For individuals looking to pursue skilled trade careers — like welding or carpentry — and go straight into the workforce, apprenticeships offer the opportunity for on-the-job training and education. And in recent years, these programs have expanded into more fields, experts say.
“IT, health care and education and all of these areas have started to experiment with apprenticeships,” says Alisha Hyslop, chief policy, research and content officer at the Association for Career & Technical Education.
“So I think encourage students to not overlook apprenticeships, even if they’re not pursuing skilled trades. There may be apprenticeships available in kind of these emerging white-collar career fields that might not have been an option in the past.”
Here’s what to know about participating in an apprenticeship program.
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What Are Apprenticeships?
An apprentice is a “hired employee and as part of their work, they will pursue formal training both in the classroom and on the job,” says Ryan Craig, managing director at Achieve Partners, a company that invests in models to promote skills development and economic advancement, and author of “Apprentice Nation.”
“But it’s not a training program you apply for as a student,” he says. “It’s a job you’re hired for.”
Compared with internships, apprenticeships are much more formal, Hyslop says.
“Particularly, registered apprenticeships are approved by a governmental agency, either the Department of Labor or state apprenticeship agency, and they have very specific requirements that have to be followed on a whole host of things,” she says. “But generally speaking, they have standards of what students are supposed to learn in the education portion of the apprenticeship, as well as a graduated series of responsibilities in the work portion of the apprenticeship.”
They are much more likely to lead to a specific job with the employer, and are typically longer than internships — lasting at least a year or more rather than a semester, Hyslop adds.
“That’s kind of the goal of an apprenticeship, is that you finish the apprenticeship and you’re working for that employer,” she says. “Certainly some students get jobs after an internship, but they’re more about kind of exploring and learning about different organizations, different career options.”
From the employers’ perspectives, apprenticeships mean they get talent earlier and “you get to train them your own way,” says Kiersten Barnet, executive director of the New York Jobs CEO Council, a nonprofit that aims to hire 100,000 low-income New Yorkers into career-ladder jobs by 2030.
While an apprentice typically earns a wage, there may be additional expenses associated with apprenticeships, such as coursework or tools.
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“In some programs, particularly in the trades, (tools) can be quite expensive,” says Mary Morris, CEO of Commonwealth Savers, which provides one of the biggest tax-advantaged education savings program in the U.S. “Your masonry tools, your electrical tools, all of that. Those are yours personally and they can run a couple of thousand dollars, maybe.”
Some costs can be covered by federal financial aid if the program is connected to an eligible school, among other requirements. Apprentices may also be able to use a 529 plan. Morris recommends contacting your 529 provider to learn about qualified expenses.
Graduates of a registered apprenticeship program can earn a job and/or various types of credentials, ranging from industry-based certifications and other certificates to licenses and degrees, experts say.
How to Pick an Apprenticeship Program
When searching for an apprenticeship program, look to see what worker protections are in place, including whether wages increase over time, employees receive fair treatment and there are opportunities for industry experience, Hyslop says.
It’s important to understand how the education would be documented or transferred, she adds.
“What certifications or licenses is a student earning, or are they getting postsecondary credit for the coursework they’re taking as part of the apprenticeship program?” Hyslop says. “All of that can be a value add, particularly if the individual decides later to change career paths or that they don’t want to go in the specific direction of that apprenticeship. But if they’ve earned certifications or licenses or postsecondary credit, then those things will carry with them.”
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For apprenticeships that don’t end in a degree, make sure the organization you would be working for “has cleared the path from there on,” Barnet says.
For instance, most of the jobs for experienced hires at JPMorganChase “don’t require degrees,” she says. “The company is specifically focused on investing in strategic skills training and workforce initiatives to find, attract and train young people for the jobs of tomorrow. Yet at a handful of other big organizations, careers can get stalled unintentionally. You wouldn’t want someone to end up in a job that originally didn’t require a degree, but then in order to move up or on to that next job, the next one still has the degree requirement. The approach needs to be systemwide to have the most impact.”
Barnet also recommends thinking about if and how a particular apprenticeship would advance your long-term professional goals.
“Apprenticeships are great engines for social mobility,” she adds. “They provide on-ramps to pathways that often have left others behind. But you still want a job at the end. So I think it’s similar to when you’re looking at a degree program.”
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What Are Apprenticeships? originally appeared on usnews.com
