84D.4  Duties of office.
  1.  The Iowa office of apprenticeship shall adopt rules and develop standards to create a nationally recognized state apprenticeship completion credential in compliance with, but not exceeding, standards established in 
29 C.F.R. §29.5
 for completing a registered apprenticeship program.
  2.  a.  The office shall approve or deny an application for a registered apprenticeship program, whether for a new program or expansion of an existing program, within sixty days of a signed application being submitted to the office. The office shall provide an entity whose application is not approved with specific reasons for the disapproval and an option for modifying the application.
  b.  The office shall approve or deny an application for a new apprenticeship sponsor who is providing related technical instruction within thirty days. The applying sponsor’s apprentices may enroll in an apprenticeship program while approval is pending; however, training shall not begin until the plan is approved.
  3.  The office shall establish competency-based apprenticeship frameworks based on the regional and statewide collection of valuable credentials.
  4.  The office shall establish a plan to provide reciprocal approval, for federal purposes, to apprentices, apprenticeship programs, and standards that are registered in other states by the United States department of labor, office of apprenticeship, or a registration agency, if such reciprocity is requested by the apprenticeship program sponsor. Program sponsors seeking reciprocal approval shall meet wage and hour provisions and apprentice ratio standards of this state.
  5.  The director may adopt rules pursuant to chapter 17A to administer the duties of the office in compliance with 
29 C.F.R. pts. 29
 and 
30
.
  6.  The office may consider advice provided by the Iowa apprenticeship council and state workforce development board when completing the office’s duties as set forth in this section.
  7.  The office shall serve as the registration agency for quality pre-apprenticeships, youth apprenticeships, registered apprenticeships, and apprenticeships.
  8.  The office shall develop a plan providing a procedure for the cancellation or deregistration, or both, of programs and for temporary suspension, cancellation, deregistration, or any of these, of apprenticeship agreements.
  9.  The office shall not require affiliation with a labor organization, employer organization, or other limited-membership organization as a criteria of an apprenticeship program. This subsection does not prohibit labor organizations, employer organizations, and limited-membership organizations from requiring membership to participate in the apprenticeship training provided by the organization.
2023 Acts, ch 72, §4
NEW section