(Illustration by Ben Hickey)
For at least the last 25 years, the primary goal of K-12 schools in the United States has been “college for all”—the ideal that all high school graduates go to college. As a result, America’s schools do not typically provide young people with work experience or make career education central to their offerings. This gap leaves high school students with little understanding of work and the practical pathways to jobs, careers, and further education.
Today, college for all is losing public support. When Americans were asked to rank their priorities for K-12 education, “being prepared to enroll in a college or university” dropped from the 10th highest priority (out of 57) in 2019 to 47th in 2022, according to the nonpartisan think tank Populace. Other surveys reveal a growing skepticism about the value of a four-year degree. More than half of Americans (56 percent) think a degree is not worth the cost, with skepticism most pronounced among college-degree holders ages 18 to 34.
Many employers, meanwhile, no longer use a college degree as the gatekeeper credential for jobs, shifting from degree-based to skills-based hiring. And a study published by Strada Education Foundation of the careers of more than 60 million workers and millions of online job postings found that 10 years after degree completion, 45 percent of graduates were underemployed in jobs not requiring a degree.
Small wonder, then, that many Americans no longer believe a college degree is the default pathway to success. Instead, older forms of career preparation, particularly apprenticeships, are regaining popularity among employers and students. Populace reports that Americans’ current priority for K-12 schools is to ensure young people develop practical, tangible skills, though only one in four (26 percent) think they do. And across demographics, the public believes that apprenticeships provide practical knowledge that help young people succeed in life.
Instead of the singular goal of college for all, Americans want multiple pathways for their children to succeed. This opportunity pluralism affirms that there are many ways for young people to thrive, not simply by obtaining a four-year degree. The addition of the apprenticeship pathway makes the nation’s opportunity structure more pluralistic and egalitarian.
The Value of Apprenticeships
Unlike most college students, apprenticeship students have a job and earn a living, learn from a workplace mentor and in the classroom, and receive a credential with little to no student debt. This learn-and-earn model is spawning new forms of apprenticeships.
More than 9 in 10 (92 percent) Americans view apprenticeships favorably, while more than 6 in 10 (62 percent) say apprenticeships make people more employable than going to college. When parents are asked to choose between a full-tuition college scholarship and a three-year apprenticeship leading to a good job, nearly 6 in 10 (56 percent) opt for apprenticeships. And almost two-thirds of Gen Z high schoolers say post-high-school learning should be on the job through internships or apprenticeships.
Apprenticeship programs also provide individuals with social and psychological benefits. They offer individuals the opportunity to develop clarity about who they are and what their interests, values, and abilities are, helping them to develop their occupational identity and vocational self.
The apprenticeship model has official government sanction. The federal government established authority over apprenticeship programs in 1937 with the National Apprenticeship Act, which also gave states the option to register and oversee programs. But only about half of states currently exercise that option. These registered apprenticeship programs provide individuals with on-the-job training, pay for work and classroom instruction, and award a nationally recognized credential. Today, 27,000 registered programs enroll around 500,000 individuals, whose average age is 29, with roughly 70 percent in construction trades. That is only 0.3 percent of the workforce, which places the United States at the bottom of apprenticeship enrollment among countries that have apprenticeship programs.
These programs help advance equality of opportunity by developing what individuals know, whom they know, and who they are.
Youth apprenticeships, meanwhile, are typically earn-and-learn programs for high school students. Not all youth programs are registered apprenticeships. They generally include dual-enrollment classroom instruction across high schools and postsecondary institutions, with students also receiving on-the-job training. Unlike the adult focus on construction trades, youth apprenticeships cluster in other fields such as advanced manufacturing, information technology, and logistics. North Carolina, for example, offers 12 youth apprenticeship career pathways, including veterinary, early childhood education, and drone piloting.
