More than 2,300 employers participate in apprenticeship programs, some having only one or two apprentices, some having hundreds. The Community College System distributes funding for apprenticeship-related instruction to education agencies and supervises that instruction. In the Richmond area, J. Sargeant Reynolds and John Tyler community colleges have vigorous apprenticeship programs. IBEW apprentices J. Sargeant Reynolds has three programs, two focused on construction trades. The largest, with 194 currently enrolled, is with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Contractors allow employees to have a half-day off each day to go to school.
Apprentices work during the morning with a journeyman electrician, applying theories that are taught in classes that run from 1 to 7 p.m. at Reynolds' Parham Road campus. At the downtown campus an average of 35 apprentices are enrolled in an optician training program. Much of that classwork can be done through the Internet, according to Harvey Crone, director of the Center for Apprenticeship. The four-year Carpentry Apprenticeship Program, run with the Richmond Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of Virginia Inc., has about 40 participants, also at the downtown campus. The program is in its fourth year and provides a vehicle for people interested in commercial and industrial building.