Apprenticeships might sound as if they come straight out of the Middle Ages, but there is nothing medieval about the wage premiums and career opportunities that young Americans can gain from them. Apprenticeships are a structured form of paid worker training that combine on-the-job learning and classroom instruction. They have been shown to boost workers’ earnings and raise sponsoring companies’ productivity levels, which is why many other countries rely on them as a central tool to develop a highly skilled, competitive workforce. But even though the U.S. Department of Labor administers a small system of registered apprentices, the training model is largely unfamiliar to Americans.
An apprenticeship is a job in which the worker is paid to learn a set of skills through on-the-job training. Unlike an internship—in which the intern works for little or no money and rarely receives formal training—an apprenticeship follows an earn-while-you-learn model and leads to a nationally recognized credential that recipients can take anywhere in the country. Today, there are 358,000 registered apprentices in the United States—just 7 percent of the number of apprentices in England after adjusting for population size. If the United States had as many apprentices per capita as Germany does, our system would support almost 7 million apprentices.
The bulk of America’s apprenticeships today are in skilled trades, but the model can be adapted to many industries and occupations. Apprenticeships are well established in the construction industry, and there are many high-quality programs for electricians, carpenters, plumbers, and pipe fitters. The concept of a formal, paid training program can be applied to almost any occupation. For example, nearly every medical doctor participates in an apprenticeship of sorts; during their internships and residencies, doctors receive on-the-job and classroom-based training along with their salaries. England has overhauled its apprenticeship program in recent years, expanding its occupational reach so that a majority of new British apprentices now choose programs in the service sectors, such as business administration and retail.
Expanding the U.S. apprenticeship system both in number of participants and available occupations would strengthen the American economy by helping businesses meet the demand for skilled workers while offering workers higher wages and better employment outcomes. Such an initiative would especially benefit Millennials, who are struggling with disproportionately high unemployment, low-wage jobs, rising college costs, and spiraling student debt. Apprenticeships can create promising new pathways for young workers to well-paying, middle-class jobs.
Below are five ways Millennials would benefit from the expansion of apprenticeships.
Explanation:
