Apprenticeships have a long history in the U.S., but they have yet to be widely adopted outside trades such as construction and utilities. Apprenticeships, which combine on-the-job and classroom training over several years, can help people get a foot in the door to the labor market while also increasing access to higher education. They also help meet employers’ needs for a workforce with applied, technical, and problem-solving skills. Below, we examine the apprenticeship system in the U.S., review the key reasons for and elements of reform, and assess the extent to which a proposed update to the National Apprenticeship Act of 1937 makes progress toward a broader education reform effort.

As a relatively small and standalone system available primarily in the trades, apprenticeships are not well integrated with the education or workforce training ecosystem more broadly. In 2017, Harvard researchers estimated that apprenticeships could be expanded from 27 to 74 occupations and that we could fill more than eight times the number of job openings with apprenticeships—up to roughly 3.2 million jobs. There is also tremendous grassroots enthusiasm for expanding and modernizing apprenticeships.

A robust apprenticeship system has the potential to increase earnings and reduce occupational segregation in the labor market. A recent study of the benefits for employers also found evidence for a return on investment (though it varies by country) and that it improves retention, among other benefits. Other evidence suggests that apprenticeships are an effective workforce development strategy that provides a net benefit to society.

Read the full article about apprenticeships in the U.S. by Annelies Goger and Chenoah Sinclair at Brookings.