Designing the Blueprint of Youth Apprenticeships, According to Youth Apprentices

How are youth apprenticeships structured, and who gets to shape them? What skills and experiences do participants feel are most important in a successful program?

As part of our year-long project for New America’s Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship (PAYA) Youth Council, our team, Yumna Ali, Shannon Rooney, and Braden McAlpine, set ourselves the task of answering these questions. As former youth apprentices, we believe that participant voices in apprenticeship should guide how the program is designed. This input benefits youth, employers, and other stakeholders by helping to create a stronger program for all.

Our team interviewed three of our PAYA Youth Council colleagues who shared with us their experiences as youth apprentices and what they think is most crucial to making a youth apprenticeship program successful. In this blog, we will discuss our three major findings from these conversations, including examples of and practical recommendations for designing youth-centered apprenticeships that build skills, agency, and clearer pathways to work.

Effective Apprenticeship Programs Teach Youth How to Self-Advocate

One of the most consistent insights we found across interviews was that the experiential work component of apprenticeship helps set the stage for youth to develop initiative and find their own voices. Youth apprentices have to navigate both school and work, and through this dual identity, they must learn how to advocate for themselves, speak up when expectations are not clear, and balance competing demands. For example, one of our interviewees, Gabby Smith, spent her apprenticeship days working in a male-dominated kitchen in high school. She had to learn how to take initiative by setting boundaries and commanding respect. "People will treat you how you allow them to treat you," she said during our interview.

"People will treat you how you allow them to treat you," Gabby Smith, former youth apprentice, on taking initiative and finding her voice during her apprenticeship.

Employers should create intentional moments for the youth apprentices to advocate for themselves and ask questions in order to make sure that their needs are being heard. By uplifting youth apprentices’ voices, apprenticeship programs provide more than just on-the-job training, but become launching pads for young people to step confidently into adulthood.

A program that puts all of this into action is the Project for Pride in Living's (PPL) Learn and Earn to Achieve Potential (LEAP) program based in Minneapolis. PPL’s LEAP program is a national initiative that provides career training, education, and support to "opportunity youth" who experience homelessness or are in the foster care and/or juvenile justice systems.

LEAP centers youth voices in their programming design by asking participants what they care about. Apprentices work alongside program staff to shape their own paths. They sit on advisory boards, help with budgets, recruiting, and marketing. Their voices are not only heard, but they also have power to influence the design of their program.

At LEAP, youth participants' voices are not only heard, but they also have power to influence the design of their program.

For example, when the youth advisory board voted to invest in virtual reality job training, program leaders purchased six virtual reality headsets and trained staff on how to use them. Now the youth apprentices use VR for career training at multiple LEAP sites.

LEAP’s effort to centralize youth voices in its program design has yielded strong results. In fact, PPL’s Impact Report emphasized that 95% of Career Readiness graduates who were hired retained their employment for 12 months or more. By letting apprentices choose their own projects and giving them real responsibility, LEAP empowers the youth to lead, helps build their confidence, and proves that listening to youth voices is essential for creating future leaders.

Strong Communication Bridges the Gap Between Partners and Is Key to Apprentice Success

A make-or-break apprenticeship success factor is effective communication between all involved organizations. We found through our interviews that youth apprenticeship programs heavily rely on the seamless coordination between employers, schools, and third-party organizations, often known as intermediaries. When done well, this enhances the quality of the apprentice experience. And when there are lapses, it can cause headaches and hassles that apprentices often have to handle themselves.

Shannon, our PAYA Youth Council colleague who apprenticed in the pharmaceutical industry, shared that CareerWise Colorado and her high school counselor provided resources that assisted her with application and interview preparation. They also collaborated with her employer to create a three-year plan that included regular performance evaluations, new work schedules every semester to accommodate for classes, and steps to earning her industry certificate. The collaboration and constant communication between representatives from CareerWise, her school, and her employer led Shannon to successfully complete the program as well as advance into the industry.

Gabby, our PAYA Youth Council colleague who apprenticed in the food service industry, spoke about the difficulties of navigating through complicated and separate requirements across organizations. The different expectations between her employer and school resulted in Gabby spending hours researching and speaking with representatives from parties involved in the apprenticeship program and receiving conflicting information about what she needed to do to obtain her apprenticeship certificates and satisfy school credit requirements. She described this as a “lapse in communication between the employer and school” that highlighted the importance of straightforward communication among partners to clarify complicated processes and avoid sharing confusing or conflicting information.

As an established intermediary, the LEAP program has strong communication standards for both apprentices and employers. Rachel Werch, the Apprenticeship Manager from PPL, shared that PPL “vets” the employers before connecting them with youth apprentices to ensure they understand how to work with opportunity youth and with PPL as an intermediary. PPL provides both the employers and apprentices with resources relating to the apprentice program, like apprenticeship completion requirements, to make sure everyone is on the same page. These steps clarify the program standards for both the employers and the apprentices, as well as analyze if the arrangement would be a good fit.

When all the separate entities involved in apprenticeship programming communicate effectively and share an understanding of the process and regulations, it better positions the apprentice for success. Strengthening cross-organizational communication is not only beneficial to all but essential for an efficient program design.

Apprentices Enjoy Learning Through Real-World Application

Youth apprenticeships provide a significant career advantage by teaching young people career-building skills through hands-on learning. Unlike purely textbook and lecture-style education, apprenticeships reinforce lessons through on-the-job learning. This type of learning is crucial for students who might face challenges in the typical classroom environment.

The former apprentices we interviewed all shared how much they gained from learning technical and soft skills at such a young age and being able to apply those skills to advance their careers. When asked about the skills that an apprenticeship helped them grow, Saarah, another of our PAYA Youth Council colleagues, said, “I found a great work ethic and flow.” Having the ability to work towards an outcome of their work allows learners to become more competent and engaged in their career path.

Programs like PPL LEAP are intentionally designed to maximize the benefits of apprenticeships for learners. The LEAP model allows young people, regardless of economic status or background, to participate in a learning style that best fits their needs, like the hands-on learning that an apprenticeship provides. Hands-on learning helps to apply ideas that have been taught in the classroom to real-world scenarios. The practical experience apprentices gain in their field is what employers are looking for in employees. This gives them a great advantage compared to other candidates.

Next Steps

Our conversations with former youth apprentices, as well as our own experiences in apprenticeship, highlight the profound impact that well-designed apprenticeship programs can have on young people, not only in career development but also in building self-advocacy and agency. To further improve these programs, we recommend that program leaders ensure their programs include three elements our interviewees identified as key to success:

• Support and resources for apprentices to develop self-advocacy skills,
• Clear communication between all partners, and
• Opportunities for learning new technical and soft skills through hands-on and on-the-job learning

By incorporating these key elements, youth apprenticeships serve as a powerful tool for professional and personal development. The former apprentices recalled their time being an apprentice as an incredible experience that provided opportunities previously unknown to them. When asked if they have anything to say to youths considering becoming an apprentice, Rolando said it best, “You have nothing to lose, this is the best time to explore and learn, it is what you make out of it.”