Rebuild Apprenticeship as a Pathway for California Youth

After investing over $4 billion in career education programs in recent years Governor Gavin Newsom is concerned that there is “not a cohesive, connective tissue, not a compelling narrative that drives a vision and drives a focus forward.” To address this, Governor Newsom directed the state’s top education and workforce leaders to create a “Master Plan” for career education in California. To create this type of cohesive and connected experience, state leaders should look to youth apprenticeship. When structured well, these programs provide students with paid on-the-job training, related classroom instruction, and college credits—preparing them for careers or further education.

From its beginnings in California, apprenticeship was meant to be a pathway for youth to gain skills and employment. In fact, a 1970s-era Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS) handbook says the whole purpose of apprenticeship is to prepare the “proper number of youths to meet the needs of industry for workers in skilled occupations.” But the system has morphed over time. Now the typical apprentice in California is closer to 30 than to 16. Apprenticeship has largely ceased to be a pathway of choice for young people to access careers and has instead turned into an opportunity that’s only pursued after other roads have turned into dead ends. The Master Plan for Career Education provides an opportunity for the state to make clear what it means for apprenticeship to serve young people in California today.

Map the Territory - Clarify Youth Apprenticeship Program Models

To make this vision a reality, the state first needs to clarify the different types of youth apprenticeship programs. And indeed, the state’s Youth Apprenticeship Committee has specifically been tasked with recommending “clear definitions of youth apprenticeship and high school apprenticeships.” Currently, there are three main ways California stakeholders use the term “Youth Apprenticeship”:

• Registered apprenticeships for 16-24 year olds.
• Pre-apprenticeships that ready students for registered programs after high school graduation.
• Registered apprenticeships integrated with high school.

The first is simply an age range; it doesn’t refer to any specific program model. Where does this age range come from? It’s largely an artifact of the eligibility age range for WIOA Youth funding, which supports training and employment services for youth who face barriers to employment. While this definition is clear, it masks the fact that serving 16 and 17 year olds via apprenticeship is very different from serving 18 to 24 year olds.

The second way people use the term “youth apprenticeship” is to refer to pre-apprenticeships that serve young people. Pre-apprenticeships are programs that prepare participants to enter Registered Apprenticeships. Some are highly structured and include both training and on-the-job experiences. Others are purely instructional. In California, unlike many other states, pre-apprenticeships can be registered with the state to help ensure quality. To become registered, a pre-apprenticeship must have a signed MOU with a Registered Apprenticeship that gives pre-apprentices priority for acceptance.

Californians also use the term “youth apprenticeship” in a third way, to describe Registered Apprenticeship programs that start (though not necessarily end) in high school. They begin the junior or senior year of high school, with students going to school part time and working part time during the school year. Related technical instruction (RTI) is frequently accomplished through a combination of high school CTE courses and college courses offered through dual or concurrent enrollment. At the end of these programs, apprentices will have earned their high school diplomas, college credit, an industry credential, and have gained both a wage and significant work experience. They are well prepared to continue working full time, continue on to college full time, or to continue pursuing both in tandem.

Using the same term to mean three different things is confusing for the many stakeholders involved in apprenticeship. The state should prioritize clarity and consistency in the terms they use to describe different apprenticeship models that serve youth. Once defined, the state should conduct an education and marketing campaign to ensure that the definitions are known. Using consistent terms will reduce confusion amongst policymakers and service providers.

Of these models, registered apprenticeships integrated with high school have the most potential to provide seamless pathways to careers. But they are the most complex to orchestrate, requiring significant coordination between schools, community colleges, employers, and program intermediaries.

Blaze the Trail: Prioritize Registered Apprenticeship Programs for High School Youth

The Freedom to Succeed Executive Order calls for an integrated system that will allow each individual “to obtain the skills and experience necessary to pursue a good paying career…and to connect individuals with employers hiring for those skills.” A statewide youth apprenticeship system can achieve this goal. While challenging, it’s worth the effort. Integrating apprenticeship with the high school experience has the best chance of providing seamless pathways for young people to careers after high school.

High school apprenticeships prevent students from falling through the cracks after graduation. They engage at-risk youth who benefit from hands-on learning. And they leverage existing career and technical education investments.

