Apprenticeships have been around for centuries, giving people hands-on experience in a certain trade. But they fell out of fashion as the state put more emphasis on a four-year college education.
Now, though, several Indiana institutions are applying new ideas to the ancient form of learning.
Apprenticeships Making A Comeback
Josh Kroehler is a first year apprentice learning the ins and outs of flooring. He's part of an apprenticeship program set up by his employer, Jack Laurie Group. It's on the job training, but one with a lot of added value.
"We're getting a whole bunch of stuff, not just a journeymen's card but were getting a free Associate's degree, we can run that into a Bachelor's degree eventually of construction management," Kroehler says. "It's a great opportunity."
The program is an opportunity for workers new to the field to have full time work, while also being able to take classes to bolster the training they get on the job.
Kroehler started the apprenticeship because he wanted a job with a solid future where he can "be dynamic."
"Before that I was actually in technology doing websites and that kind of thing," Kroehler says. "But I found that I didn't like sitting at a desk I didn't like not moving around and I like working with my hands."
Most apprenticeship programs are run through trade unions, but the U.S. Department of Labor approved Jack Laurie University as the first program in Indiana run by a private employer.
It's just one example of how the hands-on work experience is evolving.
Broadening The Scope Of On-The-Job Training
"We're looking to other areas of apprenticeships, even more broad areas like innovation and entrepreneurship," says Sue Smith, Vice President for the Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Schools at Ivy Tech Community College. "How can we put together a program that helps to shepherd innovators and entrepreneurs in Indiana?"
Smith says there's a reason there's a shift back to apprenticeships.
"There is a real push nationwide for apprenticeships," Smith says. "They have worked well for centuries, literally. They are probably the oldest form of work and learn."
And not all of the fields are ones you might traditionally associate with apprenticeships. Smith says the insurance industry, for example, has one of the fastest-growing programs.
According to Department of Labor, more than 530,000 apprentices are working in the U.S., up from 375,000 just four years ago.
National and state leaders are embracing the trend. President Trump issued an executive order last year to help expand apprenticeships, and Gov. Eric Holcomb (R-Ind.) created the Office of Apprenticeships and Work-Based Learning to do the same thing on a state level.
According to the National Skills Coalition, demand for middle skill jobs, which require extensive education and training but no four-year degree, are higher than for any other kind of work both in Indiana and nationally.
"Employers who are looking to fill these jobs often talk about concerns they have about finding workers who are sufficiently trained," Senior Policy Analyst Katie Spiker says. "At the same time workers don't always have the skills training that can get them up to the level that businesses need."
Spiker says more than half of all jobs in the state fall into the middle skills category, and that demand is expected to remain strong through at least 2024. And there aren't enough qualified workers to fill open jobs.
Filling The Gap
Experts says even though employers and government officials recognize the value of apprenticeships, it may not be enough to create programs as strong as those in some European countries.
"It's a cultural thing, their culture embraces jobs that are taught through apprentice able kinds of activities," Smith says. "Our culture has not done that recently."
She says that the wider net cast by Ivy Tech's Apprenticeship program could help spark that change.
But Spiker says buy-in at the state and federal level is just as important.
"We're unlikely to create that shift without a meaningful investment by the government," she says. "Continuing on that the idea that we need to track and measure participation in programs, and really place a value on those middle skill jobs that we don't always have now."
New models of apprenticeship like the program Kroehler is in could also help bring the idea of apprenticeships further into the main stream. And experts say that needs to happen.
Middle skill jobs are an increasingly necessary part of the employment mix as more low skill jobs are lost to automation.
"Its skilled so there's a future in it," Kroehler says. "It's not gonna be replaced by robots."
