Each year in November, the U.S. Department of Labor celebrates National Apprenticeship Week, highlighting the innovations and accomplishments of American apprentices and their sponsors, advocates, and educators. For the fourth year running, our team at the Center on Education & Labor at New America (CELNA) is publishing our Apprenticeship in Review, a look back at the work we’ve done and the trends we’ve followed over another eventful year in American apprenticeship policy and practice.

Despite some welcome job creation and promising bumps in wage growth throughout the year, the American economy was still at least four million jobs below its February 2020 level in October 2021. National unemployment remained one percentage point higher than two years before; the labor force participation rate was two percentage points lower. As the United States continues its slow recovery from the economic convulsions of the coronavirus pandemic, apprenticeship has received attention as a way to help Americans return to work, or to launch new careers.

Beginning in February 2021, New America participated in the Better Employment and Training Strategies (BETS) Taskforce, convened by researchers at the George Washington Institute of Public Policy, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, and Corporation for a Skilled Workforce. In policy briefs setting out frameworks for a national jobs strategy, workforce-focused infrastructure spending, and youth employment, among other topics, analysts from New America and BETS partner organizations highlighted the role apprenticeship can play in the Biden-Harris administration’s strategic priorities of job quality and equitable opportunity.

Apprenticeship also saw renewed interest as a way to strengthen the nation’s critical public health workforce, which has been battered by the increased workload and new occupational risks of the pandemic era. In August, Ivy Love published a brief detailing a health care apprenticeship initiative at Dallas College. Although the initiative launched in 2019, when shortages of nurses and other health care professionals were already severe in Texas, it has recently taken on new urgency. Drawing on its existing apprenticeship experience, the tradition of work-based learning in health care occupations, and support from the U.S. Department of Labor, Dallas College uses apprenticeship both to train new entrants to its region’s health care workforce and to support professional growth and earning power through upskilling.

With businesses bracing against new labor shortages and young people facing a changing and uncertain job market, 2021 saw continued growth in the size and sophistication of youth apprenticeship programs nationwide.

Since 2018, New America has led the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA), a national initiative focused on expanding apprenticeship opportunities that begin in high school. PAYA’s initial Accelerator Cohort included nine state, regional, and municipal partnerships. They were joined this year, in PAYA’s second phase, by the six members of the new Development Cohort. This group of early-stage partnerships is using existing education and workforce networks to lay the foundations of sustainable youth apprenticeship systems. From statewide efforts such as Indiana’s to hyper-local initiatives in cities like Kalamazoo, MI, and in occupational fields as disparate as construction and cybersecurity, the work of PAYA grantees and the broader PAYA Network is adding to a growing body of best practice in American youth apprenticeship.

Building a successful youth apprenticeship partnership takes time, relationship management, and careful balancing of the priorities of educators, employers, and government. As youth apprenticeship expands nationwide, practitioners have seen a growing emphasis on data collection that can support evaluation and continuous improvement. In September, Joyce Hwang published the Youth Apprenticeship Data Framework, highlighting the data elements necessary to monitor and improve youth apprenticeship implementation at the level of partnerships, programs, and individual participants.

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the importance of involving the primary users of youth apprenticeship—young people themselves—in how programs are built and run. In 2021, New America and PAYA partners participated in several projects designed to empower youth, including an Apprentice & Family Voice Learning Series hosted by the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity; a 10-week design sprint on incorporating youth apprentice voices in program design; and a series of focus groups led by New America’s Molly Martin, where over 40 young people shared their perspectives on work, wages, and work-based learning programs.

It is difficult to encapsulate the efforts of nearly 50 PAYA Network members, each facing their own policy environments and economic circumstances, and all grappling with pandemic disruptions. But at the end of October, PAYA grantees and Network members came together for a virtual site visit to the Charleston Regional Youth Apprenticeships program, co-hosted by Trident Technical College and New America. The event featured perspectives of employers, education and workforce leaders, and youth apprentices from across the Charleston, SC region. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Angela Hanks also spoke about the extent of youth apprenticeship’s recent growth.

Recessions typically lead to spikes in college enrollment, including at community colleges. But as in so many other areas, here the coronavirus pandemic has been different. Total enrollment in higher education dropped almost 4 percent from the spring of 2019 to the spring of 2021, and almost 12 percent at community colleges over the same period. According to a survey from New America’s Higher Education team, 41 percent of students who left college during the coronavirus pandemic did so because they needed to work. As colleges, workforce systems, and state governments have scrambled to encourage learners back onto higher education pathways, apprenticeship’s earn-and-learn model has proved a helpful option for balancing immediate financial imperatives with the need to train for a better job.

