Bridging Education and Work

Colleges that sponsor or provide instruction for Registered Apprenticeships mend a fraying thread between higher education and the workforce that has eroded trust in postsecondary education as a reliable pathway to good jobs. During our research for Mapping the Landscape of Degree Apprenticeship: Expanding a Promising Model for Mobility, we met impressive educators who are bridging the divide between education and work by pairing Registered Apprenticeships with opportunities to earn postsecondary credentials. Here we highlight nine of their recommendations for other educators who want to get started with apprenticeship. 

Don’t worry about starting small.  

Every college started with a handful of apprentices. “Don’t think you’re too small to start this, because that will come later,” counseled Laurie Bargebuhr, Apprenticeship Director for Guilford Technical Community College in North Carolina, “Just get something going.” Starting small allowed the schools to identify and resolve issues before expanding. And because apprenticeship pays dividends for apprentices and employers, even smaller programs deliver value to the community. Rural Rend Lake College in Illinois makes apprenticeship a priority even though it does not have access to the large-scale partnerships that are more common in urban areas. “Our focus is on building strong apprenticeship programs within our local communities and creating a reliable pipeline that connects students with small businesses and long-term career opportunities,” said Jeremy Hentz, Director of Community, Corporate, and Workforce Education. 

Build on what already exists—and watch participation grow.

Administrators urged others to start their apprenticeship work by building on existing infrastructure and relationships rather than creating something new. Crystal Folger-Hawks, Executive Director of Surry-Yadkin Works at Surry Community College in North Carolina said they made an early mistake in “taking a class from here and class from there” to piece together the related instruction for its first apprenticeship. Staff soon realized that the bespoke design limited their ability to add new employers to the apprenticeship and made attaining a postsecondary credential difficult for the apprentice. Surry now builds its apprenticeships around the existing diploma, certificate, and degree programs it offers.

Similarly, to interest area high schools in apprenticeship, Catrina Gray, Director of Apprenticeships for Central Community College in Nebraska, didn’t try to sell them on creating a new program. She instead suggested adding apprenticeship as an option for students enrolled in dual credit courses, giving them an opportunity to work in the occupation they were studying. “We’re just building on what they have,” she said. They soon took ownership of the idea and it expanded. “And then when they’re in there and they see it, and they learn how it works, then they can start noticing different ways of changing it to make it better, because it becomes their program.” 

Make it easy for employers to say yes. 

College leaders emphasized that they don’t overwhelm employers with options. Curt Rendall, Executive Director of Program Development and Innovation at Heartland Community College in Illinois, explained, “The apprenticeship process needs to be simple, clear, and respectful of employers’ time. Our role as a college is to do the upfront work, organize the pathway clearly, and present a straightforward plan so it is easy for an employer to say yes. In some ways, it is like Chipotle: you guide people through a clear set of choices without overwhelming them, so they can quickly see the value and take an active role in building their future talent pipeline.” 

Be persistent. 

Surry Community College’s Folger-Hawks knows that starting an apprenticeship will rarely be an employer’s first priority. So she stays proactive and persistent. “Some people have the philosophy that, I’ve sent it to you, the ball is in your court. Whatever happens next, happens next, right? That is not my philosophy,” noted Folger-Hawks. “My philosophy is, yep, the ball is in your court, but I’m still bouncing it in your court. We haven’t heard from you about that step we talked about so I’m going to come and sit with you in person…I’m gonna keep following up…I quit that whole, ‘It’s on you now.’”

Don’t forget incumbent workers. 

Colleges often encourage employers to consider recruiting apprentices from among their incumbent workers, knowing that many want to move up or try something new. Gray at Nebraska’s Central Community College noted, “We always say, ‘Who do you have inside your company, existing employees, you would like to upskill in an apprenticeship program?’ Because you always want to offer your apprenticeship program to your existing employees.” Ignoring current talent also risks creating resentment within the company.

Invest time and resources in making apprentices successful 

Harper College in Illinois helps apprenticeship applicants put their best feet forward with employers. It coaches applicants on resume development and forwards a resume to an employer only when they think the resume is satisfactory. The college also requires prospective apprentices to participate in a presentation on interviewing skills and offers them the opportunity for a mock interview. 

Harper and all of the other colleges stayed connected to apprentices and plugged in to their progress. For each term, Harper schedules three “touch points” with apprentices. It helps apprentices navigate school issues and connect them with campus services they may need, such as tutoring and the Hawks Care Resource Center, which includes a food pantry and provides support in accessing child care and other community resources.

Colleges also encourage employers to invest in apprentice success by paying apprentices for their time in the classroom and, sometimes, for a few hours to study each week. To promote completion, some employers require apprentices to repay tuition if they do not earn the credential. Central Community College’s Gray reported that employers she’s worked with have had success offering a completion bonus.  

Support workplace mentors.

College leaders agreed that training and supporting workplace mentors was vital. Gray at Central Community College invites a representative of human resources, the supervisor, and the mentor to a training session to make sure everyone understands their roles. Directly engaging mentors is particularly important, she said, “because HR tends to ‘voluntold’ people to do things, and then it doesn’t go well. And then the mentor doesn’t know they have an apprentice or what the expectations are…We want everyone to understand the purpose and their roles. So we train everyone.” 

Surry Community College’s Folger-Hawks supplies mentors with a guidebook and emails a monthly newsletter to stay in touch. “It’s very short. It has specific tips, links, things like that. And it spotlights some of our really great mentors and what makes them a great mentor.” Establishing a direct relationship is important in the event there’s a breakdown of communication in the employer’s operation. “Because we know that they’re our mentor, we can catch them up, and they can reach out to us instead of going to that system office person.”

Consider an administrative fee for delivering “concierge service.”

Some colleges ask employers to pay a fee to recover some of their expenses as apprenticeship sponsors. “A concierge-style approach is valuable because it respects employer time and removes barriers,” said Heartland’s Curt Rendall. “When the college helps coordinate the details and provides steady support, employers can focus on developing the talent they need today and in the future.” Heartland also helps employers obtain state apprenticeship tax credits or apply for tuition reimbursement from the local workforce development board using funds set aside for incumbent worker training. 

Darice Trout, Harper’s Senior Director of Workforce Solutions and Job Placement, explained, “We do really tight hand holding to make sure everyone’s successful.” Harper provides an orientation for new apprentices, registers them at the college each semester, orders their course materials and textbooks, and manages course sequencing so that it is aligned to work schedules. It collaborates with employers to troubleshoot any issues that may develop.

Colleges that charge fees reported that employers are usually supportive because they understand the amount of time and effort that is involved in delivering an effective apprenticeship program. 

Enjoy your role as matchmaker.

The leaders we met took great satisfaction in “matchmaking” between employers who had unfilled jobs that require postsecondary credentials with community members who are eager to land those jobs but are unsure how to get there. 

They found apprenticeships paired with postsecondary credentials particularly appealing to adults who may not have had success in school before, distrusted higher education, and, as Sheila Quirk-Bailey, president emerita of Illinois Central College, put it, “have had the hope beaten out of them.” By connecting school with paid work-based learning, “apprenticeship answers the hope issue, it answers the trust in higher education issue,” she said. “When you have a package like that, people look at it completely differently.” 

Kelli Morris, director of Career Services and Cooperative Learning at Calhoun Community College in Decatur, Alabama explained, “We’re a conduit. We connect students with employers. We connect employers with faculty and students, and alums to networking opportunities. It’s the best middleman job ever.”