In early America, apprenticeships were how many skilled workers learned and trained. Apprenticeship came to the colonies by way of England, where it was the first step on the road to economic independence. In England, master craftsmen hired apprentices in an exchange of training for service. Once their term of apprenticeship was completed, former apprentices traveled from employer to employer earning wages as journeymen.

Today, apprenticeships don’t have a large role, but it is growing. The U.S. Department of Labor reported an increase in registered apprenticeships from 200,000 in 2014 to 490,000 in 2022.

According to the Department of Labor, workers that have gone through apprenticeships have starting salaries of $80,000.

Joel Kline, Managing Partner of Allegro Learning Solutions in Harrisburg was on The Spark Monday and talked about what today's apprenticeships look like,"A model where an employee has some some day one skills comes in and does both what's called RTI -- related training and instruction, and then on the job training. Then after a period of time with working with a mentor is capable of doing that job and in many cases is hired to do that job."

Kline pointed out that today's apprenticeships are not just for the trades as they often were in the past, but there are now a growing number of apprenticeships for white collar or "gold collar" jobs -- many of which are in the technical fields.

Kline was asked what are the advantages of an apprenticeship,"The research has shown that those employees then retain at a much higher rate and stay much stay longer at your company because of that commitment. A second is for employers is that apprenticeships are typically stepped in terms of wages. So you can bring someone that you feel is a suitable candidate, but not quite there in terms of knowledge and you don't have to pay them what you're paying quite as much. Right? You're not paying them pennies, but you're paying them a wage while they're learning and you're stepping them that wage up then through the apprenticeship. So if you look at it after a three year period, you've saved a little money on wages as that person learned and also then created training and to created kind of the perfect person for that role. And then the other really benefit is that right now, I think most people who follow workforce know some of the sobering statistics about the size of the workforce and of course, the quiet quitting and all of the kinds of problems that the workforce faces for the future. And this is a way for an organization to build their workforce for both the current and in the near term, but also for the long term."

Kline indicated that many employers still think that apprenticeships are just for the trades and not for tech jobs. He also said there needs to be better coordination to get the word about funding and training.

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