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By Bruno V. Manno [ [link removed] ]
As the public sours on the value of a college degree as the default pathway to success, it’s sweetening on the value of multiple pathways to success, especially earn-and-learn models such as apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are the new learning campuses, where paid work and education combine to jump-start careers.
Vice President Kamala Harris captured this sentiment [ [link removed] ] during her 2024 presidential campaign: “For far too long, our nation has encouraged only one path to success: a four-year college degree. Our nation needs to recognize the value of other paths—additional paths, such as apprenticeships and technical programs.” I call this approach to creating additional paths to success opportunity pluralism [ [link removed] ].
This week, the nation celebrates the 10th annual National Apprenticeship Week [ [link removed] ]. As we commemorate this celebration, it’s useful to take a look at America’s growing appetite for an increasing array of earn-and-learn apprenticeship programs.
From College to Apprenticeships
The college pathway to jobs and success is losing support among Americans, while our appetite for apprenticeships is growing. A 2024 Gallup and Lumina Foundation poll found [ [link removed] ] that only 36% of adults say they have a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education, down from 57% in 2015. They also don’t believe higher education is on a positive path, with 68% saying it’s heading in the wrong direction and just 31% saying it’s heading in the right direction.
A 2024 Pew Research Center poll found [ [link removed] ] similar sentiments. Only a quarter of adults said that having a four-year degree is a “very or extremely” important part of getting a well-paid job, and 40% said it is “not too or not at all” important. About half (49%) said a four-year degree is less important to getting a well-paying job now than it was 20 years ago.
There’s also a real-world disconnect between getting degrees and getting jobs. A Strada Education Foundation study [ [link removed] ] of the careers of more than 60 million workers and millions of online job postings found that 10 years after degree completion, 45% of graduates were underemployed in jobs not requiring a degree.
Finally, working-class voters without college degrees overwhelmingly believe that the federal government is looking out for the interests of the college degree holder, but not for their interests. A Progressive Policy Institute and YouGov poll [ [link removed] ] found that less than half of these voters said the federal government is responsive to their needs. But 7 out of 10 said the government is responsive to the needs of the college-educated.
On the other hand, the American public now has a more positive view of earn-and-learn apprenticeship pathways to jobs and success. More than 9 out of 10 [ [link removed] ] (92%) view apprenticeships favorably, while more than 6 out of 10 [ [link removed] ] (62%) say apprenticeships make people more employable than going to college. Nearly three-quarters (74%) of working-class voters [ [link removed] ] prefer apprenticeships and career pathway programs to help them acquire skills, rather than other options such as strengthening labor unions (15%) or forgiving student loans (11%).
When parents are asked to choose [ [link removed] ] between a full-tuition college scholarship for their children and a three-year apprenticeship leading to a good job, nearly 6 out of 10 (56%) opt for apprenticeships. And almost two-thirds [ [link removed] ] of Gen Z high schoolers say post-high school learning should be on the job through internships or apprenticeships. 
Americans want K-12 schools, colleges, employers and other stakeholders to think differently about pathways to jobs and success. The goal should no longer be “college for all” but opportunity pluralism, where many pathways lead to human flourishing.
Old and New Apprenticeship Models
Apprenticeships come in different forms. Federally registered [ [link removed] ] apprenticeship programs must meet specific criteria, including paid work experience, wage increases, participation in classroom instruction and a nationally recognized credential upon completing the program. Today [ [link removed] ], around 90% of apprentices who complete a registered apprenticeship retain employment, with an average annual salary of $80,000.
This earn-and-learn apprenticeship model is also spawning new forms. One example is youth apprenticeship [ [link removed] ]s, which are typically high school programs (though some are for young people not enrolled in high school). Since there is no uniform federal definition of youth apprenticeships like there is for registered apprenticeships, these programs vary from state to state. But youth apprenticeships typically include [ [link removed] ] classroom instruction across high schools, postsecondary institutions and employers.
Unlike the adult focus on the construction trades, youth apprenticeships are in fields such as advanced manufacturing, information technology and logistics. North Carolina [ [link removed] ] has 12 youth apprenticeship career pathways, including veterinary medicine, early childhood education and drone piloting. Pre-apprenticeships [ [link removed] ] at younger grade levels sometimes pave the way for youth apprenticeships. All these apprenticeship variations typically differ from internships [ [link removed] ], which usually are short-term, entry-level, unpaid jobs without mentors or credentials.
Apprenticeship degrees are another promising earn-and-learn model, permitting [ [link removed] ] individuals to be apprentices and college students at the same time [ [link removed] ]. The United Kingdom [ [link removed] ] has developed apprenticeship degrees [ [link removed] ] that take between three and six years and lead to a debt-free bachelor’s or master’s degree.
U.S. K-12 education is adapting this model to create debt-free teacher apprenticeships that lead to bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education. Reach University [ [link removed] ] is a nonprofit leader in this effort, with its affiliates Oxford Teacher’s College Undergraduate School of Education and Reach Institute Graduate School. They offer [ [link removed] ] eight degrees and certificate programs with 148 schools and districts enrolling more than 1,500 students.
At the federal level, the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor are cooperating on a program to create paid registered apprenticeship [ [link removed] ]s for teaching. Currently, [ [link removed] ]the Department of Labor has given approval to 28 states [ [link removed] ] and the District of Columbia to offer teacher apprenticeships, with at least 25 participating.
