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It is the
perfect and simple plan: provide qualified employees to employers. Indeed, apprenticeships
allow workers to acquire the very skills they need. But why are apprenticeships
on the wane?
Here is the story:
When you
ask CEOs and corporate manpower staff whether they get the right kind
of workers they need, they will complain about a gap in employee abilities that
put productivity and growth at risk — not only inside their organizations but also
in the greater economy.
·
However,
employers and state lawmakers have been distinctly half-hearted about a tested
solution to the pressing issue: apprenticeships.
Apprenticeships
can provide a perfect marriage of the skills employers look for and the
training workers derive, states Robert Lerman, an American University economics
professor.
"It
is a great model for passing on skills from one generation to the next," declares
John Ladd, director of the Department of Labor's Office of Apprenticeship.
Nonetheless, as the Labor Department
announces, formal programs that unite on-the-job training with mentorships and
classroom education went down 40% in the U.S. from 2003 to 2013.
Which leads us to ask the
question: If the solution to this crucial problem lies in apprenticeships, how
come so much resistance exists?
Blue-Collar Image
It seems the biggest constraint
is that two-thirds of apprenticeship programs in the U.S. apply in the
construction industry, projecting a blue-collar image that dampens enthusiasm
among young people and the companies which could provide jobs for them.
Construction unions, which have wide influence among many of the state agencies
concerning apprenticeships, have not done enough to reach out to other
industries, Mr. Lerman says.
Likewise, entrepreneurs and
managers oftentimes avoid apprenticeships because of their connection with
unions. "There's an underlying fear among employers" that unions want
to interfere by organizing workers, or that any apprenticeship plan might
be controlled by a union, says J. Ronald De Juliis, labor and industry head
at Maryland's Department of Labor.
However, De
Juliis and others admit, things can be entirely different. At present, apprenticeships
involve many more industries than the few trades that welcomed the
earn-and-learn paradigm starting in 1937 when the National Apprenticeship Act
was implemented. Nursing aides, wastewater technicians and computer-system managers
are a few of the jobs for which apprentices can find training in.
At the beginning of this month,
President Obama allocated $100 million for apprenticeship programs in
high-growth industries, and acknowledged new programs in information technology,
health care and supply-chain management.
Still, another constraint is a commonly
held idea that young people should remain in school and then find a job. Supporters
of apprenticeship programs believe this view is ill-advised.
College degrees and internships
do not generate the same quality of worker as thorough, hands-on apprenticeships,
states director Brad Neese of Apprenticeship Carolina, a program of the South
Carolina Technical College System. Companies are seeing "a genuine lack of
applicability when it concerns skill level" from college graduates, Mr.
Neese says. "Interns do grunt work, generally." However, he says,
"an apprenticeship is a real job."
Moreover, some companies are
anxious that employees will leave for better-paying jobs right after they have acquired
their necessary skills. For them, an apprenticeship is like training workers
for other companies to ultimately benefit from.
In many cases, however, employers
discover that apprenticeships actually encourage retention, as workers who go
through apprenticeship programs realize the investment their employers put into
their professional growth and repay the good turn with a greater sense of
loyalty.
"The apprenticeship paradigm
allows us to convince people there is a career path within this company,"
says Robby Hill, owner of HillSouth, a Florence, S.C., technology consulting company
making good use of South Carolina's on-the-job training program.
New employees envision doors
opening for them in the future, along with a distinctly programmed ladder of
skills training and salary improvements, says Mr. Hill, whose 22-person company
provides apprenticeships for IT and administrative-support workers. The company
also requests employees to enter into a non-compete agreement as they get certified
for new skills.
Innovative Thinking
Advocates of apprenticeships claim
that joining on-the-job training with related education and benchmarks can be undertaken
in any job. They cite programs in states such as South Carolina and Wisconsin
as getting positive output.
There are
now apprenticeships for computer professionals and registered nursing aides in
South Carolina, where the number of businesses providing apprenticeships has increased
to 647 from only 90 in 2007. About 4,700 workers who underwent South Carolina's
apprentice program are now employed full-time.
To get employers engaged in
apprenticeships, the state provides a $1,000 yearly tax credit for every
apprentice included in the payroll. "That opens the door somehow," states
Mr. Neese. "For a small business, the credit can erase the education expenses
for an apprentice program.”
"We have endeavored to make
the tax credit as user-friendly as we can," he adds. "We have a very short
one-page form that simply asks, 'How many apprentices are in your firm?' and
then you multiple the number by $1,000."
Wisconsin, which has presently
almost 8,000 apprentices, is working to augment training positions for such
tasks as truck driving as well as high-tech manufacturing.
"We are anticipating employee
deficits in health care and advanced manufacturing," claims director Karen
Morgan of Wisconsin's Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards. The Governor's
Council on Workforce Investment is considering some steps to solve the problem,
she says. The state is launching some programs to apply robotics and high-level
welding to its normal apprenticeship training.
"We are making our programs
more adaptable," Ms. Morgan says, to highlight to manufacturers the importance
that apprenticeships can provide for a sector experiencing fast modernization.
