Apprenticeships and Community Colleges in the United States: Complements or Substitutes?

International Network on Innovative Apprenticeship

Assuring the Acquisition of Expertise:Apprenticeship in the Modern Economy

Beijing, China, May 26 – 27, 2011

Robert I. LermanAmerican University and Urban Institute

Overview of U.S. Postsecondary Institutions for the Workforce

Apprenticeship plays a modest role

▪ Only about 3-4% of inflow of workers Colleges dominate post-secondary

education Many types of colleges, but three main

groups▪ 4 year colleges offering BA degrees and

above

▪ 2 year community colleges, publicly financed, with Associates (AA) degrees—academic & occupation tracks

▪ Private for-profit trade schools, 2 years but often less; schools range from large, national to small, local ones

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Scale of Programs

Enrollment as of Fall 2009 was 12.9 million students in four-year

colleges 7.1 million in community colleges 0.4 in private two-year colleges substantial numbers in private colleges

not reporting and with short programs

Less than .5 million apprentices

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Rising Share of Career Colleges

National Center for Education Statistics reports that 3,833 colleges of less than four years awarded 981,000 career and technical credentials. For-prof!t schools accounted for at least 36 percent of these credentials

Actual figure is higher but data tracks only certain types of career colleges. 4

Community College Tracks

An occupational certification through: 1) an associate’s degree in a specific field; 2) an academic certification, generally an associate of arts or associate of science degree, largely aimed at students will transfer to a four-year college; or 3) a certification based on a limited number of courses.

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The Community College Boom Community colleges have an important

place in expanding skills—evidence shows positive returns, to years and degrees, but size varies

But CC education is uneven and often falls short, partly because of weak links with employers, poor qualifications of entrants, minimal guidance, high costs, and now capacity constraints, crowded classrooms

Not comfortable for people who learn best by doing, in the workplace

Majors in community college Liberal arts and sciences, general studies

and humanities (250,000), health professions 145,000 including 67,000 in registered nursing), business management, & marketing(100,000).

Placing health and business majors in the career clusters and categorizing the other majors, we find about half the degrees are in career-oriented areas

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Apprenticeships In the US Skill preparation, but not mainly for youth Registered apprenticeships were were about

27,000 registered apprenticeship sponsors training about 480,000 apprentices as of 2008, implying an average of about 18 apprentices per sponsor

They are highly concentrated in construction, energy, manufacturing, transportation and communication, and public administration occupations jumped between 2003 and 2007; significant share in the military

Many, unknown number in other apprenticeships

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Existing State of Collaboration Community colleges well positioned to

provide academic training but usually not the workplace training central to expertise

Many apprenticeship programs use community colleges for the classroom component

Certification is a key value for workers, firms

Both community colleges and apprentice programs offer occupational certification

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Complements / Substitutes The patterns vary widely; some

apprenticeship programs see no added value in an associates degree; others encourage workers to obtain degrees

Some community college officials show little appreciation for an apprenticeship certificate

Still, the prospects for additional collaboration are promising; federal grants are encouraging the two institutions to work together 10

Apprenticeship Use of Community Colleges Varies by Occupations

Divide by construction—other occupations 24 percent of apprentices in construction

obtain instruction through community/technical colleges

42 percent of other apprentices do so Nearly all sponsors of automotive

manufacturing and hospitality apprenticeships report using community or technical colleges, as do 61 percent of apprenticeships in the health care area

About half of sponsors provide their own instruction

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Other Collaboration By State About 10% of apprentices report having

an A.A. degree; another 15 percent report at least a B.A.

Washington State has above average apprentice program, subsidizes tuition at community colleges

Most sponsors use community colleges In Florida, which provides some

community college subsidies, only 20% of sponsors use these colleges

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Virginia Pattern is Typical In Virginia, 12 of the 23 community

colleges provide related instruction to apprentices.

Occupations covered include several construction trades, as well as computer technology, welding, and machinist, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning of HVAC trades.

In most of the programs, the courses do count toward an associate’s degree or certificate

Tuition for apprentices is the standard rate for all students, usually paid paid by the employer.

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Barriers to Collaboration

An Arkansas program doesn’t use community college instructors because state law requires instructors to have different qualifications as master practitioners than most professors have

Apprentices in many programs see no need for the additional certification from community colleges

Many programs have full schools especially geared toward state licensing requirements—they see no need for an associates degree

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Many Programs Do Collaborate Lineworkers in Michigan require workers to

obtain associates degree along with apprentice credential

One reason is the program is not registered and thus is not certified with the U.S. Labor Department

Several community colleges provide college credit for skills developed at apprenticeships

Major auto companies have worked with community colleges to develop courses for auto repair technicians and apprenticeship training

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Case of Long-term Care Workers Recently looked at the feasibility for

estimating impacts of apprenticeship on long-term care workforce (nurses’ aides, etc.)

Effort to force community college component but it was considered too costly in light of the limited wage potential in this field

May see future partnerships even here

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Occupational Overlaps Some but not a large overlap between

apprenticeable fields and majors in community colleges

Job openings in occupations that are currently apprenticeable are large in fields where community college have few majors: Construction (1.2 million)

Truck Drivers (0.7 million)

Auto Repair (0.5 million)

Welders, Repair, Machinists (0.4 million)

Corrections, Police, Fire (0.3 million)17

Current and Future Overlaps

Health professions, especially nursing, are key fields where occupational expertise is gained both through community college and apprenticeship programs

Computer and various business fields are now rarely taught through apprenticeships but could be in the future

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Comparative Effectiveness of Apprenticeship, Community College

No direct comparisons for the same occupations

Non-experimental evidence from Washington State based on method that matches workers on earnings before they enter one or another type of training

Includes workers who enter public job centers

The study tracked their earnings after training using administrative records drawn from the unemployment insurance system

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States, WIA Can Lead the Way

Bring together community colleges, firms, and workers as part of broad effort-use new CC grants

Meets various criteria—jointly designed with firms, basic skills with occupational training, transparent career pathways

Provide allocation to employers for education costs of program—perhaps fund 1 of each 4 apprentices if recruitment is at One-Stop

Insure employers can access occupation skill profiles

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South Carolina’s Story

Stimulated by the state chamber, the state began providing $1 million per year to expand apprenticeship—base is a technical college

Also, a $1,000 tax credit per apprentice per year

Effort so far has led to one new program per week, 50% increase in apprentices

Shows what can be done with close marketing

Cost per added apprentice is $3,600; present value of earnings gains at least $100,000

Maryland starting new initiative

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