In March, New America’s Center on Education & Labor convened college-based apprenticeship leaders from across the country to discuss the challenges and successes of the past year. In a wide-ranging conversation summarized by Ivy Love in blog posts on EdCentral, practitioners discussed pandemic-driven changes to program development as well as adaptations in the student-apprentice experience. Even once the day-to-day effects of COVID-19 wane, flexibility in apprentices’ related instruction, support from business partners and industry intermediaries on developing occupational frameworks, and streamlined data sharing between apprenticeship stakeholders will be crucial for learners’ success.

For community colleges across the country working to boost enrollments, apprenticeships are also a part of a movement to better align educational offerings with employers’ demands and provide quicker transitions into well-paid work. In May, New America launched its 2021 New Models for Career Preparation cohort, which included apprenticeship provider Bates Technical College in Washington State alongside five colleges delivering boot camps, industry certifications, customized training, and other skill-building options. Building off of New America’s past projects supporting community college innovation, the first New Models cohort has worked to improve institutional practices and ensure that their programs successfully move learners into high-quality jobs. A second cohort featuring additional apprenticeship providers is coming in 2022.

Apprenticeship watchers who came into 2021 with optimism are unlikely to leave it disappointed. Although the pandemic dented national apprenticeship growth in 2020, total apprenticeship participation is still trending upwards. Large federal investments and impressive innovation at the state level mean there is plenty to look forward to next year.

The Department of Labor has awarded over $150 million in new grants and contracts to support apprenticeship expansion so far in 2021, building on record investments in 2020. Four national Registered Apprenticeship technical assistance centers received a total of $31 million, and $3.3 was awarded under the Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations program. In June, 15 states received a total of nearly $100 million in State Apprenticeship Expansion grants aimed at supporting equity-driven, sector-based strategies to increase apprenticeship participation. Other federal agencies also announced grants to support apprenticeship. The Department of Commerce’s Investing in America’s Communities initiative will pump $3 billion into state and local workforce and economic development activities, including apprenticeships, while the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency announced a first-of-its-kind $2 million grant to encourage the use of apprenticeships to grow cyber talent.

Although these federal investments demonstrate a continued commitment to apprenticeship, and despite some policy bright spots—including a pause and potential rescindment of the misguided industry-recognized apprenticeship program experiment and the reconvening of the Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship—some important federal apprenticeship policies have not yet been enacted. The Biden-Harris administration’s Build Back Better Act features $1 billion over five years to expand registered apprenticeship, youth apprenticeship, and pre-apprenticeship, as well as additional funding to support apprenticeships in health care, cybersecurity, and climate change mitigation, but it remains deadlocked in Congress as of this writing. Similarly, the National Apprenticeship Act of 2021, which would reauthorize and valuably reform the key legislation governing Registered Apprenticeship, has not yet come up for a vote in the Senate. It easily passed in the House of Representatives in February.

This year’s federal funding for apprenticeship expansion, and work made possible by previous investments, will support apprenticeship innovations with long-lasting impacts. Expansion efforts in California, Indiana, South Carolina, Texas, and other states have already made important, systemic advancements in apprenticeship practice, supporting traditional and non-traditional apprenticeship sectors alike, and conventional adult programs as well as those focused on youth. More must be done if American apprenticeship is to reach its full potential, but 2021 will go down as another year of steady growth.

Throughout 2020, the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA) continued to lead the movement to advance high-quality youth apprenticeship programs in cities and states across the U.S., uplifting the work of trailblazers in a fast-growing field. As communities across the U.S. adapted to historic disruptions to learning and work, PAYA supported partnerships’ continued efforts to innovate and adapt. Writing on EdCentral, Taylor White made the case for prioritizing the needs of young adults in pandemic relief investments, and explained why youth apprenticeship is a smart strategy for recovery.

October 2020 marked the two-year anniversary of PAYA’s launch and ushered in the next phase of the initiative. New America celebrated this milestone with the 2020 Youth Apprenticeship Summit on October 13-15th. In addition to spotlighting the progress of PAYA Grantees, the virtual event brought together more than 1,000 leaders from across education, government, philanthropy, and the private sector to explore how youth apprenticeship can provide more equitable outcomes for youth and a sustainable, cost-effective talent strategy for employers.

