SLATE Expands Workforce Role Through Registered Apprenticeships

By James Drew | St. Louis Business Journal
Originally published August 18, 2026

Republished with permission from the St. Louis Business Journal.

The St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment (SLATE) has been approved to serve as an apprenticeship intermediary, giving the city workforce agency a larger role in developing paid training programs with local employers and community organizations.

SLATE's first initiative in the new role is a registered apprenticeship program for production cooks developed with Propel Kitchens, a St. Louis-area nonprofit culinary training and social enterprise organization. The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Apprenticeship approved the program Aug. 6.

The one-year program will combine structured instruction with about 2,000 hours of on-the-job training. Participants will learn food preparation and production, kitchen operations, sanitation, food safety, equipment use, inventory management and menu planning. The hourly wage will increase from $15.50 to $17.50 during that one-year period.

An apprenticeship intermediary helps employers and other organizations design, register and administer apprenticeship programs. SLATE said its approval would allow the agency to develop additional apprenticeship partnerships with employers throughout St. Louis.

Apprentices also will have opportunities to complete food handler and manager coursework. Those who complete the program will receive a nationally recognized Department of Labor apprenticeship credential.

Registered apprenticeships combine paid employment, workplace training and classroom instruction while offering workers a recognized credential. Employers can use the programs to develop workers for particular occupations and improve employee retention.

"You have a lot of people who are interested in culinary arts and this is a great starting space," SLATE Executive Director Connie Johnson said. "We did some research and what we found was a production cook model, which has standards that were directly aligned with what Propel Kitchens is doing."

Propel Kitchens uses culinary education and food-industry training to help area residents develop employment skills and gain access to economic opportunities.

Kisha Lee, president and CEO of Propel Kitchens, said the partnership would turn practical kitchen experience into a defined career path and provide trainees with a credential the organization could not offer on its own. Ten to 15 apprentices are expected in the first class, she said.

The new apprenticeship program is in addition to on-the-job training that Propel Kitchens provides through SLATE for those who are 24 years old or under, Lee said.

"The impact that I want to see is to be able to give those same community members an additional leg up to leave here and go work in the commercial kitchen space, whether it be in a hospital, a university kitchen or a major institutional kitchen which has a higher rate of pay, so it puts them on a path to self-sufficiency," she said.

Johnson is now working with the city of St. Louis Department of Personnel on a registered apprenticeship program to help fill jobs in the city Street Department that require a commercial driver's license.

"The big picture for us is to try to create a pipeline," she said.

For 2024, Propel Kitchens had total revenue of $1.13 million, expenses of $1.36 million and a net fund balance of minus $223,300, according to its most recent IRS filing.