Dive Brief:
- While their mainstream popularity has wavered over the years, apprenticeships seem to be getting renewed interest as a way to get more Americans into the middle class.
- The Apprentice School at the Navy shipyard in Newport News, VA, is about as selective as Harvard and pays its fourth-year apprentices a $54,000 salary to learn a skill that will guarantee them a well-paying job with a military contractor upon finishing the program.
- Apprenticeships have historically been seen as second choice options for those who can’t cut it in academia, but with rising debt among college graduates, politicians on both sides of the aisle are pointing to them as programs worth expanding.
Dive Insight:
Apprenticeships may once again provide a source of competition for traditional higher education. While the number of people working as apprentices plummeted during the recession, it rose again in 2014, perhaps starting a new upward trend. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez wants to double the number of active apprentices by 2018. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, while cutting the state university system’s budget by $250,000 over the next two years, increased funding for apprenticeship programs. In some quarters, the value system of higher education seems to be breaking down. With additional apprenticeship options in the pipeline, high school graduates may soon have a serious alternative to a college degree.