The Department of Labor also has approved the nation’s first registered early childhood apprenticeship degree program [ [link removed] ] to train day care center directors and owners. It’s sponsored by the New Hampshire Community College System and ApprenticeshipNH. The program pays for courses and expenses while trainees work for two years at a participating day care center.
Finally, apprenticeship programs offer colleges the option to “unbundle [ [link removed] ]” the four-year degree into building blocks, or stackable credentials, earned while working and leading to associate’s or bachelor’s degrees. A recent study [ [link removed] ] of the Virginia Community College System shows [ [link removed] ] that these programs typically increase employment by 4 percentage points and boost quarterly wages by $375.
Today’s Registered Apprenticeships
The federal government’s authority over apprenticeship programs began in 1937 with the National Apprenticeship Act, which also gave states the option of registering and overseeing programs. Today, about half the states exercise that option. These registered apprenticeships [ [link removed] ] provide individuals with on-the-job training, pay for work and classroom instruction, and award a nationally recognized credential upon program completion. These programs have received bipartisan [ [link removed] ] political backing at the federal level and in states as politically diverse as California [ [link removed] ], Colorado [ [link removed] ], Tennessee [ [link removed] ] and Texas [ [link removed] ].
Today [ [link removed] ], 27,000 registered programs enroll around 600,000 [ [link removed] ] individuals, with roughly 70% [ [link removed] ] in construction trades. That’s only 0.3% of the U.S. workforce, the lowest percentage of apprenticeship enrollment among developed countries. While federal financial support [ [link removed] ] for apprenticeships and other workforce training programs is growing, it’s far short of the billions of federal dollars spent on postsecondary education and training. A Progressive Policy Institute fiscal 2022 analysis [ [link removed] ] shows that out of the $139.5 billion allocated for federal postsecondary education and training, only $28.2 billion, or 20%, was spent on workforce development.
Creating More Apprenticeships
Despite the small percentage of U.S. workers involved and of federal dollars spent, efforts are underway to expand earn-and-learn apprenticeship programs. The Department of Labor supports a State Apprenticeship Expansion Project [ [link removed] ] that includes an Apprenticeship Professionals Learning Network [ [link removed] ]. Additionally, an increasing [ [link removed] ] number [ [link removed] ] of [ [link removed] ] organizations [ [link removed] ] offer policy guidance and practical assistance to states and localities in creating new programs.
Robert Lerman [ [link removed] ], Urban Institute Fellow, and Ryan Craig [ [link removed] ], author of “Apprentice Nation [ [link removed] ],” have proposed ways [ [link removed] ] to expand U.S. apprenticeships so that at least 30% of any given age cohort is enrolled in them, as is the case in European countries. Leading this expansion would be third-party organizations called apprenticeship intermediaries [ [link removed] ]; these would include nonprofit community organizations, community colleges, chambers of commerce and for-profit commercial companies.
These intermediaries would offer employers two services: Hire-Train-Deploy and Try-Before-You-Buy. In other words, intermediaries would pay the upfront costs involved in hiring, training and placing apprentices, and employers could try out an apprentice before they hire one. This approach is modeled on pay-for-performance contracting. It’s similar to the approach used in K-12 public charter school [ [link removed] ] contracting [ [link removed] ] or other K-12 versions of outcomes-based contracting by organizations such as The Center for Outcomes Based Contracting [ [link removed] ] at the Southern Education Foundation.
Federal and state programs should pay for some of the up-front costs associated with using intermediaries to increase the number of apprenticeships. For example, federal rules [ [link removed] ] for Pell Grants to low-income students should allow grants to be used to pay for quality short-term workforce training programs, which are not now eligible for support. Additionally, federal and state programs that fund apprenticeships should change [ [link removed] ] from one-off grant programs to recurring formula grant programs that use the pay-for-performance contracting model and support a greater array of occupations and industries.
Community colleges are uniquely positioned [ [link removed] ] to do this work. A recent report [ [link removed] ] from Apprenticeships for America describes a four-part framework to guide this partnership:
Work with employers to design and deliver related technical instruction [ [link removed] ], which is made-to-order classroom instruction for apprentices.
Add value to related technical instruction by, for example, offering structured apprenticeship degree pathway programs or including the college’s career guidance and support services in apprenticeship programs.
Sponsor federally registered apprenticeship programs, relieving employers of the costs associated with the application process.
Create apprenticeships across industries and occupations, reducing costs to employers.
An Opportunity Economy
The opportunity economy [ [link removed] ] that Vice President Harris championed should support earn-and-learn apprenticeship pathways as central to that economy’s education and training agenda. This “opportunity pluralism [ [link removed] ]” creates multiple pathways to jobs and human flourishing rather than forcing a singular, preferred college-degree pathway.
Earn-and-learn apprenticeships differ sharply from the vocational education [ [link removed] ] of old that placed students into different tracks based mostly on family background. They are built on an opportunity equation with three related elements that form the basis for individuals pursuing pathways to opportunity: Knowledge (what individuals know) + Relationships (whom they know) + Identity (who they are) = Opportunity.
This equation allows individuals to achieve three goals: acquire knowledge that is profitable, develop relationships that are priceless, and pursue an identity that elevates their dignity and self-worth. Earn-and-learn apprenticeships are pathways to these goals that use the workplace as a new learning campus to prepare individuals for careers, opportunity and human flourishing.
Bruno V. Manno is a senior adviser at the Progressive Policy Institute, where he leads the Pathways to Opportunity What Works Lab, and a former U.S. assistant secretary of education for policy.

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