Contributor: Bruno V. Manno

Many Americans, including young people, no longer believe that a college degree is the best pathway to a good job and adult success, or even a reliable one. But what else is there? More and more, students, workers, and employers are seeking new ways to pursue employment and success that involve other education and training pathways.

These fresh approaches include creating apprenticeships—particularly youth apprenticeships—that integrate paid, on-the-job training with formal classroom instruction. This pathway replaces the traditional college campus experience with a school and workplace campus experience.

As we observe National Youth Apprenticeship Week, it’s time to get the lay of this changing landscape and recognize the opportunities it provides.

Other Pathways to Success

A Wall Street Journal-NORC poll reports that more than half of Americans (56%) think a degree is not worth the cost. Tellingly, the most prominent skeptics are between 18 and 34 years old—with college degree holders “among those whose opinions have soured the most,” writes Douglas Belkin of the Journal. 

It’s easy to understand why.

A study by Burning Glass Institute and Strada Education Network surveying more than 60 million workers with bachelor's degrees and millions of online job postings found that 45% of college graduates were underemployed ten years after graduating in jobs not requiring a degree. Moreover, employers are eliminating the college degree as the gatekeeper credential for jobs, shifting from degree-based to skills-based hiring.

Americans both need and want alternative education and training pathways to employment and adult success—foremost among which are apprenticeships for young people. Two Harris polls sponsored by the American Staffing Association found that more than 9 in 10 (92%) Americans view apprenticeships favorably. More than 6 in 10 (62%) say they make people more employable than going to college.

Gen Z high schoolers agree. A poll sponsored by the nonprofit Educational Credit Management Corporation reports that half (51%) of today’s high schoolers are considering a college degree—a drop of more than ten percentage points from before the pandemic. More than 6 in 10 (65%) say learning after high school should be done on the job through internships or apprenticeships.

Apprenticeships Old and New

The federal government’s authority to register and oversee apprenticeship programs dates from the 1937 National Apprenticeship Act, allowing states to register and manage programs. Today, about half the states exercise that option. These registered apprenticeship programs require individuals to obtain paid work experience, receive wage increases, participate in classroom instruction, and be awarded a nationally recognized credential. They differ from internships, generally short-term, entry-level, unpaid jobs that do not lead to an industry credential.

Today, 27,000 registered programs enroll over 594,000 individuals whose average age is 29, with roughly 70% in construction trades. However, that is only 0.3% of the workforce, placing the U.S. at the bottom of apprenticeship enrollment among developed countries.

Youth apprenticeships, in contrast, are a newer form of apprenticeships with no federal definition. State laws define them and often include some characteristics of registered programs. For example, youth apprenticeships include work-based learning with classroom instruction, though instruction typically involves dual enrollment across high schools and postsecondary institutions.

Youth apprenticeships are often not paid, while registered apprenticeships are paid. Finally, youth apprenticeships predominate in fields like advanced manufacturing, information technology, and logistics, unlike the adult focus on construction trades. The digital news hub Work Shift dubs these “new collar apprenticeships.”

Promisingly, youth apprenticeship programs have bipartisan backing across states as diverse politically as California, Colorado, New York, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas.

A report from New America identifies five types of youth apprenticeship programs: state-level, registered (federal apprenticeship) programs, public and private partnerships, high school pathways programs, and experimental pilot programs. All typically include some combination of school, employer, and post-secondary institutional partnerships, often coordinated by an organization called an apprenticeship intermediary. Another New America report documents how these go-between organizations are using technology to strengthen and expand these programs.

All signs point towards these programs continuing to grow. The Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration is launching a first-ever Federal Youth Apprentice Pathway pilot program to model how federal agencies can partner with organizations to create career pathways to federal jobs. And the U.S. Congress is considering several bipartisan apprenticeship bills, including a first-ever Youth Apprenticeship Advancement Act—a grant program to expand youth apprenticeships for school districts and employers.

What Next?

To maximize their potential, youth apprenticeships can and should be integrated into at least two noteworthy education initiatives: career education and apprenticeship degrees. The former helps lay the foundation for successful apprenticeships; the latter gives them a clear direction and payoff.

Preparing individuals for apprenticeships should begin when a child enters school and should continue through middle and high school. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has studied career education programs internationally and documented an approach that spans preschool through high school organized by three categories:

• Exposure activities introduce careers to children beginning in preschool. They include visits from those working in different occupations, reading books and telling stories about jobs and careers, and workplace visits as young people enter grade school.

• Exploration activities investigate work through discussion of occupations. This can include volunteer work, job shadowing, resume development, and mock job interviews, typically beginning in middle school and continuing through high school.

• Experience activities include work-based learning where young people engage in supervised projects and mentorships, including internships and apprenticeships. These experiences create bridges to other opportunities that lead to full-time jobs, more education, or both.

Another approach to career education is Colorado’s work-based learning continuum for middle and high school students, which is organized by workplace activities: learning about work, learning through work, and learning at work. These and similar approaches help young people develop knowledge and skills, social and professional networks, and the capacity to navigate pathways that turn ambitions into reality.

While career education programs position students for successful apprenticeships, apprenticeship degrees expand their opportunities on the tail end. They reflect the fact that apprenticeships need not conflict with traditional higher education. They can be part of dual education programs that allow individuals to be apprentices and attend college. For example, the United Kingdom has developed an apprenticeship degree, an earn-and-learn program that takes three to six years and leads to a debt-free bachelor’s or master’s degree.

This degree-granting model is being adopted in U.S. K-12 education to create debt-free teacher apprenticeships that award bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Currently, 28 states and the District of Columbia are approved by the U.S. Department of Labor to offer these programs, with at least twenty-five school districts participating.

Combining apprenticeships with higher education also allows colleges to "unbundle" the four-year degree into building blocks, or stackable credentials, earned while working. Some colleges are creating pathway degrees earned while working, leading to new types of associate or bachelor’s degrees.

An Opportunity Program

Americans want K-12 schools, colleges, employers, and other stakeholders to think differently about success—and creatively about attaining it. The goal is no longer “college for all” but opportunity pluralism, where many pathways lead to human flourishing. In refusing to equalize opportunity along the single college route for all, the new apprenticeship paradigm makes the nation's opportunity structure more pluralistic.

This new opportunity agenda is different from the old vocational education that placed students into different tracks based chiefly on family background. That sorting process often carried racial, ethnic, and class biases. While middle- and upper-class white students sat in academic, college-preparatory classes, immigrants, low-income youth, and students of color typically were enrolled in low-level academic and vocational training. The new apprenticeship approach opens new doors rather than constraining individuals’ choices.

This opportunity program also has social and psychological benefits for individuals. Apprenticeships allow individuals to develop clarity about who they are and their interests, values, and abilities, helping them build their occupational identity and vocational self. Practically, apprenticeship programs create faster and cheaper pathways to jobs and careers.

These programs are built on an opportunity equation that includes what individuals know (knowledge) and whom they know (relationships). They build profitable knowledge and priceless relationships. Today’s apprenticeship models make the workplace the new campus. Celebrating National Youth Apprenticeship Week gives many Americans the occasion to agree it’s about time.