April 2021
IT’S A STRONG reference when your doctor prescribes a medicine and is then able to add, “I take it myself.” Well, here at ACDS, we stand behind our own prescriptions. For going on three years now, we’ve been telling Arkansas employers about the Registered Apprenticeship Program and how it’s the most efficient staffing strategy in terms of time and capital—you take someone with passion and potential and train them on employer-specified skills. It works!
And now we can testify first-hand that it works for ACDS as well. An important element in our quality control for our client employers is the role our Project Management Office plays in tracking and reporting. As we entered our second full year of sponsorship of Registered Apprenticeship Programs for IT occupations, we found ourselves requiring more bandwidth in the PMO function. The solution was right there in front of us—to take one of our excellent team members, Kelsey Hedrick, and enter her in a customized apprenticeship training program in Project Management.
You may have read about Kelsey in our March newsletter, when she was featured in our Apprenticeship Spotlight series. That was Kelsey’s story, and this month we’re telling ours. She recently successfully completed the classroom portion of her apprenticeship, and is now in on-the-job training with her mentor, Marie Stacks. Kelsey’s apprenticeship is working great for us.
Look around your office—maybe someone on your staff could do the same for you and your business. It’s gratifying for us at ACDS to see more and more Arkansas employers taking successful incumbent employees and upskilling them as IT professionals. It’s a win for the employer, a win for the new apprentice, and a win for the state of Arkansas.
Thanks, Kelsey, for being part of this great apprenticeship program. And congratulations—the whole team is proud of you.
Bill Yoder,
Executive Director
