Apprenticeship 2.0

What does it take to turn Apprenticeship Degrees from promising ideas into sustainable pathways that support working adults earn credentials of value, advance their careers, and meet employers' needs?

In this episode, hosts Joe E. Ross and Dr. Anastasia Wickham sit back down with Matt McKenney, President and CEO of Job Forward, and Dr. Holly Smith, Executive Director and VP of Apprenticeship Degree Design at Reach University's National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree. Recorded in the wake of Reach's annual International Convening for the Apprenticeship Degree (ICAD), the conversation explores what it will take to build Apprenticeship Degree programs that can scale and endure.

The guests discuss why lasting programs require more than enthusiastic champions: They need strong partnerships among employers, colleges, workforce organizations, and policymakers. They also explore how to make learning on the job count toward a degree, prepare workers for an AI-driven economy, and design pathways that people can realistically afford to complete.

In this episode:

• Why the hardest part of building an Apprenticeship Degree is aligning employers, colleges, and workforce systems

• How to create programs that can survive leadership changes and evolve with partners' needs

• Why employers should help define the skills workers need—and how those skills can be taught and assessed on the job

• How Apprenticeship Degrees can incorporate AI literacy and prepare workers for changing jobs

• What intermediaries can do to coordinate partners without adding unnecessary complexity

• Why affordability and access depend on designing pathways that people can actually complete

More resources:

Learn more about ICAD: https://www.ncad.org/convening

Subscribe to the Apprenticeship 2.0 newsletter for new episodes, guest insights, and additional resources: https://reachpodcast.substack.com/

Music by PaulYudin from Pixabay.

What happens to higher education when the skills universities have traditionally taught—numeracy, literacy, and analysis—can increasingly be performed by machines?

In this episode, Joe E. Ross talks with Ben Wildavsky, senior advisor to the Harvard Project on Workforce and author of the forthcoming Know How: The Global Rise of Hands-On Higher Education, and Pano Kanelos, founding partner of The Athos Group, former president of St. John's College and senior fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.

They explore an increasingly important question for higher education: How can colleges prepare people for work without losing sight of the broader purpose of education?

Ben makes the case for a "both/and" approach—combining broad, durable skills with targeted career skills and the social capital students need to navigate the workplace. Pano argues that AI may fundamentally change what universities are for, shifting their focus away from skills that machines can increasingly perform and toward questions of meaning, purpose, judgment, and what it means to be human.

In this episode:

• Why higher education could become smaller, shorter, and more focused

• Whether college degrees are actually losing their value—or whether the evidence tells a different story

• Why a liberal arts education could become more important, not less, in an AI-driven economy

• How apprenticeship and work-embedded learning can bring theory and practice together

More resources:

The new core curriculum at the University of Texas at Austin: https://catalog.utexas.edu/general-information/academic-policies-and-procedures/core-curriculum/

More about Ben and his forthcoming book: https://pw.hks.harvard.edu/post/ben-wildavsky-team-profile Music by PaulYudin from Pixabay.

A few years ago, the idea of combining a college degree with a paid apprenticeship was still unfamiliar—and, in some corners of higher education and government, viewed as something that didn't even exist in the United States. Today, Apprenticeship Degrees are gaining recognition and adoption across states, employers, higher education, and government.

So what comes next?

In this episode, the two co-founders of Apprenticeship Degrees (and the technology that drives them) come back together for an intimate and honest discussion exploring the state of the field, the challenges at hand, and what comes next. Host Joe E. Ross is joined by Reach University co-founder Dr. Mallory Dwinal-Palish, now president of Craft Education, to talk about the ways the Apprenticeship Degree field has evolved—and what still stands in the way of taking it to scale.

They challenge some conventional assumptions about what's holding Apprenticeship Degrees back. Are accreditors really the obstacle? Does expanding apprenticeship require entirely new curricula? And why might the biggest opportunities lie instead in the less glamorous work of controlling costs, braiding public funding, redesigning systems, and giving academic credit for work?

Mallory also makes the case that many of the field's biggest constraints are solvable—but only if higher education and workforce leaders rethink how they approach funding, mentorship, data, and employer partnerships. Check out the CAEP playbook Building and Scaling Teacher Apprenticeships: https://www.crafteducation.com/webinars-downloads/building-scaling-teacher-apprenticeships This is a second part of an ongoing conversation on the podcast. Be sure to check out our previous conversation with Mallory here: https://reach.edu/blog/apprenticeship-2.0-the-origin-future-of-u.s.-apprenticeship-degrees-in-higher-education

Music by PaulYudin from Pixabay.

