Apprenticeships: The number of apprenticeships has been rising, could they go mainstream?

According to the latest data there were more than 250,000 new apprentices in the US in 2019, marking the highest number in more than a decade. The resurgence of apprenticeships is interesting in the context of the current economic crisis, which has generally been hardest on younger workers.

Washington-based think tank Brookings believes that apprenticeships could be a powerful tool in the government's economic response — and they are impressively non-partisan with 83% of Americans reportedly supportive of more government funding for apprenticeships.

‍Learnin' and earnin'

‍The combination of on-the-job training and classroom learning (learn and earn) has long been applied in the construction industry. Indeed, almost 70% of all active apprentices in the US in 2019 were in the construction sector. However, apprenticeships are slowly finding traction in other industries too and just 3 weeks ago a UK start-up, which helps organizations to develop apprenticeship schemes, raised $44m of VC funding to help expand into the US.

The biggest piece of the puzzle for apprenticeships to continue to grow is the government, and there is good news. At the end of last year the US House of Representatives passed the National Apprenticeship Act of 2020.  If approved the proposed bill could grant an additional $3.89 billion in funding for apprenticeships over five years.