Tech Apprenticeships: Overcoming Fear in Uncertain Times

By design, apprenticeships address many significant issues faced by hiring managers and their organizations. Are apprenticeships still a viable answer in these times of remote work and budget cuts? A new report says, emphatically, “yes.”

The report, titled “Advancing Tech Apprenticeships,” was produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), who in conjunction with IBM have launched the CTA Apprenticeship Coalition. It notes that apprenticeships now represent a viable “fifth option” to the four traditional hiring pipelines: experienced hires, college graduates, interns and co-ops. And now more than ever, apprenticeships meet the hiring and retention challenges faced by many organizations.

The report outlines four specific areas where apprenticeships answer those needs:

Resource constraints: Organizations have been forced to make swift and often radical workforce planning decisions, often with more limited resources than in the past. The positive ROI of apprenticeship programs helps to address these shortfalls, and federal, state and local funding is often available to mitigate program costs. More than $300 million in new grants were awarded in 2019 alone.

Rebalancing work: Senior-level talent is often required to perform low-margin tasks, and that’s never been the case more than this year, when many companies have scrambled simply to keep functioning in a work-from-home environment. Apprenticeships create a competency-based approach to define the skills needed for each work process, rebalancing the workload and freeing senior personnel to focus on high-value tasks.

Diversity and inclusion: In a recent survey, the vast majority of organizations expressed ‘greater diversity and inclusion’ as a stated goal. The CTA report notes: “The apprentice talent supply chain is rich with diverse talent including high school and college graduates, retail and service industry workers, first responders, veterans and more.”

Recruiting and retention: Entry-level skilled engineering positions often go unfilled as degree holders seek higher-level roles. Companies opening their doors to apprentices find a robust pipeline of talent seeking entry-level positions and a chance to grow their skill sets. And while retention has been an especially thorny problem with traditional hiring methods, employers have enjoyed a 95% long-term retention rate with our apprenticeship programs.

There is no doubt that the pandemic of 2020 has accelerated changes to the future of the workplace. The CTA report confirms that apprenticeships are uniquely positioned to meet those changes.

The complete CTA report is available for download here. Questions about apprenticeship programs for your organization? Contact Franklin Apprenticeships.