Work-based learning traces its origins to the millennia-old apprenticeship model, which was significantly shaped by the rise of industrialization in the 20th century. While vocational education has gone through many progressions, modern educators are embracing apprenticeships as a way to combine paid on-the-job training with classroom instruction.
Boasting flexible programming and deep community connections, two-year institutions are uniquely positioned as a hub for both apprentices and employers, say administrators interviewed by Community College Daily.
“Apprenticeships are a growing area that provide great job opportunities while representing emerging best practices needed to address skills gaps,” says Christopher Reber, president of Hudson County Community College (HCCC) in New Jersey). “They’re an integration of hands-on learning with more traditional education, all made possible through partnerships.”
To meet the nation’s evolving workforce requirements, community colleges are either creating new apprenticeships or updating existing ones. HCCC is addressing regional staffing challenges through an apprenticeship program with Eastern Millwork, a leader in automated architectural woodwork manufacturing and installation.
In 2019, Eastern Millwork approached college officials with concerns that recent bachelor’s degree graduates were not prepared for the workforce. Since hiring mechanical engineering majors was also proving costly and inefficient, the company partnered with HCCC to create a pipeline of workers who would receive hands-on, major-specific training starting in high school.
The resulting Holz Technik Registered Apprenticeship Program is a dual-education curriculum that recruits students immersed in an earn-while-you-learn model.
Holz Technik apprentices make a $31,500 starting salary with full benefits, including annual raises throughout the five-year program. Upon graduation, trainees receive an associate of applied science degree in advanced manufacturing from HCCC, along with a bachelor of science degree in technical studies from Thomas Edison State University. Program alumni are also immediately hired by Eastern Millwork at an annual salary of $70,000.
At its core, the partnership brings skilled workers onto the shop floor, while offering family-sustaining wages to new hires. To date, the program has brought 11 apprentices to Eastern Millwork, creating a dynamic that benefits both the business and the apprentice, says Lori Margolin, HCCC’s vice president of strategic initiatives for continuing education and workforce development.
“The apprenticeship model is a level of commitment for employers,” Margolin says. “Apprentices see a company’s investment in them as well, so there’s a commitment to give on both sides.”
Focused on teachers
Holz Technik aims to better align national certifications and associate degree programs with the shifting demands of the labor market, says HCCC’s Reber. According to a 2024 study from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, more than a quarter of middle-skills credentials are for programs that do not have a direct link to a specific occupation.
Eastern Millwork had difficulty finding that sought-after combination of technical and “durable” abilities – such as critical-thinking and problem-solving – that are now the bedrock of its work with HCCC.
“These are hands-on engineering skills students are learning, plus the creative skills they need for the manufacturing process,” Reber says. “(Eastern Millwork) couldn’t find that at four-year institutions. So, with our collaboration, we developed a new degree in advanced manufacturing.”
For decades, apprenticeships were most closely associated with the skilled trades. Although carpenters, plumbers and electricians are still vital to the U.S. economy, the apprenticeship model has expanded into other industries as well. Software developers, medical assistants and solar panel installers are among the professionals currently getting critical on-the-job experience through this framework.
Apprenticeships are also an effective strategy in addressing a nationwide teacher deficit, notes Sara DeLano, founding executive director of the Center for Reigniting the Educator Workforce (CREW) at Dallas College. The Texas college recently selected five regional collaboratives to join its inaugural Grow Your Own (GYO) Teacher Apprenticeship cohort. Partnerships among school districts, educator preparation programs and community colleges aim to create pathways into the teaching profession, DeLano says.
Located in Dallas-Fort Worth, the college serves an 80% multi-lingual student population. In addition to the pressing demand for bilingual educators, the region faces a shortage of special education teachers.
“The needs of students with exceptionalities are more complex,” DeLano says. “And with each kid needing individual support, the work can sometimes be overwhelming.”
A dwindling pool of educators is not unique to Texas. According to a 2022 U.S. Education Department report that looked at 41 states and Washington D.C., school systems are facing teacher shortages in at least one subject or grade level. The Covid pandemic made the situation worse, requiring immediate action to fill these positions.
More than 60 organizations applied for the Dallas College program, with the school selecting five collaboratives from a range of geographic areas. Each collaborative will receive support from CREW to design and implement a GYO initiative that aligns with state educational guidelines. CREW will also provide strategic planning tools, individualized coaching and additional resources to navigate participants through the process.
Unlike typical teacher education programs, the apprenticeship initiative prioritizes recruitment over preparation. This focus is particularly significant for a state where only 6% of its 82,000 paraprofessionals go on to become teachers, DeLano says.
“The apprenticeship route starts through the lens of employment,” DeLano says. “I’ve got hundreds of paraprofessionals who could be teachers, but don’t have the pathway. So let’s recruit the top 20% of paraprofessionals, then build a pathway to support them.”
‘A partnership worth repeating’
Creating structured, on-the-job training allows businesses to customize their talent base, with an end goal of increasing retention and improving productivity. Central Carolina Community College (CCCC) in North Carolina is creating a direct path to advanced manufacturing with the Caterpillar Youth Apprenticeship in Welding, which welcomed a class of 16 apprentices this May.
Citing a regional skills gap widened by technological advancements, CCCC President Lisa Chapman says that aspiring welders must be as skilled in robotics as they are in the basic tenets of their trade.
“It’s a skills and people gap, because technology has changed these jobs,” she says. “People may not get that if I’m working at a fabrication shop, I need to know how to weld and also know how to work with robots. There’s still that old-school piece, but these shops provide a clean environment that people don’t know about.”
The program, a collaboration among Caterpillar, CCCC, the county school district and the state community college system, provides high school students with on-the-job hours that count toward a full adult apprenticeship. Completers are eligible for preferred placement at Caterpillar’s Sanford facility, giving them direct entry into the region’s advanced manufacturing sector.
Recognized in 2013 by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation as a “partnership worth repeating,” the initiative has grown into a cornerstone of workforce development in Lee County. Today, about 30% of Caterpillar’s fabrication shop is comprised of students who enrolled in the program, Chapman says.
“Community colleges are an ideal environment in which to develop the apprenticeship model because we’re locally comprehensive,” she says. “We know and serve local employers and community members and so are well-positioned to successfully connect them and support their continued work together.”
Ongoing programming not only changes the outdated image of manufacturing as “dark, dirty and dangerous,” but also creates lucrative, lifelong career opportunities, Chapman says.
“It’s not just about hiring bodies – we are moving people up the career ladder,” she says. “If Caterpillar has a need, we will help them meet it.”
