Rural Apprenticeships for Young People

Youth apprenticeships provide work-based learning opportunities for students and young people ages 16 to 24 in high school and postsecondary education. Apprenticeships combine academic and technical instruction with paid work experience across many sectors, such as information technology, health care, and energy. In a registered apprenticeship program, apprentices can gain a federal certificate of completion, a professional network, and valuable skills that can help them find high-paying jobs.

A youth apprenticeship program has five key components:

• A paid job. Apprenticeships are paid jobs. Employers provide competitive and progressive wages to apprentices during their training, while apprentices contribute to the employer’s production as they learn skills that yield proficiency in an occupation.
• On-the-job learning. Apprentices gain practical, hands-on experience in collaboration with a mentor. On-the-job training through youth apprenticeship programs must last at least 12 months and is further defined through regulation by the US Department of Labor in collaboration with business and industry.
• Classroom learning. A youth apprenticeship program offers theoretical instruction or “classroom instruction” involving how to perform an occupation more broadly. This may be provided by an educator provider or by the company via a high school, college, or online provider.
• Mentoring. Apprentices are provided guidance and advice on the job by an experienced professional to teach them the occupation, the company’s business practices, company culture, employment skills, and other knowledge required to become proficient in the occupation.
• National credential. The Certificate of Completion of an apprenticeship program is awarded to people who complete registered apprenticeships, either by DOL or a state apprenticeship agency. It indicates proficiency in the occupation and is nationally recognized and portable.

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Copyright © August 2021. Urban Institute. Permission is granted for reproduction of this file, with attribution to the Urban Institute.

Benefits:

• Expanded opportunity. Rural apprenticeship offers young people a “third way” with their careers—rather than choose between leaving their homes for better opportunities or filtering into a low-wage, low-skill job in their community, apprentices can pursue the skills required for top jobs without having to migrate.
• Reduced brain drain. Research has shown that rural young people with skills and education leave their communities primarily for better wage prospects. By creating a clear pathway to develop the skills needed for high-wage jobs, rural apprenticeships can help stymie this phenomenon.
• Enriched communities. Though rural communities are smaller and feature businesses with fewer employees, this allows rural apprenticeship programs to have an outsized impact. By simultaneously providing rural young people with high-quality careers and local companies with a highly skilled workforce, apprenticeship can act as a sustainable engine of economic development.

Obstacles:

• Travel distance. A rural apprenticeship program may require apprentices to travel considerable distances, typically without reliable public transit options, between their homes, job sites, and training sites.
• Small businesses and limited resources. Many employers in rural apprenticeship programs are smaller businesses. This small scale can result in a lower capacity to handle the administrative burdens of apprenticeship, reduced overhead to cover expenses related to training, and low demand for new hires.
• Lack of infrastructure. Rural communities typically lag their urban counterparts in the quality of their built environment, so apprentices in rural programs rely on lower-quality infrastructure. Data infrastructure is a critical gap. This is particularly true for apprenticeship trades (such as those in cybersecurity, insurance, or web development) that can be worked remotely and which many tout as an option for diversifying recruiting efforts into rural communities.
• Disparities in health and safety. Those living in rural communities can face additional challenges related to their well-being, with rural areas lagging their non-rural counterparts in key health and safety indicators, Though the connection with apprenticeship is less direct than for other challenges, health and safety disparities can serve to disrupt apprentice completion by placing additional obstacles in the career path of aspiring young people.

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2021
• Author(s): Boren, Z., Pruitt, M., Arabandi, B., Rayfield, J.
• Funding Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: India Johnson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies