May a sponsor give priority to qualified workers who have been waiting for openings in the apprenticeship program?

Sponsors are allowed to select apprentices through any selection method, as long as it does not discriminate on any of the protected bases and complies with the requirements for selection devices under the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures and the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Additionally, selection methods must be uniformly and consistently applied to all applicants and apprentices and be facially neutral with respect to the protected bases. Read Selecting Apprentices for Registered Apprenticeship Programs    for more details on this topic. 

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Yes. Background checks are allowed, with a few caveats.  First, sponsors should indicate what type of background check they mean (e.g., criminal, credit, etc.) and what they mean by “passing it.”  For example, descriptions might include “no felony conviction within the last seven years,” “no drug convictions,” or “no conviction of any kind within the last five years.”

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No. Sponsors are not permitted to engage in preferential hiring based on race, sex, or any other protected category.  Further, nothing in the Equal Employment Opportunity regulations requires sponsors to select unqualified applicants or a less qualified person in preference to a more qualified one.  Indeed, doing so on the basis of a protected characteristic like race or sex would be unlawful under the regulations.

Sponsors are required to engage in outreach and recruitment activities designed to reach all demographic groups within the relevant recruitment area and need to ensure that their programs offer equal employment opportunities to all apprentices and applicants.  Further, sponsors required to maintain Affirmative Action Plans may need to set race, sex, ethnicity, or disability utilization goals – if they find that their programs underutilize any of these particular groups.  However, these goals are not quotas; they do not provide a sponsor with justification to extend a preference to any individual on the basis of a protected characteristic, nor do they permit sponsors to create set-asides for specific underrepresented groups. For example, the regulations make it clear that sponsors should not establish separate ranking lists based on protected characteristics.

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As a general rule, sponsors should engage in broad-based advertising efforts to ensure that their recruitment efforts extend to all persons available for apprenticeship.  Sponsors must provide recruitment sources advance notice, preferably 30 days, of apprenticeship openings and must include their equal opportunity pledge in their opportunity announcements.

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