Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership Inc

The recovery of manufacturing, the retirement of an ageing workforce, and the diversification of the regional economy created a growing skills shortage by the end of the 1990s. The Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership (WRTP) was created to respond to these challenges and has since served as a successful model of pre-employment training for job seekers to qualify for family-sustaining jobs in the industrial sector. The Building Industry Group Skilled Trade Employment Program (BIG STEP) was created in the 1970s to increase the number of women, minorities, and younger workers employed in the building trades. WRTP specializes in the development of hands-on, group-size pre-employment training certificate programs, while BIG STEP focuses on individualized tutoring in academic skills for apprenticeship exams. The success of WRTP | BIG STEP has established us as a national leader in developing sector-based, creative workforce solutions by bringing together both resources and partners in their efforts to help their members. With a dual-customer approach, the model is not just about retaining jobs in a community but also maintaining the competitiveness of the companies that provide those jobs. WRTP specializes in the development of hands-on, group-size pre-employment training certificate programs, while BIG STEP focuses on individualized tutoring in academic skills for apprenticeship exams. The Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership | Building Industry Group Skilled Trade Employment Program (WRTP | BIG STEP) is a nationally recognized workforce intermediary based in Wisconsin. The nonprofit is known for its distinct model of using Certified Pre-Apprenticeship training to link economically disadvantaged people to family-sustaining careers in industries where diverse groups, particularly women and people of color, have traditionally been underrepresented.

WRTP | BIG STEP’s Certified Pre-Apprenticeship training equips participants with skills needed to go directly into paid registered apprenticeships in the trades. All training and support services are free for participants. Programs include Certified Pre-Apprenticeship training for jobs in construction, manufacturing, clean energy, and other emerging sectors of the regional economy; roadbuilding career pathway exposure for youth that includes in-person high school equivalency diploma instruction; and trades career exploration for in-school youth.