In this episode of Apprenticeship 2.0, guest host Dr. Anastasia Wickham, Provost and Chief Academic Officer at Reach University, leads interviews with leaders at the 2026 convening of the International Center for the Apprenticeship Degree at the University of Oxford. Guests include Taikein Cooper, President and CEO of the Richmond Ed Fund; Dr. Graeme Atherton, Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor for Regional Engagement at the University of West London, Vice Principal of Ruskin College, Oxford, and the Director of the World Access to Higher Education Network (WAHEN); Dr. Gavin Lind, CEO of the Australian Mining and Automative Skills Alliance; Josh Davies, Founder and CEO of The Non-Prophets; Iyioluwa Adesan, Founder of Apprentis; and Samantha Dickey, Assistant Commissioner for Postsecondary Policy at the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development.

Music by Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay.

In this episode of Apprenticeship 2.0, guest host Dr. Anastasia Wickham, Provost and Chief Academic Officer at Reach University, leads interviews with leaders at the 2026 convening of the International Center for the Apprenticeship Degree at the University of Oxford. Guests include Scott Cheney, CEO of Credential Engine; Colleen Connolly, Freelance Journalist and Contributor to Work Shift; Dr. Lisa McIntyre-Hite, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN); and Claire Viall, Vice President of Public Policy, Postsecondary Education, and Finance, at Strada Education Foundation.

Music by Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay.

In this episode, Joe chats with Mark Gregory, CTE Coordinator at Colorado River BOCES, and Jeff Barratt, President and CEO of Associated General Contractors of Colorado. Together, they discuss rural workforce development in western Colorado, workforce challenges in rural communities and apprenticeship as a local talent strategy, skilled trades career pathways, employer-led apprenticeship and training partnerships, how the Opportunity Now grant has helped to bolster career opportunities in rural Colorado, Project SCALE and construction talent pipeline development, apprenticeship pathway expansion in Colorado, and much more.

Music by Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay.

In this episode, Joe chats with Dr. Holly Smith, Executive Director and Vice President of Apprenticeship Degree Design at the National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree, and Matthew McKenney, President and CEO of JobForward. Together, they discuss the partnership between NCAD and JobForward, why the partnership makes sense and why now is the right time for it, reflections from the International Convening for the Apprenticeship Degree (ICAD) 2025 and what to look forward to at ICAD 2026, how listeners can work with NCAD and JobForward in the future, and much more.

Read Inside Higher Ed's "The Apprenticeship Wish List" at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/alternative-credentials/2026/06/29/apprenticeship-wish-list.

Music by Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay.

In this episode, Joe chats with Eve Lieberman, Executive Director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, and Andrew Sutliff, Apprentice at CoorsTek. Together, they discuss the role of economic development initiatives in strengthening Colorado's workforce; Colorado's Opportunity Now initiative and investment in apprenticeships, higher education, and skills-based learning; innovative workforce initiatives that connect learners with in-demand careers; expanding apprenticeship opportunities across urban and rural communities; Andrew's experience earning while learning in advanced manufacturing; the future of apprenticeship and work-based pathways to high-demand careers in Colorado; and much more.

Music by Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay.

In this episode, Joe chats with Sidney Hawkins, Director of Apprenticeship at the Arizona Builders Alliance (ABA), and Drake Williams, Apprentice for Delta Diversified Enterprises. Together, they discuss apprenticeship in Arizona and the ABA's workforce mission; the role of apprenticeship in addressing labor shortages; building high-quality apprenticeship programs and expanding career pathways; changing perceptions of the skilled trades and engaging the next generation; Drake's journey through work-based learning and career development; the future of apprenticeship and opportunities to combine education with paid hands-on experience; and much more.

Learn more about the ABA's apprenticeship programs at www.azbuilders.org/apprenticeships.

Music by Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay.

In this episode, Joe chats with Analisa Archer, Senior Director of Policy at EducationNC; Caroline Sullivan, Executive Director of the North Carolina Business Committee for Education; and Dr. Chris Harrington, Director of ApprenticeshipNC, North Carolina's State Apprenticeship Agency. Together, they discuss North Carolina's rise as an apprenticeship leader, the growth of apprenticeship programs across the state, youth apprenticeship and high school pathways, expanding apprenticeship into new industries and sectors in the state, how other states could replicate North Carolina's model, apprenticeship funding and sustainability, employer engagement in North Carolina apprenticeship, the role of community colleges in supporting apprenticeship growth, and much more.

Read Analisa's recent article, "Apprenticeships are on the rise in North Carolina. Will that growth continue?" at www.ednc.org/apprenticeships-are-on-the-rise-in-north-carolina-will-that-growth-continue.

Music by Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay.