Will Apprenticeships Improve Economic Stability?

Apprentices learn and earn at the same time—with or without a college degree. Advocates of apprenticeship program say that on-the-job worker training is the key to economic stability. Is it?A recent article in The Atlantic highlights the US government’s efforts to secure federal funding for apprenticeships.Congress recently increased federal funding for apprenticeships from $90 million to $95 million per year.Here’s what’s interesting: participants don’t go into college debt while they’re getting trained. Conversely, they’re getting paid to learn—and with a high completion rate, too. Eighty-seven percent of apprenticeship participants finish their programs with a job already secured.Proponents see apprenticeship programs as one solution to the US’s current $1.3 trillion student-debt crisis, and they generally have bipartisan support.The Atlantic’s assistant editor, Lolade Fadulu interviewed Ammar Campa-Najjar, who served in the Labor Department’s Office of Public Affairs for the Employment and Training Administration under President Obama on apprenticeships.He focuses on the importance of investing in job training for the 21st century. He says that the message of apprenticeships is not anti-college.He says, “It’s like, ‘If you’re not going to go to college, face the fact that you need more skills’ and ‘If you’re not going to do college because of debt, because you don’t want to spend the time, because you just don’t care about getting an education of that kind, there is an alternative.’”Sounds like a good one.

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