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Reef Check Foundation was recently awarded a $200,000 grant from the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR). This grant is part of an investment announced by Governor Gavin Newsom in July to increase apprenticeship opportunities that will help break career barriers for opportunity youth across California, helping them launch into their future careers.
Reef Check will develop an apprenticeship program to create a pathway into marine research through scuba diving. This first-of-its-kind apprenticeship will allow participants to gain the necessary skills to work in marine research, conservation and management by providing an alternative to the traditional 4-year college education. This grant will allow us to develop a competency-based Youth Registered Apprenticeship Program for Marine Science Research Technicians.
“This COYA investment accelerates and broadens access for a more diverse workforce in marine science, ocean conservation, marine resource management, ocean recreation/ecotourism, and other Blue Economy jobs,” said Jan Freiwald, Executive Director of Reef Check Foundation. “Youth will have opportunities to connect to an entirely new community of marine scientists, ocean conservation practitioners, and marine resource managers.”
Reef Check’s Dive into Science (DIS) offers scuba and scientific diving certification courses, ocean stewardship training, and marine science educational opportunities to low-income and BIPOC populations who have been historically excluded from the marine science and resource management space. DIS is a 30-month program that incorporates classroom and ocean-based field instruction. Participants are trained and certified in Open Water, Advanced, and Rescue scuba, the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS) scientific diving, and Reef Check’s citizen science-based subtidal reef health monitoring protocol for kelp forest ecosystems.
The funding was made available through DIR’s Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS) California Opportunity Youth Apprenticeship Grant (COYA). COYA is a new funding source to develop and test innovative practices to increase the participation of opportunity youth in pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs that help youth enter and advance in high quality careers. Our apprenticeship program builds on Reef Check’s 27 years of conducting citizen science reef monitoring programs worldwide, 17 years monitoring kelp forests and marine protected areas in California, and 5 years of engaging Opportunity Youth and Adults, and Tribal Populations in our DIS programs.
