In this episode, part two of our two-part year-end roundtable series, Joe and guest co-host, journalist Paul Fain, chat with three of the top reporters in the apprenticeship space: Colleen Connolly, freelance journalist and regular contributor to Work Shift; Rebecca Griesbach, Senior Data Analyst at the Cowen Institute and former reporter for AL.com and Alabama Education Lab; and Kelly Field, freelance journalist and contributor to The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Hechinger Report. The discussions highlight the top developments in apprenticeship and job-embedded higher education from 2025, as well as the top developments to watch for in 2026.

Read Colleen's recent articles:

• "Caring for Patients for 26 Years—and Still Not a Nurse" in Work Shift
• "In Alabama, Nursing Apprenticeships Aim to Fix a Broken Career Ladder" in Work Shift
• "Nursing apprenticeships are starting to fix a broken career ladder, amid national shortage" in The Hechinger Report

Read Rebecca's recent article for AL.com: "Low-cost Alabama program takes new approach to train teachers: 'Transformational'"

Read Kelly's recent articles:

• "The Slow Rise of the Apprentice Degree" in The Chronicle of Higher Education
• "The US wants more apprenticeships. The UK figured out how to make them coveted roles" in The Hechinger Report

This episode was recorded on Dec. 15.

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In this episode, part one of our two-part year-end roundtable series, Joe chats with the top executives at four funders in the apprenticeship space: Keith Witham, President and CEO of Ascendium Education Group; Ruth Watkins, President of Postsecondary Education at Strada Education Foundation; Jamie Merisotis, President and CEO of the Lumina Foundation; and Julie Lammers, President and CEO of American Student Assistance. Keith and Ruth join Joe in the first half of the episode, and Jamie and Julie join Joe in the second half. The discussions highlight the top developments in apprenticeship and job-embedded higher education from 2025, as well as the top developments to watch for in 2026.

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In this first-ever Between the Lines edition of Apprenticeship 2.0, Joe, Kiko, and Reach University Provost and Chief Academic Officer Dr. Anastasia Wickham discuss several recent news articles on apprenticeship and higher education. Joe, Kiko, and Anastasia discuss the potential impacts of these reports amid an evolving education environment in the United States. The articles are as follows:

Read "California greenlights $25M for apprenticeship programs" by Matthew Thibault in Construction Dive.

Read "Dismantling of ED Earns Some Praise Amid the Gloom" by Jessica Blake in Inside Higher Ed.

Read "It's Too Early to Write Off College Degrees" by Callum Borchers in The Wall Street Journal.

Read "Empowering every learner: What the US can learn from the Swiss about apprenticeships," a commentary from the National Governors Association.

Read "What the Outrage over Nursing Loan Limits Gets Wrong" by Preston Cooper in AEIdeas.

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In this episode of Apprenticeship 2.0, Kiko chats with Christopher Carter, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Approyo. Together, they discuss Bloomberg Intelligence's projections for a rapidly growing AI market, the importance of AI literacy in apprenticeship and internships, how AI can help employers foster more effective apprenticeship opportunities, how companies like Apprenti are deploying innovative apprenticeship models, how one educator in North Dakota is embracing AI and helping to shape district AI policy, and much more.

Learn more about Chris and Approyo.

Read Bloomberg Intelligence's article, "Generative AI to Become a $1.3 Trillion Market by 2032, Research Finds."

Learn more about Apprenti.

Read Andrew Weeks' article in the North Dakota Monitor, "AI allows more time for students, North Dakota educators say."

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In this episode of Apprenticeship 2.0, Joe and Kiko chat with Kelly Field, freelance journalist and author of The Slow Rise of the Apprentice Degree; Ryan Craig, Managing Director at Achieve Partners; and Dr. Pam Eddinger, President of Bunker Hill Community College in Massachusetts. Together, they discuss the impetus behind Kelly's article, the National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree's enrollment goal, funding at the federal and state levels, whether apprenticeship degrees dilute traditional degrees, why teacher apprenticeship degrees have seen such success, why community colleges—not four-year institutions—are leading the way in apprenticeship degrees, and much more.

