MI apprentices enjoy career experience sooner, no college tuition debt

[RandySF]

CNBC recently declared Michigan a Top 10 State for “Winning the War on Talent” in its America’s Top States for Business study. More Michigan employers and educators are using apprenticeships to train job seekers for new careers, a trend that will continue as federal and state governments focus on the programs.

At the same time, a new statewide survey – commissioned by the Michigan Talent Investment Agency and summarized in the infographic below – shows more work remains to improve public understanding of the benefits and opportunities that professional trade careers and apprenticeships provide.

To address the findings from the survey, leaders in business, education and talent development are promoting the Michigan Apprenticeship Experience Sooner campaign, a new effort focused on elevating the knowledge of students, parents, educators and employers about the increasingly important role apprenticeships play in meeting the state’s current and future workforce needs.

According to reports, the gap between the number of skilled trades workers and jobs will continue to grow as baby boomers – who hold the majority of skilled trades jobs in both Michigan and the country – retire. And the rate at which workers are graduating from the very limited vocational education programs available simply cannot support the ever-growing need. In 2015, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that while 68 percent of high school graduates go to college, 40 percent of them won’t graduate. Meaning, almost half of college-bound kids will end up in debt, with nothing to show for it. Forbes reported in 2017 the average graduate leaves college $37,172 in debt.

Meanwhile, skilled trades apprenticeships offer “earn-and-learn” opportunities that put high school grads in a position to quickly attain full-time work with competitive pay. A skilled trades job report by the Michigan Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives asserts that “the skilled trades provide an increasing alternative to spending a lengthy period of time earning a college degree.” The report also shows that skilled trades workers have a wage range of $12 to $33 with a median hourly income of $21, which is competitive pay for a job that comes with little to no student loan debt.



https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/sponsor-story/mi-apprenticeships/2018/08/03/mi-apprenticeships-enjoy-career-experience-sooner-no-college-tuition-debt/879427002/?mvt=i&mvn=1611c3f456344a8d9fee6ba8f7f6612d&mvp=NA-GANNLOCASITEMANA-11238693&mvl=Size-2x3+%5BDigital+Front+Redesign+Tile%5D

[Igel]

1. A decade ago I watched a lecture that looks at graduation rates from various kinds of institutions.

This was in 2007.

We had far, far more high school drop outs than there were jobs for.

We had far more people with just high school diplomas than the economy could accept.

We had a strong demand people with two-year degrees and various kinds of certificates than we produced each year.

We had far more 4-year degrees that the economy could absorb. And the only reason that the economy absorbed as many of those as it did was because many of those with 4-year degrees were hired in jobs that a two-year degree would net them just as well. So the number of 4-year-degree holders employed was far above the number of 4-year-degree holders required.


More recently, some analysis pointed to a problem with the coherence of the category "two-year-degree and certificate programs". The point was that within the time frame of a couple years the certification program requires might shift quite a bit, so that a certificate from a program at a given school dated 2014 might be so different from the same certificate in 2018 as to make employability of the two on the same terms difficult. So time stability is an issue. At the same time, the curriculum for a given certificate might vary greatly between different institutions in a given state, and possibly more widely (since the pool's bigger) if the US is taken as a whole. In other words, some industry groups need to partner with the certification-granting institutions to produce a consistent program--perhaps tinker with it to suit "really local" employers, but the core needs to be agreed upon by a wide range of employers for a given certification program. This would help with making sure that the names of the certifications are consistent, so that Podunk Comm. College and Boondocks Vocational School don't produce "Willikerwhizing Master Certificates" for two entirely different things, or that "Tardygrafication Certificate" from Podunk isn't really the same thing as "Wassalization Certification" from Boondocks.

How to stabilize the coherence of a certificate over time is still a problem. But if there's accreditation and standardization boards set up, perhaps they could revise the program at consistent intervals (say, every 3 years) and produce an auxiliary "update" codicil to a certificate. "Willikerwhizing certificate, 2013" with "Willikerwhizing codicils 2015, 2018" to show that one's skill are maintained, with a testing option to avoid onerous and possibly inconvenient coursework.

Note that standardization and some sort of curricular accreditation would also deal with for-profit programs. The program's accredited or not, as opposed to substandard "credentials" being issued.