Explains John Colborn, director of the Aspen Institute’s Skills for America’s Future program, “The apprenticeship model is really a way for employers to have a very structured program that prepares the talent they need in order to be successful.” The goal of the program is to strengthen and increase partnerships between employers and community colleges to provide workers with the training they need for today’s labor market.
In an encouraging trend, there has recently been “a wider effort to broaden the role of apprenticeship into occupations beyond construction and, to some extent, manufacturing — and to increase the penetration of apprenticeship in employers, more broadly, in other areas, including in manufacturing,” notes Robert Lerman, a fellow at the Center on Labor, Human Services and Population at the nonprofit Urban Institute. On the federal level, Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.) have co-sponsored a tax credit bill for apprenticeships somewhat on the lines of South Carolina’s apprenticeship tax credit. And some states are creating small tax credits for apprenticeships.