might involve reviewing a phishing report, gathering relevant information, recording your observations, and following an incident response checklist. You would also help track corrective actions, support user awareness activities, and communicate during team investigations. Testing systems, changing security settings, and containing incidents would take place only within approved procedures and authorization.
This pathway prepares you for foundational security support work and continued development within a cybersecurity team. It may interest you if you enjoy noticing patterns, investigating details, and taking responsibility for sensitive information. Expect routine checking and record-keeping as well as unfamiliar problems. You would build the habit of distinguishing what you know from what still needs investigation, protecting evidence, and seeking guidance when the situation requires it. Continued study is part of developing sound security judgment.
AI/Machine Learning Specialists
O*NET code: 15-1221.00
In this pathway, you explore how data and computer models can help an organization answer questions, recognize patterns, and improve a process. The work involves preparing information, choosing a suitable approach, testing results, and explaining what those results can and cannot support. You might help classify incoming requests, examine patterns in operational data, or test whether a model produces useful predictions. Reliable results depend on the quality of the data and the care taken in evaluating the model.
During this apprenticeship, you would develop programming skills, including Python scripting, and use established libraries to clean, organize, analyze, and visualize data. You would learn how to separate data for training and testing, compare model types, adjust settings, and interpret measures of performance. Instruction also introduces neural networks, language processing, generative AI, and prompt design. A practice project might involve preparing a dataset, comparing two simple models, and explaining which approach is more useful for the business question. You would explore cloud-based tools, model deployment, version control, and repeatable workflows so that others can reproduce and build on your work. Identifying data imbalance, documenting limitations, and checking for bias are part of the process.
This pathway develops the foundations for contributing to applied AI and machine learning projects with experienced team members. It may appeal to you if you enjoy working with data, learning programming, comparing evidence, and revisiting an idea when the results challenge your assumptions. Expect substantial practice with code, quantitative reasoning, troubleshooting, and documentation. Your contribution includes communicating findings in plain language and helping a team decide when an AI approach is useful, what risks need attention, and what further testing is necessary.
Computer Systems Analysts
O*NET code: 15-1211.00
Computer systems analysis connects an organization’s work with the technology that supports it. You investigate how people, applications, networks, and data fit together, then help identify improvements. A problem might be a slow system, information that fails to move between applications, or a workflow that requires repeated manual entry. You would ask users what they need, trace how the current process works, and collaborate with technical colleagues on a practical solution.
During this apprenticeship, you would develop experience with operating systems, networks, cloud services, virtual machines, and the tools used to monitor them. You would practice scripting, reviewing logs, testing backups, documenting configurations, and investigating service interruptions. The analysis side includes gathering requirements, mapping workflows and data flows, building dashboards, and supporting connections between business applications. You would also explore automation, AI-enabled improvements, and testing and deployment practices. A practice project might follow information from a customer form into an internal system, identify where it becomes delayed or duplicated, and test an improved connection. Security controls, privacy, audit records, recovery procedures, and clear user guidance remain part of the solution.
This pathway prepares you to support systems analysis, integration, and improvement while building a broad technical foundation. It may interest you if you like understanding the whole process and tracing a problem across several connected parts. Expect to move between technical investigation, documentation, and conversations with people who use the system. You would develop the ability to explain a proposed change, test whether it meets the need, support a rollout, and help users work confidently with the revised process.
Online Merchant
O*NET code: 13-1199.06
An online merchant connects product decisions, digital presentation, customer service, and business operations. You consider what customers need, whether a product can be sourced reliably, and whether its pricing and costs support a sustainable business. Your work might include improving a product listing, checking inventory, coordinating an order, handling a return, or reviewing why a campaign generated visits without enough purchases. The storefront is one part of a larger system that needs to work reliably from sourcing through delivery.
During this apprenticeship, you would practice researching products and suppliers, assessing costs and margins, and creating accurate descriptions, images, and promotional content. You would learn to use order, invoice, payment, and inventory tools and connect their information to financial reporting and forecasting. Activities would include secure transaction checks, shipping and return workflows, customer communications, and contingency planning for stock shortages or delays. A practice project might involve evaluating a product line, building its listings, estimating its costs, and tracing a sample order through fulfillment. You would also compare promotional channels, review customer behavior, and use evidence to improve the shopping experience. Privacy, accessibility, sales tax awareness, and responsible business practices are included.
