NTCA UNIVERSITY UPDATE ––––––––––––– By Becky Serbin, Training and Education Coordinator NTCA to sponsor DOL-approved Apprenticeship Programs Wow, I can’t believe that Total Solutions Plus was October and we will soon be into the holidays! In case you weren’t able to make it to our Training and Education Committee or Board meetings, I wanted to update you on some things that I have been working on. As you have been reading in these articles, the online Tile Finisher courses are complete, and I am still developing the Tile Setter courses. Over the sum- mer, NTCA staff met with the Department of Labor to discuss apprenticeship programs. Based on this discussion, we have decid- ed to pursue Tile Finisher and Tile Setter Apprenticeship Programs where we will be the sponsor. This means that our members can be under the NTCA umbrella and use our Apprenticeship Program. It is a long process to get every- thing submitted and approved. As we get further along in the process, I will continue to update members. And as we get closer to approval, I will be able to provide more details about how mem- bers can use our program and what they would be responsible to document. While we get the appren- ticeship programs set up, we also need to take a look at ways to recruit people into the industry. This could include going to high schools, career fairs, or even promoting the industry online. Many members have started 100 TileLetter | November 2018