In a series of blog posts featuring PAYA Network members Apprenticeship Maryland, Youth Apprenticeship NH, and GPS Education Partners, Joyce Hwang and colleagues profiled innovative program designs and implementation strategies advancing youth apprenticeship in three different locales. To support these and other place-based partnerships working to expand and strengthen youth apprenticeship, PAYA National Partners continued to grow PAYA’s collection of research products and tools. New resources include “Why Should Employers Invest in Youth Apprenticeship?”, an infographic designed to support employer engagement, as well as the Equity in Youth Apprenticeship Toolkit, produced by the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity.

Looking specifically at the field of early childhood education, a September report from New America’s Cara Sklar considered how youth apprenticeship could create pipelines of well-trained early childhood educators to support economic recovery and expand quality learning opportunities for young children and teens alike.

Because apprenticeship is a fundamentally place-based strategy, state and local governments, education systems, and civic leaders are instrumental to the development and expansion of high-quality, equitable programs. In addition to PAYA, which adopts a state- and region-focused lens in all aspects of its work, 2020 saw our staff at the Center on Education & Labor supporting exciting new apprenticeship partnerships in Indiana, Texas, and western New York with direct technical assistance. We also carried out a number of state and regional research initiatives, including:

• A year-long research effort in California that culminated last month with a report from Brent Parton and Michael Prebil providing policy recommendations to realize Governor Gavin Newsom’s ambitious goal of 500,000 active apprentices statewide by 2029. The report’s launch was marked by a virtual roundtable event with apprenticeship innovators from across California, who shared their experiences and ideas for supporting the expansion of non-traditional apprenticeships in the state’s economically diverse regions.
• A pair of reports from Michael exploring efforts to expand apprenticeship in the San Francisco Bay Area’s booming tech industry, as well as initiatives in the Chicago metro area aimed at supporting traditional as well as non-traditional apprenticeships. For decades, Chicagoland leaders have supported local prosperity through apprenticeships in the traditional building trades; increasingly, business and higher education partners have joined in to support non-traditional apprenticeships in IT, health care, and financial occupations as well. Chicago and San Francisco both serve as an instructive examples for municipal leaders hoping to connect economic development with educational attainment, as Lul Tesfai described in her March report on efforts to integrate apprenticeship into broader community development strategies.

Apprenticeship remains a rare area of bipartisan consensus, and 2020 saw several notable apprenticeship policy developments at the federal level. These included important new investments and regulatory changes as well as a number of ambitious proposals that didn’t quite make the cut:

• The arrival of IRAPS: Perhaps this year’s most momentous change to the American apprenticeship system came in early April, when the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published its long-awaited final rule setting the parameters for industry-recognized apprenticeship programs (IRAPs). IRAPs, a policy priority of the Trump administration since 2017, operate separately from the time-tested Registered Apprenticeship system. The new regulations defined the roles and responsibilities for Standards Recognition Entities (SREs), non-federal organizations tasked with recognizing and monitoring IRAPs. In September, DOL announced the first group of 18 SREs, which includes businesses and industry associations, state offices of apprenticeship, and community college districts and systems.
• New investments: Also in April, DOL issued a $42.5 million funding opportunity under its Youth Apprenticeship Readiness Grants. Aimed at growing the number of apprentices ages 16 to 24, the grants can be used to cover expenses related to program development, partnership building, and supportive services such as transportation, childcare, and housing. Michael Prebil provided a written overview of the initiative, as well as a presentation to the PAYA Network on strategies for applicants. Ultimately, PAYA Partners and Network members in Colorado, Delaware, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas, and Idaho were among the 14 funding recipients.
• New legislative proposals: Other important apprenticeship proposals didn’t receive due consideration among the pandemic’s many competing legislative priorities, or otherwise sunk in this year’s deeply polarized political climate. In the spring, Lul Tesfai and Cara Sklar explored the Early Educators Apprenticeship Act, a Senate bill aimed at helping states establish college-connected Registered Apprenticeship programs for their early childhood education (ECE) workforce. And in May, the House proposed $15 billion for the nation’s public workforce system through the Relaunching America’s Workforce Act (RAWA), more than twice the amount invested in the public workforce system in response to the Great Recession. Lul wrote about RAWA’s stimulus provisions; Michael wrote about its $500 million in new apprenticeship expansion grants; and Iris Palmer focused on its Community College and Industry Partnership Grants, which would have authorized $2 billion to support community colleges’ capacity to retrain adult workers. Finally, a proposed reauthorization of the National Apprenticeship Act would have rebooted apprenticeship for the 21st century but, like RAWA and the Early Educators Apprenticeship Act, never made it to a floor vote.

