Missouri To Create The Nation’s Largest National Guard Apprenticeship

The state of Missouri has recently announced the debut of their new apprenticeship program dubbed “Project Eagle”. The introduction of this new program will allow participants to count military training and experience towards an apprenticeship certification.

The program is designed to help their participants get a leg up inside and outside the military. Missouri’s Office of Workforce Development released that the program has 171 current occupations that their participants can be certified in through the apprenticeship program making it the largest of its kind in the United States.

“Our partnership with Missouri National Guard actually was fully comprehensive. We said we want everyone to have equal access to an apprenticeship opportunity. “So we created programs for every single occupation. That’s a really big deal. The other part of it is that you know, it’s available day one – today – for any serviceman or woman that wants to join.

Mardy Leathers, Director of Missouri’s Office of Workforce Development

To graduate from this program a participant will have to complete a minimum of 2,080. The program will also recognize any public works hours their apprentices complete working in the community providing them training hours from both the National Guard as well as any time they spend in a co-op helping them inch closer to the completion of their program as well as adding more learning opportunities to their arsenal.

Apprenticeship occupation options range from truck drivers to healthcare workers and with the completion of the state Project Eagle those credentials can then translate to carer advancement opportunities across the state of Missouri. Missouri has seen great success in their past apprenticeship program initiatives as they currently have over 14 thousand active apprentices with the state completing around 3,000 apprenticeship programs a year and the average salary for a completed apprentice reaching $66,000 a year.