Apprenticeships as a Solution to Skills Gap, Student Debt, and Career Dead Ends

An abundance of people are able to account fond memories of their childhood, recalling how exhilarating it was to ponder what they aspired to be when they grew up. Ambitiously born young desired to become Mr. or Mrs. President of the United States, while imaginative youngsters longed desperately to star in a Hollywood action film, then becoming just a sliver more famous than the classic movie star. However, as children grow up into society, they are quickly faced with the reality that the majority of people are not what they so aspired to be, and to do so can be like signing a contract to a list of life-changing consequences. In the United States of America today, after pupils graduate from high school, they are met with two choices: college or a dead end. Over a course of less than 50 years, college enrollment has gone from 19 to 61 percent, making higher education go from a status of exception to the status of a social norm, while therefore raising requirements for jobs (Lehman). However, the increasing attendance in universities along with the culture of higher expectations circulating America is directly related to the exponentially growing accumulation of over 1.5 trillion dollars in student loan debt, the widening skills gap dilemma, and the vast amounts of people left at a dead end; not being able to find a sufficient job. The solution to this cycle of national economic deterioration is clear. Apprenticeship programs should be as commonly recognized and accessible as an alternative option to a college education in the United States of America in order to narrow the skills gap dilemma, prevent further growth of the student loan debt crisis, and create an alternative career pathway for high school graduates who do not particularly need or desire to attend college.

Apprenticeship programs are actually working towards narrowing the skills gap and labor shortage predicament in America. A strange paradox occurring nationwide is the fact that there is a skills gap in which 6.6 million people are currently unemployed, yet companies have nearly as many job openings, according to a work study completed by J.B. Wogan. This is due to the fact that people are simply not qualified for the positions these companies are needing to fill. It was cited that a record of 25 percent of small business owners found their main complication was in finding properly qualified employees (Onwuka). The dilemma is that these specifically high demand jobs require a certain higher education, but not necessarily a college degree. Approximately “53 percent of job openings are ‘middle skill,’ requiring less than a four-year degree but more than a high school education… Only about 43 percent of the current labor force fits that description”(Wogan). These particularly suffering “middle skill” fields predominantly fit the category of blue-collar jobs such as plumbers, electricians, carpenters, and even stretch to occupations like dental hygienists, nurses, and paralegals. As a reaction to the skills gap, apprenticeship programs have proved to work as a plausible solution. In the year of 2011, essentially 358,000 apprentices were employed by American businesses and establishments, which increased to 505,000 employees in 2017, as reported by J.B. Wogan, filling positions of high demand status in not just manufacturing and construction, but into a heap of varying jobs. Effectively illustrating the growth that various states have experienced through registered apprenticeships, Montana has advanced appreciably over a short course of time. Only several years ago, Montana was void of a single apprenticeship for jobs in demand for healthcare. Due to various forms of state support, the number of apprentices has increased by 30 percent in a 5 year timeline, and currently 15 apprenticeship programs are available for healthcare, employing 161 people in training for nursing certification, all the way to hospital administration (Wogan). This exemplifies how apprenticeships are effortlessly filling the skills gap rapidly. Seeing that apprenticeships have a growing popularity and have already begun to employ a multitude of people into high demand jobs, the normalization of apprenticeship programs would have an immense effect in solving the massive skills gap, by specifically training workers to qualify and meet requirements for the millions of open blue-collar and varying occupations, in a cost and time-effective manner.

Not only do apprenticeship programs aid the skills gap dilemma, they can prevent the student loan debt crisis in America from further growth. As previously mentioned, student loan debt from attending college has reached approximately 1.5 trillion dollars, which combined is “a bigger burden than credit cards, auto loans, or any other non-mortgage debt” (Lehman). In response to the daunting thought of accumulating ridiculous summations of debt, it thus affects job market decisions amongst young adults who enter into college, choosing fields of work that provide high-paying careers, avoiding lower-paying occupations such as blue-collar occupations which would not suffice to cover loan debt payments, as stated in the article, “Student Loan Trap: When Debt Delays Life.” Many students use this method in order to attempt to avoid the loan trap, however it does not always work, as only 35 percent of college pupils graduate. According to data collected by the U.S. Department of Education, those who only have some college experience but not a complete degree count as the second highest percentage of people with student debt of all adults, and the top highest percentage of adults ranging from the ages of 25-34 years old (Lehman). The majority of the people in this particular situation are left with no other alternative but to turn towards low-requirement, low-paying jobs, as their debt goes further down the hole. Apprenticeships, however, bring about a new solution and a new pathway to avoid falling into the student loan trap. In light of an article by Louisa Garcia, data shows that millennials show a lack of interest in most blue-collar jobs as they do not portray STEM or manufacturing careers as sustainable. Nevertheless, collaborating with students through apprenticeships grants them a broad set of skills and clears misperception of various careers, while also providing a debt-free education with a higher probability of employment and sufficient pay (Garcia). At the same time, the average starting salary for apprentices is over $70,000 with 91% of them employed after completing their programs. This is compared to the average of $33,000 in student debt that 70% of college graduates carry with them (Onwuka). Essentially, both a college degree and an apprenticeship program provide one with a sufficient education, except an apprenticeship is debt-free, with a higher employment rate, and significantly better pay. Integrating apprenticeships into American society more commonly as an alternative to a college education would therefore immensely reduce the accumulation of student loan debt each year.

Not only do apprenticeships aid the resolution of student loan debt accumulation, they also create an alternative career pathway for high school students or graduates who do not particularly need or desire to attend college. After high school, a multitude of students face a dead end, simply because they do not desire to attend college, or they cannot simply afford it. Now however, an abundance of institutions, both universities as well as high schools, are indeed attempting to incorporate apprenticeship programs into their curriculum. In Colorado, Governor John Hickenlooper is attempting to make apprenticeship programs ubiquitous in high schools everywhere in the state with hands-on training in subjects such as “financial services, information technology, and healthcare as well as manufacturing” (Selingo). In accordance, many states are trying to involve local colleges in providing classroom training so apprentices still receive an academic credential (Wogan). An example of this is a program in Chicago, Illinois in which high school graduates receive specialized training in account management, financial analysis, human resources and information technology all while earning an associate degree free of charge from Harold Washington College or Harper College, as mentioned by an article from The New York Times, “Wanted: Factory Workers, Degree Required.” In addition to this, apprenticeships have proven to be successful career pathways in other countries. Noel Ginsburg, president and founder of Intertech Plastics located in Denver conducted a study in Switzerland, in 2015. According to the study, compulsory education in Switzerland ends after the ninth grade, when students are then able to choose between an academic or a vocational pathway. About 20 to 30 percent of students focus on the academic pathway, usually on track to go into fields of medicine or law. The remaining 70 percent of students choose the vocational pathway, entering into programs for approximately 230 various occupations. In the 10th grade, students begin rotations between various organizations and employers for up to four years of mentoring and training by learning hands-on whilst also getting paid. In addition, Switzerland’s unemployment rate is lower than any other country in Europe as well as a quarter of the unemployment rate in the United States of America (Selingo).