Outh central connecticut faces stagnant population growth but increasing demand for skilled labor in livable-wage occupations that do not require a four-year degree

The Department of Labor Women's Bureau awarded Workforce Alliance, Inc. $722,408 on September 30, 2025, under the Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) Technical Assistance Grant Program (CFDA 17.701) to expand apprenticeship and manufacturing career pathways for women in south central Connecticut.

Workforce Alliance will lead the W3A initiative, delivering technical assistance to employers and 13 building trade unions to increase women's participation and retention in apprenticeship and nontraditional occupations within architecture, engineering, construction, and manufacturing sectors. The project includes developing training options supporting career pathways in AEC occupations, updating pre-apprenticeship models to foster registered apprenticeship programs, and implementing system-level changes including comprehensive communications strategy, mentoring networks, performance dashboards, and knowledge-sharing across workforce boards. Workforce Alliance will leverage its role as convener of regional sector partnerships and advance strategies outlined in the 2024–2028 Local Workforce Development Plan.

The award runs through September 30, 2027, with place of performance in Connecticut. The organization operates as the regional workforce development board serving a 30-town south central Connecticut area with a population of approximately 729,000.

Women comprise 53% of the region?s population yet remain underrepresented in high-demand fields such as manufacturing, construction, and other building trades. W3A aims to close this GAP in collaboration with employer-driven regional sector partnerships (rsps) in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) and manufacturing by providing technical assistance (TA) to employers and unions, and redesigning outreach and retention activities for wanto strategies. The project aims to: (1) expand apprenticeship opportunities for women in construction and building trades through enhanced training, employer engagement, and union collaboration, (2) enhance manufacturing career pathways by updating pre-apprenticeship models and fostering employer partnerships to create registered apprenticeship programs (raps), and (3) implement system-level changes to scale and sustain wanto strategies, including a comprehensive communications strategy, mentoring networks, performance dashboards, and knowledge sharing across workforce boards. Workforce alliance, a regional workforce board, will lead W3A and leverage its role as the convener of the rsps. W3A will advance strategies in the 2024 to 2028 local workforce development plan which calls for the intentional development of career pathways relevant to rsps, the expansion of livable-wage opportunities for all residents and strengthening and better aligning workforce development system partners. Activities within construction and building trades will include developing training options that support career pathways in AEC occupations, (b) delivering technical assistance to 13 building trade unions that increases women?s participation and retention in wanto programs, and (c) redesigning the approach to engage and assist construction and trade companies with wanto hiring and retention. Activities within the manufacturing industry will include (a) enhancing the skill up manufacturing pre-apprenticeship model in response to the needs of the manufacturing RSP, (b) delivering technical assistance to manufacturers on how to benefit from wanto programs and other system incentives, and (c) activating manufacturing companies to expand use of raps and hiring partnerships. WA will implement a series of workforce development system change efforts to scale and sustain wanto strategies such as (a) implementation of a wanto communication strategy, (b) coordination of a wanto support and mentoring network, (c) introduction of wanto performance dashboards, and (d) technical assistance to rsps to integrate wanto strategies into talent pipelines.intended beneficiaries include (1) wanto participants, (2) employers, and (3) implementation partners such as organized labor, employers, training providers, and (4) partners funding or leading relevant strategic initiatives related to a significant amount of construction and infrastructure improvements, brownfield remediation projects, and ongoing economic development efforts within the region to increase entrepreneurship and small business development by minority and women-led entrepreneurs.