Read Kelly's article, The Slow Rise of the Apprentice Degree in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

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In this episode of Apprenticeship 2.0, Kiko and guest host Dr. Eric Dunker, Reach University's Chief Advancement Officer and Senior Advisor to the National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree, chat with Nicholas Wyman, Founder and CEO of the Institute for Workplace Skills and Innovation (IWSI) America. Together, they discuss how Nick's chef background led to him becoming an apprenticeship champion; IWSI America's partnership with the California Department of Rehabilitation and the Ready, Willing & Able apprenticeship program, a statewide apprenticeship initiative connecting people with disabilities to paid high-demand careers; how employers can get involved in the Ready, Willing & Able program; the Career Launchpad initiative, which helps high school juniors and seniors in Los Angeles and the Inland Empire explore career pathways and prepare for future skilled pathways; how people can stay motivated and focused on their careers; Nick's recent Forbes piece about a remote work mandate in Australia and whether that could work in America; and much more.

Read Nick's article in Forbes.

Get Nick's books—Job U: How to Find Wealth and Success by Developing the Skills Companies Actually Need (Crown Business, 2015) and Attract, Retain, Develop: Shaping a Skilled Workforce for the Future (Fast Company Press, 2025)—at www.attractretaindevelop.com.

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In this episode of Apprenticeship 2.0, Joe and Kiko chat with Shonda Anderson, Director of Internships and Apprenticeships at the Kansas Department of Commerce; Alise Martiny, Vice President of the Operative Plasterers' & Cement Masons' International Association; and Dr. Jennifer Seymour, Vice President of General Education and Applied Technologies at WSU Tech. Together, they discuss the recent success and immense growth of apprenticeship and employer participation in Kansas; the role of labor unions, state associations, and postsecondary technical institutions in the Kansas' Registered Apprenticeship Program; achieving buy-in on apprenticeship from the state's agricultural sector; developing initiatives to further youth apprenticeship in the state; and much more.

Music by Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay.

In this episode of Apprenticeship 2.0, Joe and Kiko are joined by Dr. Eric Dunker, Co-founder of the National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree and Chief Advancement Officer at Reach University, and Dr. Anastasia Wickham, Provost and Chief Acadmic Officer at Reach. Together, they listen and react to four clips from a panel from the International Convening for the Apprenticeship Degree (ICAD) 2025 at the University of Oxford. The ICAD 2025 panel, titled Global Perspectives: Systems Level Reform Required to Scale Apprenticeship Degrees, was moderated by Dr. Mandy Crawford-Lee, Chief Executive of the University Vocational Awards Council in the U.K., and featured the following panelists:

• Terence Ho, Deputy Executive Director and Associate Professor at the Institute for Adult Learning at the Singapore University of Social Sciences
• Dr. Guillaume Morlet, Lecturer in the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics at ETH Zürich
• Honorable Sven Otto Littorin, former Swedish Minister for Employment
• Lauren Conceicao, Director of Skills Frontier

Music by Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay.

In this episode of Apprenticeship 2.0, Joe and Kiko listen and react to three clips from a panel from the International Convening for the Apprenticeship Degree (ICAD) 2025 at the University of Oxford. The ICAD 2025 panel, titled Global Perspectives: The Impact of Political Leadership to Scale Apprenticeship Degrees, was moderated by Luke Rhine, Vice President of Postsecondary Success at the Rodel Foundation, and featured the following panelists:

• Right Honorable Robert Halfon, former U.K. Skills Minister and Chair of the House of Commons Education Select Committee
• Melissa Smith, Vice President of Public Policy, Talent, and Workforce Development, Strada Education Foundation
• Dr. Michael Gessler, Professor, University of Bremen

This episode also includes a special message from Joe and Kiko: a thank-you to Apprenticeship 2.0 marketing partners, guests, staff, and others who have supported the show over the first 50 episodes.

Music by Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay.

In this episode of Apprenticeship 2.0, Joe and Kiko chat with Jim Rosapepe, Maryland State Senator, and Jake Hsu, Baltimore-based Tech Investor and Entrepreneur. Together, they discuss how apprenticeship benefits Maryland's economy; the state's progress toward its goal of establishing complete apprenticeships for high school graduates; reimagining apprenticeship in the AI era; barriers to growing apprenticeship in Maryland; how recent funding could bolster apprenticeship opportunities for underrepresented communities; and much more.

Music by Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay.