Your college determines which terms to display to applicants when applying via the Online Admissions Application Portal (OAAP). It is important to coordinate with Admissions staff to understand when the current term will no longer be available for applicants to choose. QRG Resource: OAAP Terms Setup. If an applicant applies to the wrong term, staff can update this to the correct term. QRG Resource: Maintaining Applications: Program/Plan & Admit Term Updates Before Matriculation

Apprentices submit their student applications via the Online Admissions Application Portal (OAAP) to the college of their choice who sponsors their apprenticeship.

• If your college is utilizing the general apprenticeship plan in OAAP, the apprentice should select the following values:
  • Program: Select “Professional Technical”
  • Plan: Select “Apprenticeship Program”
• QRG Resources for Submitting Applications: Online Admissions Portal - Student
• OAAP will send an automated email to the students confirming their application has been received. This email is sent to the email address the student used to create their OAAP Account.
• If the application was not suspended in ctcLink, the applicant can view their ctcLink ID in the OAAP automated email, and by reviewing their submitted application in OAAP,
• If their application was suspended in ctcLink, the applicant will see XXXXXXXXX rather than a numerical ID number. The college will need to complete Suspense Management in ctcLink. QRG Resource: OAAP Suspense Management
• If the applicant already existed in ctcLink before they submitted their apprenticeship application, some bio/demographic information may not have been updated by the system (i.e. email). Run the OAAP Application Report to view what information the student provided on their application. QRG Resource: OAAP Application Report

Admissions applications that are in the “general” plan should be validated with the sponsor/employer to confirm the student’s correct apprenticeship and correct admit term.

To find submitted applications, colleges should run the admissions query and can filter by the “general” apprenticeship plan code. QRG Resource: Running Admissions Query

After the apprenticeship is validated, staff will matriculate the applicant into a student and update the “general” plan to the applicable apprenticeship-specific plan. Students should be matriculated to a date on or before the start date of their first term (a.k.a. Admit Term).

• QRG Resources:
  • OAAP Suspense Management
  • Matriculating an Applicant into a Student
  • Move an Admit Term after Matriculation
  • Unmatriculating a Student into an Applicant
  • Maintaining Applications: Program/Plan & Admit Term Updates Before Matriculation
• Colleges can send a specific admissions letter to apprentices, as a welcome letter providing further information on “next steps”.
  • QRG Resources:
    • Admission Acceptance Letter
    • Admissions Letter Recurrence Setup

A student’s residency status determines the amount they are charged for tuition and fees. A residency status is automatically determined based on how they respond to the residency questions in OAAP but may need to be updated by college staff. The three residency statuses are (1) In-State, (2), Out of State, and (3) Undetermined. QRG Resource: Entering Residency

• Instructor must be added to the class.
  • See Instructor Information section below.
• Class must generate FA Progress Units.
• No specific Apprenticeship coding is required for classes.
• QRG Resources:
  • Curriculum Management QRGs
  • Faculty Workload QRGs

The Instructor/Faculty EMPLID is required for all Apprenticeship classes including those taught by external instructors who are not college faculty. To meet reporting needs, and if Apprenticeship instructors are not college faculty, use the PeopleSoft Person of Interest (POI) functionality.  This approach requires only minimal information to be configured in ctcLink, as the external instructors are not on the college payroll or on campus.

An External Instructor is defined as:
External Instructors are not employees of a Washington state Community and Technical College and are engaged to perform instruction for programs such as “Registered Apprenticeship” related supplemental instruction where instruction is provided by the apprenticeship program. For Faculty coding information see SBCTC Student & Course Coding Manual under Apprenticeships. (SCTC Policy Manual Chapter 2.35 Classification of Employees)

Beginning Fall 2025, follow the below steps to add an external instructor to a class if the instructor is not employed or paid by your college.

1. Establish the external instructor as a Person of Interest (POI) in Human Capital Management (HCM) assigned to the global External Instructor Job Code “999999”.
2. Add the instructor to the Instructor/Advisor Table in Campus Solutions (CS).
3. Assign the instructor to the relevant class in CS.

• Apprenticeship classes must be graded.
• Grade Scheme: ACA Grade Scheme (Credit Grading Scheme): pending updates
• Grade Basis:
  • “Audit Grade Basis" must be unchecked
  • “Print On Transcript” must be checked
• Grade Input: You must use a Grade Input that signifies if the student was successful or not successful in the class.

