Industry News

IBM Looks to Solve Their Worker Shortage With Apprenticeships

As the U.S. faces a skilled worker shortage corporations have turned to apprenticeship programs to train their own talent pools.

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Elizabeth Earin

Elizabeth Earin

As Head of Marketing at ApprentiScope, Elizabeth Earin helps bridge the gap between workforce innovation and communication, empowering organizations to better share the value and impact of apprenticeship programs. With more than 20 years in marketing strategy and a personal connection to the skilled trades through her husband’s career as an electrician, she’s passionate about expanding access to career pathways beyond the traditional four-year degree.

As the U.S. faces a skilled worker shortage corporations have turned to apprenticeship programs to train their own talent pools. Companies like IBM have attempted to weather the shortage by using a earn-and-learn model that has seen significant upside throughout the company.

“Workers find more rewarding careers while employers enjoy a deeper talent pool, said Amy Kardel of CompTIA, an information technology trade association. People hired through the programs also tend to stay on the job longer; such programs can also broaden a company’s culture by attracting employees, including workers of color, whose life experiences are outside the high school-to-college career arc common in white-collar workplaces.“Earn-and-learn strategies can open a door for someone into a career quickly,” said Kardel, CompTIA’s vice president for strategic workforce relationships.”

IBM continues to lobby for the National Apprentice Act which would allocate around $3.5 billion in government funding for registered apprentice programs like theirs. The company looks to hire over 400 new apprentices every year which then puts them on 1 of their 25 different training tracks that includes programs like software development, human resources and data science.

Read full article here: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/facing-skilled-worker-shortage-u-s-companies-try-to-train-their-own-new-labor-pools

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