Earning While Learning with Early Educator Apprenticeship Programs in Indiana

Please note: This is an off-the-record, invitation-only event. To request an invitation, please email events@newamerica.org with your name, email, title, and organization.

Indiana’s economy loses billions each year due to a lack of child care, including $1.8 billion in direct costs to employers, $1.1 billion economic activity lost, and $118.8 million tax revenue lost. Meeting this demand with affordable and high-quality solutions means reinventing and building new talent pipelines that cultivate well-prepared early childhood educators. Registered Apprenticeship is a centuries-old education model that combines paid, on-the-job learning with related classroom instruction that can help us meet this need in innovative ways for the benefit of children and parents, the local economy, and--since apprentices complete programs with significant work experience, technical skills, professional networks and no student debt--Hoosiers looking for fulfilling, sustainable work.

Join New America and Early Learning Indiana for a working session to identify policy levers to bring apprenticeship to early childhood education in Indiana.

Participants will hear from researchers in the field and grapple with tough questions including:

• How do other fields with high-demand but low-wage workforces overcome talent development barriers?
• What levers do we need to consider to move our apprenticeship model from conceptual to actual?
• Are there other industries analogous to early childhood that have apprenticeship models we should consider?
• What can we learn from other states with congruent child care provider requirements?
• Are there other talent pipeline opportunities not currently in play, including youth apprenticeship models?
• What challenges exist in institutions of higher education we should consider when building an early childhood apprenticeship?

Please join us as we begin to form a cross-sector effort to tackle the urgent need to build a bigger, better early childhood workforce through policy change.

The event begins at 1:30 PM and will be followed by a reception at 4:00 PM.

Opening Remarks:

Molly Martin
Director, New America Indiana

Participants:

Maureen Weber
President & CEO, Early Learning Indiana

Ivy Love
Policy Analyst with Center on Education and Skills, New America

Cara Sklar
Deputy Director of Early & Elementary Education Policy, New America

With thanks to the Joyce Foundation for supporting this event, and to the Alliance for Early Success, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the W. Clement and Jessie V. Stone Foundation, and the Foundation for Child Development for supporting work on early childhood research and policy that helped to inform this event.