• Apprentices will log into ctcLink and enroll for apprenticeship (RSI) classes.
• Enrollment is required for funding (WG-A)
• Colleges can give the course numbers to the apprentice to enroll

College staff can utilize the list of OAAP applications and/or the list of apprentices from the sponsor to enroll the apprentices. If the class already began, backdating enrollments may be required. For students to generate FTES, they must be enrolled in the class as of the census date of the class. SBCTC Policy Manual Chapter 5.40 Enrollment Census Data

• Processing Individual Enrollments - QRG Resources:
  • Quick Enroll a Student
  • https://ctclinkreferencecenter.ctclink.us/m/79558/l/1021064-9-2-entering-enrollment-requestsEntering Enrollment Requests
  • Note: If the student was enrolled in RSI classes under the wrong apprenticeship academic plan, colleges will need to fix this. See QRG Resource: Fix Enrollment Attached to the Wrong Program.
• Processing Batch Enrollments – QRG Resources:
  • Defining Student Enrollment Blocks
  • Defining Class Enrollment Blocks
  • Processing Block Enrollments

The assignment of the W91 apprenticeship waiver will be determined by the students’ academic plan code and enrollment.

As stated above, two things must be exist for a student to be eligible and accurately calculated as an apprenticeship student:

Enrollment - In order for a student to be considered apprenticeship waiver eligible, the first thing that must exist is enrollment for a given term.

Academic Plan Code - The student must have an academic plan code that corresponds to a college's specific apprenticeship program. These plan codes were provided to the State Board SF team and any new plan codes must be provided to the SF team in order to be associated with a given apprenticeship program. 

• Tuition Groups, Term Fees, & Course Lists: Each tuition group will house two sets of tuition term fees (Operating, Building, S&A); waivable and non-waivable.
  • These term fees will feed off a course list created for each of the colleges’ apprenticeship programs that will hold eligible courses for a given program/contract.
  • The course list being accurate will be important as it determines which units an apprenticeship student takes are waiver eligible, and which are not waiver eligible.
  • Any course included in this course list will be calculated in the “waivable” term fees with the 50% waiver attached, any courses a student might be enrolled in outside of the program’s course list will not have the 50% waiver attached and will charge the full tuition rate for those units.
• Colleges that reduce their mandatory fees (any fees other than Operating, Building, and S&A) will utilize a college specific adjustment (A91). This is not the state defined W91 waiver, but still allows colleges to reduce their mandatory fees for apprenticeship students. This adjustment and its reduction amount may vary by college depending on their specific apprenticeship adjustment policy. (Please see the CLAM 50.30.60.5.b Fee Waivers).
• Colleges that have apprenticeship students also taking non-apprenticeship bachelor level courses will need to utilize manual adjustments along with any applicable waivers (ie: W31 NR Operating Differential waiver) to reduce students’ tuition to the correct amount. These students will have manual adjustments and college staff will need to monitor these students’ accounts for any enrollment activity to ensure accurate tuition adjustment amounts.
• Apprenticeship students taking a combination of apprenticeship courses and non-apprenticeship courses will have each set of units (waivable & non-waivable) charged separately. This means that a student’s apprenticeship units will begin charging at the 1-10 credit rate and any non-apprenticeship units will also begin charging at the 1-10 credit rate.
• By breaking out each program into its own tuition group having its own waivable & non-waivable term fees, each using an equation to look at the program’s associated course list means that the waiver will only apply to courses contributing to the program’s required curriculum.
• With this configuration, the system will;
  • During tuition calculation, assign them to the appropriate tuition group
  • Calculate waivable/non-waivable units and assess tuition based on enrollment
  • Assign the waiver for “waivable” courses at 50% of standard tuition and charge the full amount of tuition for non-waiver eligible courses
• Introduction of new courses: If new courses are added to an existing apprenticeship program, the course list for that program will need to be updated to include the newly created course(s). New rows will need to be added to the associated tuition group. This piece can be done by the college staff.
• Introduction of new Apprenticeship Programs: If there is a completely new apprenticeship program being added to the institution, a ticket will need to be submitted. 
  • The initial ticket needs to be submitted to CS Core team for the creation of the Program Plan Stack
  • The second ticket needs to be submitted to the SF Support team containing the following information.
    3. New Program/Contract name Academic
    4. Plans associated with the new program
    5. Program curriculum (course IDs or subject codes if all subject codes are eligible)

This Quick Reference Guide (QRG) is for Apprenticeship Coordinators and Financial Aid Administrators (FAAs) for Washington College Grant, Apprenticeship (WG-A). It covers the two QARS reports, the report toggles, the steps to determine WG-A eligibility, SSN match verification, the award calculation scenarios, Satisfactory Program Progress (SPP), and troubleshooting.

For field-by-field definitions of report columns, use the QARS Definitions document maintained by SBCTC Data Services. For financial aid processing steps, use the WG-A Apprenticeship Business Process Guide in the ctcLink Reference Center. For program rules, use the WSAC WG-A Program Manual. For an overview that includes Student Records and Student Financials details refer to the Apprenticeship Programs Business Process guide in the ctcLink Reference Center.  

