The deadlines are fast approaching for the WILL Empower Apprenticeship program.  We are still accepting applications for apprentices and for host sites. Apply today!

The WILL Empower Apprenticeship Program is a paid opportunity for recent college graduates and rank-and-file activists to explore what it’s like to work for the labor and workers’ justice movement, and to gain the skills and knowledge you need to begin making a difference.

Consider applying to be a 2019 WILL Empower apprentice. Applications are now open, and are due April 15, 2019. Apprentices will begin work in September, 2019. Find out more in our information guide.

WILL Empower apprentices work for 3-12 months with unions and worker organizations across the nation. The WILL Empower apprentices may work in a variety of capacities, including organizing, research, communications, politics, mobilization, and policy. Pay starts at $15 an hour.

The inaugural apprentice class in 2018 included five apprentices at four host sites: the North Carolina AFL-CIO (Raleigh); Jobs to Move America (New York); the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (Washington, DC) and Jobs with Justice (Washington, DC).

Each WILL Empower apprentice has two female mentors, one inside the host organization and one who is external to the organization. WILL Empower apprentices participate in an orientation and training in early September at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, before beginning their placements.

“Being part of the WILL Empower program has allowed me to believe in myself in a way I had not before,” wrote one recent graduate of the WILL Empower Apprenticeship program. “It gave me access to opportunity and smart support that I think is unmatched in any other national program.”

Host site applications are open, and are due April 1, 2019. Consider serving as a host site if your organization is committed to building a new generation of women leaders for the labor and workers’ justice movement, and you are eager to have an early-career activist share in your organization’s work. Find out more in our host site information guide.

WILL Empower (Women Innovating Labor Leadership) is a multi-pronged initiative designed to identify, nurture, and train a new generation of women. It is a joint project of Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor and Rutgers University SMLR’s Center for Innovation in Worker Organization.