The students were up and at ’em. The narrator of the bunch read a passage from the play “Gigi and the Wishing Ring,” then came across a word they didn’t know – “imminent.” Shannon Lamb, a.k.a. Ms. Lamb, a.k.a. K-12 apprentice, walked them through it. “What does that mean?” Lamb asked. “Who do you know in your life that is imminent?” “Ms. Rivenbark,” the third-graders said, pointing to Lamb’s clinical teacher. That was just a snapshot of one of Lamb’s days at Tommy’s Road Elementary in the Wayne County Public Schools (WCPS) system, which has begun its first year of operating the Educator Registered Apprenticeship Program, which is dedicated to supporting new teacher apprenticeship. District representatives told EdNC that they are excited to expand their teacher pipeline and support their local economy. Apprentices said they are excited to give back to the community while getting experience before licensure.

Forming New Teacher Apprenticeship Programs

“I would say first, it starts with everyone coming to the table and agreeing on what they want to achieve and accomplish,” said Felicia Brown, director of human resources at WCPS. “And so that’s what we were able to do with Wayne Community College.”

Wayne Community College (WCC) formed the Apprenticeship Wayne program in 2020. In general, apprenticeships are arrangements where employers provide workers with on-the-job training in a certain field combined with classroom instruction. Students are paid for their time and earn nationally recognized certifications.

In 2022, WCPS became interested in starting an apprenticeship program for K-12 teachers, with a special interest in recruiting high school students. Apprenticeship Wayne partnered with the University of Mount Olive and the Educator Registered Apprenticeship Intermediary, housed under RTI International, in 2023. The role of the intermediary is to apply apprenticeship standards to the needs of the education sector.

“The greatest value-add of the ERA Intermediary was having a thought partner that understood both apprenticeship and education and who could explain how the two work together in the program standards,” Kristie Sauls, executive director of apprenticeships and career development at WCC, said in a news release. “ERA helped us understand braided funding opportunities and clarified the benefits of apprenticeship to prepare future educators.”

Read the full article about new teacher apprenticeship programs by Chantal Brown at The 74.