Sept 27,2016

(Educators)Although U.S. apprenticeships have traditionally focused on manual skills such as automotive repair and carpentry, the United Statesis eyeing European models like this — which provide fast-tracked, on-the-job training in white-collar professions — to prepare people for some of the country's 5.6 million unfilled jobsas college costs, and the time it takes to earn degrees, keep going up.

U.S. President Barack Obama pledged in 2014 to double the number of U.S. apprentices to 750,000 from 375,000 by 2019. The country is closing in on 500,000, says John Ladd, who has administered apprenticeships since 2008 at the U.S. Department of Labor, which essentially accredits apprentice and certificate programs.

The idea has attracted bipartisan backing: Congress this year appropriated funds for apprenticeships — $90 million — for the first time, on top of $175 million in apprenticeship grants the Obama administration handed out to colleges, states and companies last fall to help jumpstart new programs.

In the past, Ladd says, federal support was limited because of concerns that young people would choose apprenticeships that led to menial jobs rather than enter conventional degree programs. That's a "false choice," he said. This new generation of apprentices often earn college credit while training for a profession, he noted, so paid apprenticeships actually make it easier to earn degrees, faster and without student-loan debt.

"It really isn't about limiting kids' choices," he says. "It's about giving you an option. If you decide college isn't for you, what other options do we give kids?"

At Illinois' Harper College, a community college just northwest of Chicago, Switzerland-based Zurich Insurance asked educators to try a Swiss-style apprenticeship program to train more claims adjusters and other workers for its Chicago-area offices. Zurich pays tuition and other expenses for each student, and each spends three days a week getting paid to work at the insurance company and two days in the classroom.

About two dozen students, including 37-year-old Dane Lyons, are in the inaugural class, which started in January. The program lasts two years, after which the graduates have an associate degree in business administration with insurance industry certificates.

Apprenticeships differ from internships in that they are employer-funded (the federal money was to help colleges and universities set them up) and more closely tied to students' educations. Apprentices finish the programs with certificates and, in some cases, college degrees — and often with no student loan debt, a major accomplishment in a country staggering under more than $1 trillion in student loans. Employers usually pay apprentices' tuition, and the average starting wage for a registered apprenticeship is about $15 per hour, according to the Department of Labor.

Although the federal government, which has certified apprenticeship programs for more than 75 years, has been slow to keep up with this trend — the Department of Labor includesaccordion-making and pneumatic tube repair apprenticeshipsamong more than 1,200 apprenticeship-friendly professions, for example, but not yet cybersecurity — it has shown signs of willingness to adapt.

Obama has repeatedly noted that apprenticeships could boost the economy, and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has called formore funding for apprenticeships. Republican candidate Donald Trump, of course, was the star of the reality TV show "The Apprentice."

A solution as obvious as it is rare: Making high school graduates ready for college

More than 260 community colleges have pledged to give college credit for employer-funded apprenticeships, Ladd says, and major companies have started programs. Some states also are on board, too: In South Carolina, for example, astatewide initiative to boost apprenticeshipsthrough community and technical colleges attracted thousands of new students.

Advocates say apprenticeships are the perfect way to fill job openings with skilled workers while reducing the country's overwhelming student debt. But any meaningful expansion will require changing Americans' views of apprenticeships, says Nancy Hoffman, a vice president at the nonprofit Jobs for the Future.

Immigrants and companies from countries with more robust apprenticeship systems sometimes are dismayed by the absence of apprentices in the United States, for blue-collar as well as white-collar jobs. It has been nearly impossible, for example, for Columbus, Georgia, fashion designer Florence Oloyede to find trained tailors for her shop because of a lack of local apprenticeship programs.

As the United States inches toward more apprenticeships, their supporters say it will be important to avoid the pitfalls that have hampered success elsewhere.

In England, for example, national leaders in 2010 spread limited funding too thinly by extending apprenticeship programs to more age groups, says David Harbourne, policy and research director for the London-based Edge Foundation, which advocates for improved vocational training.

The English system — the United Kingdom'sWales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have not had similar problems — has become unwieldy and has occasionally lost its intended focus on preparing young people for careers, Harbourne says. Both England and the United States need to show the public apprenticeships are for more than just blue-collar professions, he said.