Instructional Costs of Apprenticeship

An apprenticeship has two primary components: on-the-job training (OJT) and classroom instruction, often referred to as related technical instruction (RTI). OJT provides what many conventional higher education programs now lack: applied experience and the built-in economic security of a wage. But alongside OJT, effective RTI is indispensable for providing apprentices with the theoretical background to continue growing in their field, especially as technologies and occupations change. When it leads to college credit or degrees, moreover, high-quality classroom instruction provides on-ramps into further education and more senior roles in a variety of fields, and rescues apprentices from choosing between college and career at a time when the two increasingly go hand in hand.

Of course, connecting apprenticeship to college degrees comes at a price. Facilities, instructor salaries, and supplies all contribute to the costs of the classroom component of apprenticeship. Historically, these expenses have not resulted in significant tuition costs for apprentice employers, or apprentices themselves. In the building trades, employer associations and joint training committees often provide instructors, facilities, and curricula for apprenticeship coursework at no cost to apprentices. But when classroom instruction is provided through a college, as it must be for learners to access college credit or degrees, the question of who pays instructional costs becomes a lot less clear and a lot more pressing. When curricula must be created or updated to support a new program, moreover, the total cost of building an apprenticeship rises even further, potentially scaring away prospective new apprenticeship sponsors in nontraditional apprenticeship fields.

Community colleges have the experience and expertise needed to build effective coursework in nontraditional apprenticeship occupations in fields such as healthcare and information technology but are often strapped for cash and may be discouraged from taking on the additional effort that new programs require if no supports or incentives exist. And if apprentices themselves pay tuition, they risk losing a key advantage of the apprenticeship model: its affordability. College-connected apprenticeships in the United States reach across two educational systems that were never designed to work together, and which have evolved in parallel through separate bodies of federal legislation that make no mention of one another.¹ But though our federal policy infrastructure is currently ill-equipped to bridge this gap, thoughtful state policies provide a variety of approaches to support the costs of training apprentices at colleges.