Workforce shortage in Maine’s aquaculture industry has been an obstacle to growth for many businesses and could stunt the industry’s tremendous growth potential. To address this, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI), The Maine Aquaculture Association (MAA), and Educate Maine partnered on The Maine Aquaculture Workforce Development Strategy- a forward thinking strategic roadmap for Maine to achieve a cohesive and comprehensive workforce training pipeline that meets the needs of today’s industry and anticipates future workforce needs as the industry evolves. Considerable progress has been made towards implementing the Strategy since it was published in 2020. The first-generation Maine Aquaculture Occupational Standards were created by MAA in partnership with GMRI and Educate Maine to help standardize workforce training programs. Using the Occupation Standards as building blocks and with funding from USDA NIFA, the first Shellfish and Seaweed Aquaculture Apprenticeship was registered with the Maine Department of Labor. This program includes 2,000 hours On-the-Job Training (OJT) as well as 144 hours Related Technical Instruction (RTI) . Apprentices receive their OJT hours while employed for an aquaculture business and their RTI hours are provided by Southern Maine Community College (SMCC). All training provided by SMCC was reviewed and approved by an industry steering committee. This program is still in its pilot year and currently has 6 apprentices at 5 aquaculture farms (4 oyster farms, 1 mussel/kelp farm). Overall feedback has been very positive from both the apprentices and the aquaculture businesses. During this session we’ll talk about the process of creating the program and what we’ve we hope the future of this program will be .