However, serving high schoolers requires extensive coordination between schools, colleges, employers, and parents. The organizations that play this coordinating role are called intermediaries, and they commonly serve a variety of functions including program development, stakeholder engagement, data collection, and field building. Intermediaries must also provide significant support to students and employers since many are new to apprenticeships. This includes training on workplace norms, identifying appropriate projects, and ongoing case management.

Equip the Trailblazers - Support Intermediaries that Coordinate High School Apprenticeships

Despite the effort involved, these types of apprenticeships already exist in California. The Apprenticeships Reaching Career Horizons (ARCH) initiative, led by the San Joaquin County Office of Education, runs high school apprenticeships in IT, education, agriculture, hospitality, and marketing. ARCH is a regional intermediary, providing shared guidelines for its programs and helping to integrate college credit-bearing related coursework with high schools’ dual enrollment programs. The LAUNCH Network is a multi-sector regional intermediary, and since its founding in 2018 it has registered programs in over 20 occupations, from manufacturing to cybersecurity to health care. They have long partnered with community colleges to set up registered apprenticeships and have recently begun partnering with the San Bernardino City Unified School District to establish high school apprenticeship programs. And Early Care and Education Pathways to Success (ECEPTS), a statewide early childhood education (ECE) sector intermediary, launched an ECE apprenticeship with high schoolers in Oakland Unified School District in 2023. In talking with these intermediaries on what it will take to scale registered high school apprenticeships, they shared three priorities for the state.

Provide sustained funding beyond short-term grants

While grants are helpful for starting up programs, intermediaries need reliable, on-going funding streams to sustain their work. California started down this road with Apprenticeship Innovation Funding that provides formula funding to apprenticeship intermediaries based on the number of apprentices served with a bonus for the number who complete their apprenticeships. This is a promising and innovative model for funding apprenticeships that isn’t common in other states. However, this funding is set to end in 2024. The state should commit to ongoing formula funds for apprenticeship intermediaries. The formula should provide additional funding for intermediaries serving high school apprentices since these programs take significantly more staff than other apprentice programs or pre-apprenticeships.

Increase scheduling flexibility for high schools

The California Department of Education should explore options for improving high schoolers’ schedule flexibility so they can complete more on-the-job training hours during their junior and senior years. Policies that impact schedule flexibility include mandated school start times, seat time requirements, and graduation requirements. California can review legislation and accountability mechanisms related to these for opportunities to reduce barriers to work during the school day. Where policy is not a true barrier, the state can provide guidance and technical support to help districts adopt practices that improve schedule flexibility like block scheduling and awarding credit for learning that happens outside the classroom.

Streamline program approvals

It takes tremendous work to recruit employers to any apprenticeship, let alone an apprenticeship with 16 and 17 year olds. Once an employer is on board, it’s critical that they aren’t lost due to a months-long approval process. The state should consider guaranteed approval timelines, hiring more DAS consultants, and improving training for DAS consultants on high school program models. The approval process can also be a way to encourage apprenticeships to take advantage of existing infrastructure and investments. For example, programs designed to align with existing CTE pathways could be fast-tracked through the approval process.

On December 1st, California’s education and workforce leaders will deliver their preliminary recommendations to Governor Newsom. Their recommendations are supposed to address three main goals:

• All high school students will be guided to pathways to well-compensated careers
• Students will have opportunities to learn by doing, especially paid earn-and-learn opportunities
• Students won’t have to take on substantial debt or navigate confusing bureaucracies

These goals can be achieved through high school apprenticeship. Expanding registered apprenticeships for high schoolers will allow more students to gain paid experience in growing fields, earn college credit, and transition smoothly into skilled careers or further education after graduation. This will require effort, but is essential to rebuilding apprenticeship as a path to opportunity for California youth.

Many thanks to the leaders of the California youth apprenticeship intermediaries who spoke with me to help inform this article - Charles Henkels of LAUNCH (who shared with me the tidbit on the 1970s DAS handbook), Pam Knapp and Katie Wipfli of ARCH, and Randi Wolfe of ECEPTS.