Apprenticeships and Internships - Do they still make sense in today's workplace?
Apprenticeships have been around for centuries, providing a well-established method to narrow the skills gap or learning curve of new hires with little or no experience in the field of endeavor. But when you think of an apprentice, what comes to mind? Besides construction trades like carpenter, electrician or plumber: Blacksmith? Leather tanner? Surely not 21st century careers!
Now apprenticeships and internships make more sense than ever. Whether it is career change, skills update or first-time employment, on-the-job experience provides invaluable insight into what employers need from their teams to be successful - and companies are never successful unless their people are successful. With rising wages, employers need a faster return on training onboarding dollars. They need immediate productivity from new hires and they cannot afford to pull their most productive employees away from their daily workload to train someone with little or no related work experience.
In a 2022 American Apprenticeship Initiative report on ROI, research showed that the median employer experienced a near $18,000 gain from apprenticeships. Of the 68 employers surveyed, 68% achieved a positive net return over five years. They also report 60% of employers recouped at least 80% of their costs and 40% recouped their full costs. Turnover is costly but 92% of apprentices maintaining their employment after the completion of their apprenticeship.
But apprentices and interns benefit too. Structured programs of work-based learning under mentors, provide both value and formal technical instruction to workers, culminating in an industry-recognized credential that meets standards for registration by a Registration Agency - a HUGE advantage and confidence booster when competing for that first job in their career. Building on that head-start, since apprenticeships are "earn-while-you-learn" many of them enter their careers without a mountain of student debt to overcome. Earnings that would otherwise pay down student loans for years can be invested earlier and compounded over the course of a career can easily rival the lifetime earnings of a traditional college education.
Talk about a win-win-win! And the word seems to be getting out. In fact the U.S. Department of Labor reports a 6% growth in year-over-year data in 2023, with 641,044 apprenticeship positions at the beginning of 2024. And it is not just a post-pandemic or recent trend. According to November 2023 data from ApprenticeshipUSA, apprenticeships have seen a 103% growth from 2014.
OK, so why should I invite e4STEM to stand with me to develop, expand or improve my company's apprenticeship program? 3 simple answers:
1. Customized Experience. Our professional staff will work with you to develop training specifically needed by your business. Conversations with educators, HR professionals, hiring managers and supervisors all talk about "the gap" - new trainees fresh from high school or post secondary education really only get about 70% of what they need to know to be productive in a business environment. On-the-job experience is the unanimous solution to reducing that gap. We can provide that training at your place of business, at our training facilities or perhaps with another partner.
2. Keep your most productive employees producing!! In today's ultracompetitive business climate everyone is doing more with less. That means keeping our most efficient machines running full time, keeping our focus on the task of producing products and services that generate revenue and making best use of our time, talent and treasure. e4STEM has developed a strong network of partners all committed to the success of workforce development in Canadian and western Oklahoma Counties. We have forged a strong relationship with CareerTech - Oklahoma's premier workforce development education source. We have mentors who have spent years refining their talents and who understand what it takes to be successful in their fields and are eager to share their knowledge and experience with young up-and-comers.
As an administrative cost center, HR departments are always stretched to the brink. Most small and medium-sized enterprises have little or no budget for training and more often than not, the HR director wears at least 1 or 2 more hats in their daily responsibilities. Too often they are forced to pair up a new employee with a veteran and hope for the best. e4STEM not only develops specific training goals and curricula, customized to the needs of the business and the skill level of the apprentice, but tracks the progress over the course of the experience, suggests program tweaks when the apprentice needs more experience or coaching to get back on track to meet deadlines, researches, applies for and completes certification paperwork for the professional certifications needed.
3. More than just technical skills application. While most apprenticeships focus on technical skills application, e4STEM recognizes one of the most problematic areas for today’s workforce are employability skills. Sure there are many programs and courses available for interviewing and getting a job, but unfortunately there are not many that provide experience needed to keep and actually excel at a job. Based on extensive conversations with employers, the skills most absent in first-time career hires are:
a. Reliability - being trusted to work hard and do what they say they will do, as it should be done, meeting deadlines without close supervision
b. Initiative - taking action not reacting, doing things that need to be done without being told to do them, keeps going despite difficulties and recognizes opportunities
c. Problem Solving / Critical Thinking - sorting through useful and arbitrary information to develop a big-picture perspective that leads to an impactful decision or solution to a problem, adapting to change quickly
d. Communications - not just relaying information but conveying understanding - pertinent, accurate, timely, complete and appropriate
e. Collaboration / Leadership - being willing to help and be helped for the benefit of the entire organization, spreading enthusiasm and creating great work environments
Our bottom line is in our name - e4STEM: Educate, Enable, Equip and Empower tomorrow's workforce in Science, Tech, Engineering and Math - especially precision machining, engineering, information technology and general business.
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