Federal financial support is growing for these programs. Spending for the US Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship more than doubled over a five-year period, from $90 million in 2016 to $185 million in 2021. In 2022, Labor Department apprenticeship grants saw a $50 million increase in funding. The Biden administration also committed new funding to pre-apprenticeships—one way to prepare individuals for registered apprenticeship programs—especially in clean-energy and other climate-focused careers. Meanwhile, lawmakers from the US House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce have approved two bipartisan workforce development bills, one of which the full House passed overwhelmingly and sent to the US Senate for consideration.
Apprenticeship programs also have broad bipartisan backing in state houses, according to an analysis by the National Governors Association. These programs succeed in preparing individuals for rewarding employment: Workers can earn $240,000 more over their lifetime through program participation, according to a Mathematica Policy Research cost-benefit analysis of registered apprenticeships in 10 states. And a government evaluation of the Labor Department’s American Apprenticeship Initiative shows that earnings increased for all apprentices between the year before their apprenticeship began and the year following its conclusion, regardless of the occupation or the person’s demographics.
Developing the Model
While these efforts are promising, more can be done. Three areas are especially ripe for additional development:
Career education | Career education programs help young people develop social and professional networks and the capacity to navigate pathways that turn ambitions into reality. Preparing young people for an apprenticeship during high school (and beyond) should be embedded in a K-12 career education program. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has documented such an approach organized around activities that expose children to occupations, and then enable them to explore and experience working in those professions.
Scaling new programs | Many efforts are underway to expand programs. The Labor Department supports a State Apprenticeship Expansion Project that includes an Apprenticeship Professionals Learning Network, and an increasing number of organizations offer policy guidance and practical assistance to states on creating new programs. Urban Institute Fellow Robert Lerman and Achieve Partners Managing Director Ryan Craig have proposed plans for how the United States can bring apprenticeships to scale so that 30 percent or more of an age cohort can be enrolled in them (on par with European countries) working with apprenticeship intermediaries.
These third-party organizations include community colleges, chambers of commerce, and commercial staffing companies that hire, train, and pay the up-front costs of apprenticeships. Companies can then try out an apprentice, paying a fee to the intermediary for recruiting, training, and matching employees with firms.
Apprenticeship degrees | Apprenticeships need not conflict with traditional higher education. They can be expanded through dual-education programs that allow individuals to be apprentices and college students at the same time. For example, the United Kingdom has developed an apprenticeship degree, an earn-and-learn apprenticeship program that takes between three and six years and leads to a debt-free bachelor’s or master’s degree. Degrees are offered in fields that typically require academic work, such as health and sciences, business and administration, and aerospace.
This degree-granting model is being adapted in US K-12 education to create debt-free teacher apprenticeships that award bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The nonprofit Reach University is a leader in this effort, with its affiliates Oxford Teacher’s College Undergraduate School of Education and Reach Institute Graduate School. Together they offer eight degrees and certificate programs in partnership with 148 schools and districts that now enroll more than 1,500 students. The US Departments of Education and Labor are cooperating on a program to create paid registered apprenticeship programs for teaching by combining funding. Currently, 28 states and the District of Columbia have federal approval to offer teacher apprenticeship programs, and at least 25 school districts are participating.
Finally, apprenticeship programs offer colleges the option to unbundle the four-year degree. This track involves sequencing work-based experience and academic courses so that they build on each other and lead to an occupational credential in addition to, or in lieu of, the traditional two- or four-year degree. For example, some colleges are creating pathway degrees that are earned while working and that lead to new types of associate or bachelor’s degrees. A recent study of the Virginia Community College System shows that such programs typically increase employment by four percentage points and quarterly wages by $375.
At root, these programs help advance equality of opportunity by developing what individuals know (knowledge), whom they know (relationships), and who they are (identity). They pursue knowledge that is profitable, relationships that are priceless, and a vocation that elevates their self-worth. Today’s earn-and-learn apprenticeship model makes the workplace the new campus.
Read more stories by Bruno V. Manno.