Idea IV. Design and Implement a Statewide Strategy for Connecting Youth to New and Existing Apprenticeship Opportunities that Advance Their Career and Education Goals

Apprentices in the U.S. tend to be older than in countries with higher rates of apprenticeship participation.¹ This distinction speaks to apprenticeship’s value as a workforce strategy for career-changers, and the participation of learners in their 30s, 40s, and 50s is a significant advantage of the American system. However, it also means that many workers come to apprenticeship opportunities after a string of low-paying jobs, and possibly after spending considerable time and money on other postsecondary education options.

Youth apprenticeship opportunities, which typically begin in the high school years, could help put young people on a stronger economic footing much earlier.² Youth apprenticeship’s paid work experience, structured mentorship, and access to postsecondary credentials help prepare young people for the labor market. Moreover, the exposure youth apprenticeship provides to professional networks can help offset inequities in social capital that create a critical but often unseen barrier to good jobs and careers.

There have been promising efforts in California to better connect youth to apprenticeship. For example, starting in 2014, a partnership between the California Department of Education, the California Labor Federation, North America’s Building Trades Unions and the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California launched a pilot pre-apprenticeship program in partnership with high schools across the state. Students receive real-world work experience in the construction trades and earn industry credentials while following the Multi-Craft Core Curriculum (MC3)³, whose coursework was designed to count toward the admission requirements of the University of California or California State University systems.

Outside of California, employers across the U.S. are experimenting with youth apprenticeship to address core talent challenges, whether that means confronting a coming wave of retirements, or building a more inclusive talent pipelines that better mirror the diversity of their community and customers.⁴ Youth apprenticeship also creates opportunities for young people to work and prosper in the communities where they grow up, supporting the future dynamism of local economies (see Box 5).

Young people in California need more pathways to economic success—pathways that lead to and through postsecondary education, not alternatives that work around it. The disruptions of COVID-19 to the state’s education system and economy mean that a rising generation is confronting choices between schooling and work, and between meeting short-term needs and long-term goals. In a state where over 40 percent of community college students were already working learners struggling to balance multiple obligations, there is great potential for youth apprenticeship pathways in California to keep young people connected to education and training systems, while still being able to earn income.⁵

To support California’s goals for apprenticeship expansion, but more importantly to address the critical short- and long-term needs of young people and regional economies, policymakers can take steps to accelerate experimentation with youth apprenticeship pathways. These include:

• Develop joint interagency guidance to support the development and sustainability of high-quality Registered youth apprenticeship programs. Youth apprenticeship programs demand alignment and coordination across industry, K–12, and higher education partners. Clear policy guidance from the Department of Education, the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, and the California Community College Chancellor’s Office can go a long way in providing the clarity local partners need. Guidance should be developed in consultation with local school boards, the State Board of Education, parents, administrators, as well as the California Teachers Association and California’s Federation of Teachers. The Department of Education’s College & Career Transition Division is well positioned to coordinate the development of this interagency guidance, which should address:
  • Definition of youth apprenticeship in relation to the broader work-based learning spectrum, emphasizing youth apprenticeship’s unique characteristics of paid employment, RSI, structured mentorship, and attainment of postsecondary credentials and credit
  • Youth employment laws and apprenticeship registration regulations and procedures related to the hiring and on-the-job training of youth apprentices under age 18
  • Availability of various state career and technical education, higher education, and apprenticeship funding streams to support the costs of RSI
  • Use of Proposition 98 funding as well as WIOA funds to support transportation and other expenses for students
  • Implementation of youth apprenticeships under Early and Middle College High School and College and Career Access Pathways (CCAP) partnerships, including measures to ensure that school districts do not face adverse financial impacts from reduced state apportionments if students pursue youth apprenticeships
  • Accumulation of high school and postsecondary credit for structured on-the-job training and RSI, and flexibility in school day scheduling to allow for off-site learning
• Launch statewide youth apprenticeship pilot initiative to support college-connected apprenticeships at California’s career academies. Youth apprenticeship in California has a clear foundation to build on, thanks to the education and industry partners involved with the network of districts engaged with Linked Learning, the California Partnership Academies, and beyond.⁶ In these programs, students received a blend of rigorous academic and technical coursework, work-based learning, and support services as early as 10th grade, all of which can provide an on-ramp to youth apprenticeship pathways that start in the final years of high school. Existing industry and postsecondary partners can be engaged in new ways to develop youth apprenticeship as a capstone for these opportunities. Using a blend of discretionary resources from the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act state leadership fund, as well as existing appropriations to supporting career academies, California can provide competitive grants to K–12, higher education, industry, and workforce partners to pilot “Career Academy Plus” youth apprenticeship capstone programs across a range of in-demand fields.
• Incentivize county offices of education to work with districts as sponsoring employers for high-quality youth apprenticeships. California’s offices of education and school districts are not all new to Registered Apprenticeship, but they can take on new roles as model employers that hire students into entry level roles in nontraditional fields such as information technology, human resources, marketing, and communications. Building on ARCH’s example, the state could support the efforts of other offices of education to provide early work experience and on-the-job training for apprenticeship pathways, keeping young people connected to learning and work at a moment of historic uncertainty in the labor market. While budgets in the near-term will likely be constrained, integrating county-level pilots with future federal or state recovery efforts would be one way to link the employment and education needs of students in the final years of high school with the service needs of districts as a whole.
• Provide targeted support to pre-apprenticeship pathways that connect out-of-school youth to apprenticeship opportunities. Developing integrated youth apprenticeship pathways for students in their final year of high school is a critical way to smooth the transition from education into the labor market. The state must also focus on ensuring out-of-school youth have clear on-ramps to existing apprenticeship opportunities, so pre-apprenticeship opportunities with alignment to existing programs should also be directly supported. Following the lead of states such as Washington, the governor could use discretionary Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act funding to support partnerships between local workforce development boards and existing Registered Apprenticeship programs to develop, improve, and strengthen pre-apprenticeship opportunities for out-of-school youth.