QARS report availability: The FY27 QARS reports go live in mid-August 2026 with the new L&I annual data.

Terminology: This guide uses WG-A throughout. WSAC materials and some report labels use WCG-A. The two terms refer to the same program.

Award values: Dollar examples use the 2026-27 maximum WG-A award of $2,548 for the 0 to 60 percent MFI category. For FY27 the Legislature reduced the WG-A award to 50 percent of the Washington College Grant CTC maximum award value. Apprentices above 60 percent MFI receive prorated award values. See the MFI Award Values table.

FY27 replaces the single QARS Apprenticeship Hours report with two reports. Which report to use depends on whether the apprentice appears in the July 1 L&I annual file.

• Confirm QARS access. Request access through the QARS Access Request Form if needed.
• Green columns in the report represent Eligibility and Expected Completion Hours. Blue columns represent Actual Completion Hours for SPP and are the values to record in the checklist comment.
• Confirm the student is term active in the aid year, holds the correct apprenticeship plan code, and has a valid EMPLID that does not begin with X.

Both reports open with three toggle drop downs. The default setting is CURRENT YEAR, YES, YES. The defaults show your eligible students. Change a toggle only when researching a missing student. If a different combination is selected, the report may not display the expected group of students. Verify the toggle settings before researching a missing student.

1. Run the QARS report. Use the default settings. Leave Active Program Matches for Hours Evaluation set to Yes and ctcLink WG-A Financial Aid Application Received set to Yes.
2. Find the student. If the student does not appear, set the two parameters to No one at a time to locate them, then use the troubleshooting table to identify the cause.
3. Check the green eligibility columns. If L&I OJT Eligible Hours is 2,000 or more, or L&I RSI Eligible Hours is 144 or more, the student is eligible for a full award. The report Eligibility Percentage shows 100.
4. If neither meets the standard, use the Eligibility Percentage (report field L&I Prorated Greater OJT/RSI %). This is the greater of eligible OJT hours divided by 2,000 and eligible RSI hours divided by 144.
5. Record the determination. The Apprenticeship Coordinator enters the eligibility percentage, to the hundredth as shown in the report, in the FA Review Checklist (Exx179) comment. Indicate that the student is in good standing (currently active in L&I ARTS Apprenticeship and enrolled in RSI at the college). The FAA sets the Financial Aid Enrollment Intensity % to match, as a whole number.

1. Run the QARS New Apprentice report. Use the default settings. Leave Active Program Matches for Hours Evaluation set to Yes and ctcLink WG-A Financial Aid Application Received set to Yes.
2. Find the student. If the student does not appear, set the two parameters to No one at a time to locate them, then use the troubleshooting table to identify the cause.
3. Check the green eligibility columns. The green column is Eligibility % (from Prorated Months) which you will use to enter as a comment.
4. Verify RSI course enrollment and the application in ctcLink, then record the determination in the FA Review Checklist (Exx179) comment. Apprenticeship Coordinator will add a comment noting this is a new apprentice and insert the eligibility percentage using the standardized decimal precision at four decimal places for a proportion, or two decimal places when expressed as a percentage, for example 0.3333 or 33.33 percent. The Apprenticeship Coordinator also confirms in this note that the student is in good standing (currently active in L&I ARTS Apprenticeship and enrolled in RSI at the college).

Students must have a valid Social Security number in ctcLink to match to the L&I file. A student who does not match on SSN will not display L&I hours data and cannot be evaluated for award eligibility in the report. Use the following steps.

1. Run the QARS report for the Aid Year.
2. Locate the student and review the L&I Apprentice ID field. A value of 0 indicates the student was not found in the L&I file through an SSN match.
3. Review the L&I Current Status field.
4. Not in LI File: no SSN match and no first and last name match. Confirm the student is registered with L&I and confirm the SSN on file in ctcLink.
5. SSN Mismatch with LI File: the first and last name matched the L&I file but the SSN did not. This is a possible match only. The SSN in ctcLink should be reviewed for accuracy.
6. Verify the SSN in ctcLink and verify the student has a valid EMPLID. An EMPLID beginning with X will not return in the report.
7. Verify the apprentice record in L&I ARTS. Confirm the registration is active and the name and identifying information match the ctcLink record.
8. Determine where the incorrect SSN lives and route the correction. If the SSN on the WG-A application is incorrect, the apprentice updates it within the WG-A application. If it is incorrect in ctcLink, the student updates their application information. If it is incorrect in L&I ARTS, the apprentice should have it updated with their sponsor. If the SSN is incorrect with the employer, L&I must update it and the data will be available in the next file load.
9. Once the correction is made in ctcLink, run the QARS report the following day to confirm the match.

