Apprenticeships are no longer for just the blue collar trades

Historically many have associated the apprenticeship model with occupations such as carpentry welding and even firefighters yet ever since the start of the pandemic tech companies across the country are enlisting apprentices as a second pathway to a skilled worker talent pool.

“Many experts see apprenticeships as the best way to match people looking for jobs with those that are in demand. A U.S. Department of Commerce study in 2016 assessed the rate of return on 13 apprenticeships in a variety of occupations. A program that trained medical assistants in a New England hospital system had a 40 percent return on every dollar invested. Another for machinists run by Siemens USA earned 50 percent. The 13 sponsoring companies or organizations were unanimous in their support of apprenticeships and cited increased productivity, reduced turnover and better soft skills among those they trained. Almost no one reported losing apprentices to poaching by competitors”.

New employers are constantly starting to explore the space by looking into building a talent pipeline. After seeing a significant increase in vacancy rate amount IT professionals, a handful of agencies started to partner with local schools to push for a new pilot apprenticeship program that would focus on learning to write code. Companies have found that people are highly interested in these types of programs as they’ve seen over 300 applicants.

Read full story here: https://www.comstocksmag.com/longreads/apprenticeships-arent-just-carpenters-and-firefighters-anymore