Resources to Help Partnerships Expand Youth Apprenticeship Programs

Non­par­ti­san think tank, New Amer­i­ca, recent­ly com­piled resources on its web­site that offer insights and guid­ance on cre­at­ing strong part­ner­ships at the region­al, state and local lev­els to expand qual­i­ty youth appren­tice­ship programs.

The resources were pro­duced by orga­ni­za­tions in New America’s Part­ner­ship to Advance Youth Appren­tice­ship (PAYA). Sup­port­ed by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, this mul­ti­state ini­tia­tive aims to help high school stu­dents access high-qual­i­ty appren­tice­ship opportunities.

Appren­tice­ships, when well exe­cut­ed, allow young peo­ple to earn cre­den­tials and a pay­check while train­ing along­side skilled men­tors, cre­at­ing equi­table path­ways in grow­ing fields, such as health care, hos­pi­tal­i­ty and technology.

“Youth appren­tice­ships are emerg­ing as a grow­ing strat­e­gy in com­mu­ni­ties across the nation to increase access to col­lege and career,” says Andrea Mess­ing-Math­ie, a direc­tor focused on youth appren­tice­ships for JFF, a work­force-focused non­prof­it and PAYA part­ner. ​“But high-qual­i­ty youth appren­tice­ships require an ecosys­tem of sup­port around young peo­ple, which demands strong partnerships.”

The resources, which were pub­lished in the past sev­er­al months, are meant to help edu­ca­tors, employ­ers, pol­i­cy­mak­ers and oth­er stake­hold­ers col­lab­o­rate effec­tive­ly to ensure appren­tice­ship pro­grams suc­ceed. Resources include:

• JFF’s Self-Assess­ment and Plan­ning Tool for Youth Appren­tice­ship Pro­grams, which helps local, state and region­al enti­ties gauge whether they have the appro­pri­ate sup­ports and lead­er­ship need­ed to devel­op qual­i­ty appren­tice­ship programs;
• a white paper from the Nation­al Gov­er­nors Asso­ci­a­tion that explores how gov­er­nors can help expand appren­tice­ship pro­grams — includ­ing by advo­cat­ing and set­ting a statewide vision for grow­ing qual­i­ty appren­tice­ships, allo­cat­ing and ded­i­cat­ing fund­ing and imple­ment­ing poli­cies that pro­vide long-term support;
• Advance CTE’s report, The Role of Data and Account­abil­i­ty in Grow­ing Youth Appren­tice­ship Pro­grams, which fea­tures infor­ma­tion on how states are col­lect­ing data on youth appren­tice­ships and oth­er work-based learn­ing pro­grams and how to expand the col­lec­tion of vital data on enroll­ment, reten­tion, out­comes and oth­er key items; and
• Edu­ca­tion Strat­e­gy Group​’s The Crit­i­cal Role of Inter­me­di­ary Orga­ni­za­tions in Expand­ing Youth Appren­tice­ship, which pro­vides insights for part­ner­ing orga­ni­za­tions and insti­tu­tions seek­ing to build inter­me­di­ary orga­ni­za­tions — which coor­di­nate activ­i­ties between var­i­ous groups and key indi­vid­u­als that oper­ate and over­see appren­tice­ship pro­grams at local, state or region­al levels.

“We hope these resources pro­vide orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als with key infor­ma­tion and tools they need to start build­ing qual­i­ty appren­tice­ship path­ways,” says Alli­son Ger­ber, a senior asso­ciate at the Casey Foun­da­tion. ​“In par­tic­u­lar, we want to see appren­tice­ship pro­grams pro­vide youth and young adults of col­or oppor­tu­ni­ties to enter and suc­ceed in occu­pa­tions and indus­tries where they are under­rep­re­sent­ed — and it’s essen­tial that strong part­ner­ships are formed to ensure that these pro­grams thrive.”

Learn about build­ing qual­i­ty appren­tice­ship programs