A full WG-A award is based on an annual minimum of 2,000 OJT hours or 144 RSI hours remaining in the program, for a charge of 3.00 QEUs. Eligible hours are calculated from the July 1 baseline L&I data:

• OJT Eligible Hours equals L&I Program OJT Hours minus L&I Student Total OJT Hours
• RSI Eligible Hours equals L&I Program RSI Hours minus L&I Student Total RSI Hours

If either value meets the annual standard, the student is eligible for a full award. If neither meets the standard, the award is prorated. The scenario used to award the student also sets how SPP is measured. See the SPP section.

Award dollar values below use the 2026-27 maximum WG-A award of $2,548 for the 0 to 60 percent MFI category. For an apprentice in another MFI category, substitute the value from the MFI Award Values table.

Scenarios A through C establish the eligibility percentage. The award value, the dollar amount, also depends on the term of first disbursement. WSAC prorates the award value by the quarters remaining in the fiscal year. A fully eligible student who applies in January and first disburses in Winter does not receive the full annual dollar award.

Per the WSAC Program Manual, a 3-month quarter equals 500 OJT and 36 RSI at 0.75 QEUs, and a 1-month period equals 167 OJT and 12 RSI at 0.25 QEUs. The 3.00 QEU annual award equals four quarters, Fall through trailing Summer, at 0.75 QEUs each.

Standard OJT / RSI in this table is the hour equivalent for award value only. SPP is not based on these reduced hours. It is based on the full hours the award was calculated on under Scenarios A through C.

Worked Example

Student is fully eligible under Scenario A at 0 to 60 percent MFI. The WG-A application is received in January and the first disbursement occurs in Winter.

1. Eligibility percentage: 100 percent (Scenario A).
2. Term of first disbursement: Winter, 3 quarters remaining.
3. Award value: $2,548 x 0.7500 equals $1,911.
4. QEU charge: 2.25 QEUs.
5. SPP: measured on the full 2,000 OJT and 144 RSI the award was based on, not the Winter reduced hours. 1,340 OJT and 96 RSI at 67 percent, on both components.

Apprentices who register with L&I after July 1 are calculated under Scenario C rather than this table.

A full award is based on 2,000 OJT hours and 144 RSI hours and charges 3.00 QEUs in every MFI category. Only the dollar value changes by category. Substitute the value for $2,548 in any scenario when the apprentice is above 60 percent MFI. Please refer to WSAC 2026-27 WG-A Program Manual page 45.

SPP appears on the Year Report only. It is evaluated once annually from July 1 data and displays prior aid year completion when the new aid year is selected. The blue columns hold the Actual Completion Hours used for SPP. SPP is not evaluated on the New Apprentice Report in the apprentice's first year. A new apprentice is evaluated for the first time on the following year's Year Report.

• QARS report definitions document: field by field column definitions.
• WG-A Apprenticeship Business Process: ctcLink Reference Center, Business Process Documentation, Apprenticeship Programs.
• WSAC WG-A Program Manual for Sponsors and Third-Party Servicers, 2026-27. Chapter 2 for awarding and proration. Chapter 3 for SPP. https://wsac.wa.gov/apprenticeship-program-providers
• L&I ARTS public program search: https://secure.lni.wa.gov/arts-public/#/program-search
• WSAC WG-A Funding Application: https://portal.wsac.wa.gov/a/apprentice-application
• WSAC apprenticeship contacts: [email protected], WSAC toll free (888) 535-0747, option 9.

• Apprenticeship Coordinator verifies the SPP Completion Hour Percentage and enters a comment on the Financial Aid SPP (Exx183) Checklist in ctcLink to indicate standing based on the Actual SPP Percent Completion of Hours fields in the Apprenticeship Hours report. *Note: SPP is calculated annually at the end of the aid year.
  • Good Standing depends on how the award was calculated. The report stores the proration type so the correct rule is applied.
    • Full award (both components): both OJT and RSI completion must be 67 percent or greater. This is an AND standard and applies to most apprentices. Example: OJT 80.00 percent and RSI 71.00 percent per L&I Hours is Good Standing because both are 67 percent or greater.
    • Award prorated on one component: only the component the award was based on must be 67 percent or greater. This is an OR standard, used when the award was prorated on the greater of OJT or RSI near the end of a program.
    • New apprentice, months-based award: the AND standard applies to the prorated hours.
  • Not Good Standing means the applicable standard above is not met.
    • Always include both percentages, to the hundredth, in the comment for audit purposes.

• Sponsors are required to inform the institution within 30 days of an apprentice’s suspension, whether voluntary or disciplinary.
• See WSAC’s Satisfactory Program Progress (SPP) guidance: WSAC WG-A Manual