As of November, Congress has yet to make a significant federal workforce investment to support the reemployment and training of the millions of Americans impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. When Congress finally takes up this vital task, apprenticeship should remain one of the tools they turn to. Look out for more from team CELNA in what promises to be another important year in the future of American apprenticeship.

The Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA) is a multi-year initiative that convenes and mobilizes the expertise, experience, and collective networks of national, state, and regional partners to expand access to high-quality apprenticeship opportunities for high school age youth. Over the course of the last year, PAYA has facilitated significant progress in the expansion of youth apprenticeship in cities, regions, and states across the country since its launch in 2018.

PAYA kicked off the year with the PAYA Grant Initiative, which awarded nine grants to support place-based partnerships of employers, educators, community partners, and policy leaders who are working together to build high-quality youth apprenticeship programs that promote inclusive economic development and create new opportunities for young people. The initiative marks the first joint philanthropic investment to expand youth apprenticeship in the United States. Selected from an extremely competitive pool of over 220 applicants from 49 states and Puerto Rico, the grant recipients are Apprenticeship 502 (Louisville, KY), ApprenticeshipNC (Raleigh, NC), the Birmingham Promise Initiative (Birmingham, AL), Career Launch Chicago (Chicago, IL), Early Care and Education Youth Apprenticeship (Oakland, CA), King County Regional Youth Apprenticeship Consortium (Renton, WA), Montana Youth Apprenticeship Partnership (Helena, MT), PPL Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential (LEAP) Initiative (Minneapolis, MN), Texas Youth Apprenticeship Program (Austin, TX).

These nine grant recipients are not the only partnerships that have spent the last year advancing youth apprenticeship across the country. The grantees are joined by the PAYA Network, a national learning community designed to link high-potential, dynamic partnerships working across the country to launch, expand, and improve apprenticeship opportunities for high school-aged youth. The PAYA Network was formed to recognize, support, and connect high-potential leaders identified through the PAYA Grant Initiative, and to support them as they work to build the emerging field of youth apprenticeship. Across this Network, PAYA provides technical assistance to accelerate and learn from the efforts of more than 45 communities across 33 states working to develop and improve youth apprenticeship programs to help young people launch careers in healthcare, IT, advanced manufacturing, financial services, education, and several other sectors. To learn more about the PAYA Network Members and learn more about youth apprenticeship activity across the country, click here.

PAYA is comprised of eight National Partner organizations: Advance CTE, CareerWise Colorado, Charleston Regional Youth Apprenticeship, Education Strategy Group, JFF, the National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity, the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, and the National Governors Association. PAYA is supported by funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Ballmer Group, Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Joyce Foundation, JP Morgan Chase & Co., and the Siemens Foundation.

To stay up to date on the activities of the PAYA Grantees and Network, visit newamerica.org/paya or stay connected to the initiative’s progress by following the #PAYA hashtag on Twitter at @NewAmericaEd.

The majority of apprentices in the US are in traditional building trades programs. However, as interest in apprenticeship grows, others in a variety of sectors are benefiting from this proven education and training model.

This year, CESNA told the story of innovative apprenticeship programs connecting people to economic opportunity in nontraditional fields. Ivy Love wrote about the New Mexico Information Technology Apprenticeship program, a community college-led slate of apprenticeships based in Albuquerque, that supported residents like former dental assistant, Shauna Henington, interested in local tech careers. Cybersecurity is seeing growing interest in apprenticeship, and Mike Prebil shared wisdom gleaned from the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education conference about how to meet workforce demand in the field. Mike’s piece includes a profile of one institution, Dakota State University, integrating apprenticeship into their cybersecurity education pathway.

Many health care occupations have long histories of integrating classroom and work-based learning to prepare for careers. Following our 2018 Apprenticeship and the Future of Nursing report, CESNA convened around 50 nursing leaders in New York City in June 2019 to discuss the role apprenticeship could play in facilitating access to and mobility within nursing careers. At the convening, Ivy Love and Mike Prebil released a short brief outlining the apprenticeship model and how it is already being used to support nurses at a variety of levels of education. One of the highlights of the event was hearing from Alexis Barba, a registered nurse in California, who was able to pursue her nursing career dreams through a groundbreaking LVN-RN apprenticeship. Ivy Love shared Alexis’ story for the EdCentral audience.

