Workforce Readiness: Apprenticeships and the Workforce
Submitted by Tiffani Ewing, SHRM-CP, HR Indiana SHRM Workforce Readiness Director
To build a large and fully competitive workforce, it’s crucial to build a collaborative strategy for preparing, upskilling, and reskilling a future-ready workforce. All employment sectors are facing challenging workforce shortages and gaps, apprenticeships offer an easy and effective way to recruit and develop a highly skilled workforce. While mostly applied to skilled trades in the United States, apprenticeships are growing in non-trade industries such as IT, health care, advanced manufacturing, insurance, and hospitality. Yet, an apprenticeship model can be used in many different industries, any program that is skill-based and can be supported by experiential learning. According to apprenticeship.gov, Indiana has jumped total participant numbers from about 18,500 in 2023 to just over 21,000 apprentice in over 1,000 active apprenticeship programs for 2024. Indiana is consistently one of the top ten largest apprenticeship states in the nation as far as size, number of programs available, and completion rates. Here are a few resources to learn more about and how to start an apprenticeship program.
As is the case with many occupations, employers say that, despite high levels of unemployment, they can’t find people with the right HR skills and are always looking to increase workforce diversity. To address these needs, the SHRM Foundation has developed the Human Resource Registered Apprenticeship Program (HR RAP). If you’re a business, it’s an opportunity to access, develop and retain the talent you need to grow now and in the future. Development of the HR RAP is possible through a grant from the US Department of Labor to the SHRM Foundation. This funding allows us to develop and implement or develop and sponsor registered apprenticeship programs, providing employers and apprentices high-quality programs that meet national independent standards for quality and rigor and that may qualify for federal or state financial resources.
- Bridging the Gap Between Talent and Opportunity – An Apprenticeship Playbook
- Webinar – Apprenticeship for HR: Why and How to Get Started
The Office of Apprenticeship promotes and helps employers and other organizations develop quality, accessible Registered Apprenticeship opportunities for workers seeking higher-skilled, higher-paying jobs and organizations seeking to build a qualified, diverse, and inclusive workforce. A core component of the Office of Apprenticeship’s work is ensuring all Americans have access to Registered Apprenticeship opportunities. The Office of Apprenticeship is available to help employers increase diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in their workforce through Registered Apprenticeship and can help them connect with targeted populations such as women, Veterans, people of color, youth, people with disabilities, justice-involved individuals, and other underserved communities.
- 9th Annual National Apprenticeship Week, November 17-23, 2024
- 1st Annual Youth Apprenticeship Week, May 5-11, 2024
The Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning is expanding and creating access to high-quality apprenticeship and work-based learning. Apprenticeship, pre-apprenticeship, and work-based learning are proven models for supporting economic advancement for workers, but many employers struggle to implement high-quality programs. Jobs for the Future’s (JFF) Center for Apprenticeship & Work-Based Learning is a leader in expanding these proven models to new industries and professions. By supporting system and program designs, they connect a diverse population of youth and adults to quality jobs and enable businesses to develop workers with the skills they need to grow. Over the next 5 years, JFF is working to provide apprenticeship opportunities in manufacturing to nearly 2,000 women and people of color. By 2026, JFF aims to prepare 1,000 young people for entry into pre-apprenticeship and Registered Apprenticeship programs, with an emphasis on those from populations that are underrepresented in Registered Apprenticeship.
The Office of Work-Based Learning and Apprenticeships (OWBLA) develops and implements a framework of Work-Based Learning with the goal of developing a skilled and ready workforce statewide. This office assists employers in expanding capacities around Work-Based Learning through targeted resources and tools. OWBLA also coordinates a network of partners that support and impact work-based learning programs.
