Apprenticeship is engrained in America’s history — three of our Founding Fathers started their careers as apprentices. Georgr Washington, for example, apprenticed as a land surveyor. Yet even with this 250-year runway, apprenticeships have not taken off in the United States as they have in other advance nations.

Former Missouri workforce director Dr. Mardy Leathers will lead Apprenticeships for America’s effort to support apprenticeship intermediaries and expand apprenticeships nationwide

Lakshmi Balasubramaniam had tried to launch her career by the traditional route. It just wasn’t working the way she wanted.

Balasubramaniam, 25, went to college just like you’re supposed to and earned a degree in industrial management from the University of Cincinnati in 2019. But she spun her wheels for two years in retail and call-center jobs with low pay and little opportunity for advancement.

Then a family friend told her of an emerging path for moving ahead—a reimagined and condensed form of apprenticeship that would let her pursue her interest in technology, train for a job, and get paid while doing so.

04-15-23HIT THE GROUND RUNNING

How the U.S. is barely tapping the potential of apprenticeships

Apprentices receive on average about 2% of the support that taxpayers spend on a typical college student. It’s time that changes, this advocate says.

How the U.S. is barely tapping the potential of apprenticeships

Durable Skills

Could intermediaries be the key to making apprenticeships take off?

Author

Paul Fain

March 16, 2023

A new group picks up steam in its push for funding of intermediaries that help set up and run apprenticeships. Also, an employer-backed project on “durable” skills, which could boost skills-based hiring, and a key Democrat budges on the fight over for-profits accessing Pell Grants for short-term programs.

Workforce, Impact Investors Back National Nonprofit Focused on Scaling Apprenticeships

Walton Family Foundation, Ascendium, Schmidt Futures, Schultz Family Foundation, and Irvine Foundation join Strada and ECMC to support Apprenticeships for America; accelerate intermediaries that help set up and run apprenticeship programs for employers

Skills-Based Hiring

Opportunity@Work has had a PR bonanza with its campaign for employers to drop degree requirements. Now the group wants to “rewire the labor market” by helping workers without degrees land good jobs.

Former DOL officials, state policymakers, researchers, and industry leaders come together to establish Apprenticeships for America to scale proven models of work-based learning and accelerate economic opportunity’

Economists have long believed that firms will not pay to develop occupational skills that workers could use in other, often competing, firms. Researchers now recognize that firms that invest in apprenticeship training generally reap good returns. Evidence indicates that financial returns to firms vary.

Achieving a healthy future of work requires employees to build skills that help them attain productive and rewarding careers. One of the most cost-effective ways to do this is through apprenticeship, which helps workers master occupations and gain professional identity and pride.

An “academics only” approach to skill development has failed; it’s time to consider apprenticeship programs as well.

Recent economic data suggests the nation’s economy has recovered, with steady employment growth and falling unemployment.