This pathway builds capabilities for contributing to an e-commerce business and for evaluating the responsibilities of operating an online business yourself. It may interest you if you enjoy combining clear communication, commercial judgment, numerical analysis, and dependable follow-through. Expect ongoing work with records, suppliers, customer concerns, and changing demand. You would learn to judge results through profitability, service quality, and customer retention, and to make thoughtful decisions about when a new product, platform, or marketing activity is worth pursuing.
UX/UI Design Analysts
O*NET code: 15-1255.00
User experience and user interface design, often shortened to UX/UI, focus on how people understand and use digital products. You investigate what someone is trying to do, where they encounter difficulty, and how a design could help them complete the task. Your work might involve interviewing users, organizing information, sketching a new screen, or observing someone use a prototype. The goal is to connect a useful, accessible experience with the organization’s practical objectives.
During this apprenticeship, you would practice planning research, conducting interviews and usability tests, and interpreting both feedback and behavior data. You would create user flows, wireframes, and interactive prototypes, then revise them as you learn. Instruction covers visual hierarchy, typography, color, brand consistency, reusable components, and shared design libraries. Accessibility work includes keyboard navigation, contrast, text alternatives, and testing with assistive technologies. A practice project might examine where users get stuck in a registration process, test a revised flow, and compare task completion results. You would also prepare specifications for developers, document design decisions, participate in team reviews, and evaluate AI-assisted design tools and features with attention to quality and user trust.
This pathway prepares you to contribute to research, interface design, usability evaluation, and ongoing product improvement. It may appeal to you if you enjoy listening closely, organizing complex information, and turning observations into designs you can test. Expect to explain your reasoning, work within technical constraints, and revise ideas in response to evidence and critique. The skills you develop help you advocate for users while collaborating with developers, product teams, and other stakeholders on achievable improvements.
Application Developer
O*NET code: 15-1252.00
Application development turns a user need into software that people can use and a team can maintain. You help define what an application should do, build its features, test its behavior, and improve it after release. The work connects the interface people see with the services and data behind it. An assignment might involve building a form, connecting an application to another service, correcting an error, or investigating why a feature responds slowly.
During this apprenticeship, you would practice scoping a minimum viable product: a focused first version that can be tested and improved. You would create wireframes, write and debug code, work with databases, and build or use application programming interfaces that allow systems to exchange information. Version control, peer code review, and documentation help you contribute to a shared codebase. You would also write automated tests, apply secure coding practices, and use guided build and deployment workflows in cloud or container environments. A practice project might take a small application from initial requirements through a working test release, followed by changes based on user feedback. Other activities include performance monitoring, incident investigation, accessible interface design, and integration of prebuilt AI services.
This pathway develops the foundations for contributing to an application development team and taking on more complex features as your skills grow. It may interest you if you enjoy building, working through detailed problems, and steadily improving something through testing. Expect substantial time writing, reading, and revising code, as well as communicating with users and teammates. You would learn to explain how a feature works, protect sensitive information, investigate failures, and leave clear records that help the next person maintain your work.
Operations Manager
O*NET code: 11-1021.00
Operations management connects an organization’s goals with the people, processes, resources, and systems needed to deliver its work. You look at whether activities are reliable, affordable, safe, and meeting customer expectations, then help improve how they run. A problem might involve recurring order delays, unreliable supplies, excess inventory, or a process that consumes too much staff time. Understanding the causes requires both data and conversations with the people doing the work.
During this apprenticeship, you would practice translating goals into operational plans and measurable performance indicators. You would analyze costs, budgets, inventory, and workflow data; map processes; test improvements; and report results. Learning activities include supplier risk scenarios, order fulfillment analysis, stock counts, quality audits, and incident response exercises. You would also explore workflow automation, connected sensors, integrated business systems, and basic cybersecurity considerations in collaboration with technical teams. A practice project might investigate repeated fulfillment delays, compare possible changes, estimate their cost, and run a small improvement pilot. Sustainability, ethical sourcing, employee training, and clear communication during change are part of evaluating whether an improvement will work in practice.
This pathway develops capabilities for operational coordination and improvement, with increasing management responsibility as you gain experience. You would begin by practicing and supporting defined activities, building toward the broader decisions associated with an operations manager role. It may appeal to you if you enjoy seeing how a whole organization works, balancing competing needs, and helping people carry out change. Expect to work with financial information, performance measures, and detailed follow-through while explaining decisions to colleagues, supervisors, and other stakeholders.
Thinking about your next step
As you compare these pathways, notice which kinds of work you want to try, which skills you already bring, and which areas would require sustained practice. Those observations are a useful starting point for a conversation about your interests and apprenticeship goals.