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As we prepare for the year ahead and reflect on 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Apprenticeship (OA) would like to take a minute to thank our partners for their hard work during the 10th anniversary of National Apprenticeship Week (NAW) where there were over 2,500 events and proclamations across the country, the most we’ve ever had! Many thanks to those of you who shared pictures and event highlights. The team here at OA used that information to create the NAW 2024 Report which highlights some of these activities, and you may see some familiar faces as you read through it. Please feel free to share the Report broadly with your networks.
We also want to take this opportunity to remind you that we listened to feedback many of you have shared over the years about the difficulties of holding NAW in November due to budget cycles, colder weather, and other competing priorities. Consequently, we have decided to move NAW to the spring to capitalize on warmer weather, graduation ceremonies, and other end-of-school year celebrations. To adjust to this new calendar shift, in 2025 we will be starting with a single-day celebration on April 30, 2025. This is a big change, and we would benefit from your help sharing the news with your networks. We will resume with a week-long NAW celebration starting in 2026.
We are working hard to revamp our website so your partners can begin adding their National Apprenticeship Day 2025 events and proclamations and will alert you when it is ready. Similar to other years, any events planned around that time can be added, even if it doesn’t fall right on April 30. This may include a graduation ceremony, social media campaign, call-to-action, career fairs, signing days, etc.
It is understood that many of you and our partners poured a lot of time and effort into the 10th Annual NAW and last year’s Youth Apprenticeship Week and may have some concerns about doing it again in a few months. Please note that we aren’t expecting the same level of events on National Apprenticeship Day in 2025 as the record-breaking celebration we just experienced, especially considering how close the dates are. It is our hope that some of the activity already planned for the spring in your regions and communities can be counted towards this single-day NAW. We also do not plan to have goals similar to those for a week-long NAW event. This year is simply meant to be a transition year as we move towards having NAW in the spring, starting in 2026. Thank you for your understanding and patience during this transition period.
With your help, we know that NAW 2026 will be our biggest year yet! Below you will find a list of NAW dates over the next four years.
April 30, 2025
April 26 - May 2, 2026
April 25 - May 1, 2027
April 23 - April 29, 2028
We are in the process of updating the NAW page on the Apprenticeship,gov website and accompanying resources and will have more information to share shortly. We encourage you to send us any questions or comments you may have to NationalApprenticeshipWeek@dol.gov.
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