Early childhood teachers are increasingly required to hold degrees for their positions, and apprenticeship is providing a path to earn needed credentials while benefiting from formal mentorship and paid tuition through Pennsylvania’s early childhood education apprenticeship. This apprenticeship, covered by Lul Tesfai, offers apprentices college credit for their work experience in the classroom, accelerating their time to degree.

Many occupations in high-growth, high-wage industries like healthcare and information technology require a college degree for career entry and advancement. And apprenticeship presents a promising and affordable strategy for equipping youth and adults with the skills and postsecondary credentials that employers demand. Yet as CESNA Director Mary Alice McCarthy points out, the historical disconnect between our higher education and apprenticeship systems means that there aren’t enough college-connected and degree apprenticeships, which by design culminate in an associate or bachelor’s degree.

To make it easier for apprentices to earn a college degree and college students to be apprentices, in December 2017 Mary Alice McCarthy, Iris Palmer, and Michael Prebil released a paper, Connecting Higher Education and Apprenticeship: Eight Recommendations, which laid out a set of federal policies for better integrating postsecondary and apprenticeship training. In 2019, some of these recommendations became reality. For instance, the US Department of Education launched a Federal Work-Study (FWS) experiment through which the Secretary lift caps on the number of FWS students that can be employed by private companies and allows postsecondary institutions to use FWS funding to cover a greater share of students’ wages, which could spur more formal work-based learning partnerships, namely apprenticeships. Furthermore, the US Department of Labor awarded $183.8 million in H-1B funding to 23 institutions of higher education – including 15 community colleges – and state systems of higher education, in partnership with employers and national industry associations through its Scaling Apprenticeship Through Sector-Based Strategies initiative. These grants are projected to support college-connected apprenticeship training for 85,000 apprentices.

In 2019, CESNA has also focused on the role that state and postsecondary leaders play in advancing quality, college-connected apprenticeship programs. In February, CESNA published a state apprenticeship policy agenda that highlighted the core components of an apprenticeship policy infrastructure and concrete recommendations for how states can align the work of state education, workforce, and economic development agencies to scale apprenticeships that meet the needs of their residents, employers, and communities. In September, Michael Prebil released research on state strategies to mitigate one of the most significant barriers to the scaling of college-connected and degree apprenticeship programs – tuition costs. In Solid Foundations: Four State Policy Approaches for Supporting College-Connected Apprenticeships, Prebil examined the advantages and disadvantages of several state financing policies. Additionally, Lul Tesfai published a brief, Creating Pathways to College Degrees Through Apprenticeships, with specific recommendations for college leaders to consider when developing a degree apprenticeship program.

CESNA has continued to follow the Trump administration’s efforts to create a system of industry-recognized apprenticeship programs (IRAPs), which would run parallel to the tested Registered Apprenticeship system. In the last year, the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) vision – and regulatory agenda – for IRAPs began to take shape. Through the new system, DOL would delegate IRAP selection and quality assurance responsibilities to third-party standards recognition entities (SREs). While unorthodox, DOL released a proposed application and criteria for the selection of SREs before fully outlining how IRAPs would function within our existing national apprenticeship system. CESNA submitted comments to assist the Department in enhancing the quality, utility, and clarity of the information it plans to collect from prospective certifiers of IRAPs individually and as part of the Apprenticeship Forward Collaborative. In response to DOL’s proposed regulatory changes to the national apprenticeship system revealed this summer, CESNA also submitted comments raising considerations for the IRAP quality assurance framework, as well as the responsibilities of IRAPs, SREs, and DOL under that framework. New America, along with along with the National Skills Coalition, Advance CTE, the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP), Jobs for the Future (JFF), the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, and the National Fund for Workforce Solutions submitted joint comments consistent with the Apprenticeship Forward Collaborative’s principles for expanding quality apprenticeships.

The types and structures of youth apprenticeship vary across the country, and CESNA is a leader in conversations about what youth apprenticeship can and should be. In 2017, Brent Parton published a landscape analysis of youth apprenticeship programs in the United States, offering recommendations to spur future growth in high-quality apprenticeship opportunities for young people. In October 2018, New America and a group of national partners launched the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA). PAYA works to support the expansion of high-quality apprenticeships for young Americans, including opportunities to earn postsecondary credit and gain early career experience. Concurrent with the PAYA launch, organizations in the Partnership released a set of guiding principles for youth apprenticeship. Read more about the principles in Brent Parton’s post What is Youth Apprenticeship? Definition and Guiding Principles for High-Quality Programs.

