Policymaking and the New President: Expand Apprenticeship: A Sensible Way to Train Workers and Increase Their Wages and Mobility
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Robert I. Lerman
In the long term, helping people obtain good-paying jobs and rewarding careers is critical to the country’s economic and social success. Today, too many young people grow up with insufficient skills to earn a good living and too many displaced adults find themselves with unsatisfactory job options. The common responses are improved education at the K–12 level and improved access to community colleges for youths and adults. These policies are necessary but not sufficient. They rely on a classroom-based system with limited links between what is learned at school and what is required to succeed on the job. Many high school students are unmotivated because they are bored and see little connection between school subjects and rewarding careers. They should have choices in how they prepare for the workforce. Older, displaced workers place a high premium on earning wages and do not want to spend an additional two or more years in school. A major expansion of apprenticeship is extremely well-suited to dealing with these problems, especially in a tight budget environment. Apprenticeship is a highly structured approach that combines three to four years of on-the-job learning with theoretical and practical courses related to a profession and leads to a nationally valid certification documenting mastery of the profession’s required skills. Apprenticeship is driven by employer demand, involves extensive learning in an actual work context, requires little forgone earnings by participants, and builds in wage progression and job ladders. Employers pay most of the training costs but earn returns by retaining skilled workers who contribute during the learning process. Surveys indicate that employer sponsors of apprenticeship are highly satisfied with their programs. Apprenticeship is particularly appealing for helping minorities, by providing a natural mentoring process, learning on the job, occupational pride, and wage mobility. The current system already trains nearly 500,000 apprentices. However, the government investment is miniscule ($20 million for the nation) and dramatically lower than spending on alternative high-quality education and training. Expanded funding for the apprenticeship system would substantially increase training opportunities at very low costs per enrollee. The evidence suggests that the money would be well spent and would raise the skills and earnings of thousands of workers. Other Policymaking Advice for the New President:
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With the impending recession making matters worse for workers, now is an excellent time to concentrate on training strategies that will help workers take advantage of future job openings, including the greater demand for skilled workers expected in energy and other priority industries.