What Are Youth Apprenticeships?

Appren­tice­ship pro­grams allow youth and young adults to gain crit­i­cal job skills and expe­ri­ences with­in or out­side of high school or col­lege. This can low­er the cost of col­lege for stu­dents and help them stand out to find high-qual­i­ty employ­ment in the com­pet­i­tive labor market.

UNDER­STAND­ING YOUTH APPRENTICESHIPS

Although there is cur­rent­ly no fed­er­al def­i­n­i­tion of youth appren­tice­ship, the Part­ner­ship to Advance Youth Appren­tice­ship (PAYA) — a mul­ti­year ini­tia­tive of the non­par­ti­san think tank New Amer­i­ca — out­lines four key char­ac­ter­is­tics to youth apprenticeships:

• paid, on-the-job learn­ing under the super­vi­sion of skilled employ­ee mentors;
• ongo­ing assess­ment against estab­lished skills and com­pe­ten­cy standards;
• relat­ed class­room-based instruc­tion; and
• a portable, indus­try-rec­og­nized cre­den­tial and post­sec­ondary cred­it upon completion.

Youth appren­tice­ships also pro­vide the spe­cial­ized qual­i­fi­ca­tions and knowl­edge that many employ­ers are seek­ing from a poten­tial employ­ee but with­out the finan­cial bur­den of obtain­ing a four-year col­lege degree. Alter­na­tive­ly, appren­tice­ships give young peo­ple who are seek­ing a col­lege degree — but would oth­er­wise be unable to pay tuition and oth­er edu­ca­tion expens­es — a chance to work and learn simultaneously.

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