To expand apprenticeship into new fields and recruit students in current fields, more and more partnerships between employers, intermediaries, and institutions of higher education are offering apprenticeship programs that integrate on-the-job learning and a degree program. In these degree-apprenticeships, participants get the benefits of the close, on-the-job mentorship that is the hallmark of apprenticeship combined with the benefits of a postsecondary degree.

Promising degree-apprenticeship programs are cropping up in fast-growing fields like nursing. In September, Mary Alice McCarthy and Ivy Love released Apprenticeship and the Future of Nursing, which discusses how apprenticeship provides a more affordable, equitable path to the bachelor’s degree for nurses who need it. The report highlights an apprenticeship for registered nurses at Fairview Health Services in Minnesota that culminates in a bachelor’s degree, the first program of its kind in the country.

While individual degree-apprenticeships are growing in popularity, a more systemic approach integrating higher education and apprenticeship could further scale the model. Mary Alice McCarthy, Iris Palmer, and Michael Prebil offer key strategies to do just that in Eight Recommendations for Connecting Apprenticeship and Higher Education. In addition to lifting up the degree-apprenticeship model, the authors advocate for a clear, legal definition of a “student-apprentice,” someone who meets both the criteria of a regular student for higher education purposes, and the legal definition of an apprentice. Such a definition could be a game changer for many, by allowing the creation of new policies to support student-apprentices and encouraging further higher education-employer apprenticeship partnerships to develop.

The benefits of apprenticeship include a clear path into a recognized occupation, low to no postsecondary debt, intensive professional mentorship, and more. Yet apprentices today are overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male, meaning those who reap the rewards of apprenticeship don’t reflect the diversity of Americans who could benefit. Several CESNA pieces have focused on not just expanding the apprenticeship model, but expanding access to folks who are traditionally underrepresented among apprentices.

Vocational education at the secondary level has a dark history of “tracking” students – often low-income and minority students – away from college preparatory curriculum in favor of training for jobs unlikely to pay much. As Abigail Swisher wrote in Will the Ghost of Tracking’s Past Haunt Youth Apprenticeship’s Future?, it’s important to recognize and confront this history as youth apprenticeship opportunities become increasingly common for American high school students. Brent Parton wrote in Putting Equity at the Center of Youth Apprenticeship that stakeholders have a critical responsibility – and opportunity – to purposefully structure youth apprenticeships today to provide equitable, accessible, inclusive opportunities for young Americans of all identities. Most recently, the Apprenticeship Forward Collaborative, which New America co-leads with National Skills Coalition, placed a strong emphasis on equity and access in its Principles for Expanding Quality Apprenticeship.

Underrepresentation of women and people of color in apprenticeship is still common in programs for adults as well. While women currently comprise only seven percent of registered apprentices in the country, one federal grant program supports local stakeholders aiming to change that, as Ivy Love wrote in Everything You WANTO Know about Women in Apprenticeship. Justice-involved individuals may face a number of barriers after re-entering the community, but one innovative partnership in Missouri is supporting folks preparing to re enter the community with training for agricultural opportunities in rural southeast Missouri, as Ivy Love described in New Ag Apprenticeship Provides Support from Incarceration to Re-Entry in Missouri.

Needs and opportunities in apprenticeship expansion vary across states and regions. Partnerships among stakeholders may take different shape, and sectors with the highest need for workers may look different from city to city, and state to state.

In California, Sarah Jackson wrote that child care workers needing additional education and training are finding a pathway forward through apprenticeship, supporting a critical occupation for California families and communities. On the opposite coast, New Jersey is investing in apprenticeship expansion to benefit a growing number of state residents and local employers seeking new talent, as Lul Tesfai and Ivy Love explain in Apprenticeship’s Bright Future in the Northeast.

Though opportunities for apprenticeship in remote locations may take some creativity to develop, the model may be just what small towns and other rural locales need to boost economic opportunity, as Ivy Love wrote in Cultivating Rural Talent through Apprenticeship.

Polling commissioned by New America shows that Americans feel favorably toward apprenticeship, so much so that the majority of respondents believed the government should provide additional funding for apprenticeship, as Iris Palmer explains in What Americans Think of Apprenticeship. With both major political parties supportive of apprenticeship expansion, what principles can ensure programs are of high-quality and lead participants to success?

As the Trump administration’s Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion began its work, CESNA staff offered comments and recommendations to ensure equity and quality take center stage, including CESNA's First Reactions to Recommendations from the President's Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion by Mary Alice McCarthy, Brent Parton, Lul Tesfai, and Michael Prebil and Four Things for Trump's New Apprenticeship Task Force to Consider First by Brent Parton.