Apprenticeship The Other Bachelors Degree

[Music]

[Applause]

if you went to college at the rape old

age of 18

there’s a good chance you had no idea

what you want to do with your life

you’d been asked ad nauseam about what

you wanted to be when you grew up

only to give some sort of vague answer

then

off you marched to one academic building

or another and hope you’d figure it out

along the way

sound familiar the lucky among us got

some sort of grasp within those four

years about what might make us tick

the especially lucky found that business

law

engineering medicine those types of

degrees really got them going

or at least they got them going enough

to pursue such lucrative degrees

the rest of us settled for something

like a liberal arts or a social science

degree

and hoped for the best many of us in

school 20 plus years ago remember the

traditional college experience

with a degree of fondness and a lot of

us did figure out our paths

either in school or thereafter as such

many parents today want that same

experience for their high school kids

who are preparing to graduate

yet 18 year olds now are often just as

unsure about what they

want to be when they grow up and

considering the record high college

costs faced by today’s graduates

and the distinct possibility that

they’ll likely be staggering a debt when

they do finish

many of them don’t have that same luxury

to figure it out the whole situation has

young people feeling hopeless

and their parents wondering when they’re

going to move out of their basements

at the root of all of this is

problematic thinking too many americans

still believe that earning a bachelor’s

degree is the only way to achieve

economic

upward mobility while it is a viable

pathway

it’s not the only option a traditional

apprenticeship

offers in-depth hands-on education that

takes the same amount of time as a

bachelor’s degree

yet few students and their parents have

ever considered this path

as a means to achieve a long-term career

in a substantial wage premium

without a degree here’s the terrible

truth

college costs have increased more than

250 percent in the last 30 years

it shouldn’t be this way but it is the

average cost of a four-year degree is

now over 96

000 and that’s just for tuition alone

add in the cost of books

housing and other miscellaneous expenses

and the average bachelor’s degree runs

anywhere from 125 to 150 thousand

dollars

student loan debt sticks with college

graduates years or even decades after

they’ve graduated

in fact over 20 percent of bachelor’s

degree students owe more than fifty

thousand dollars

six percent more or more than a hundred

thousand dollars

meanwhile an average trade school degree

the type which can also be earned at a

community college only costs an average

of thirty three thousand dollars

plus students get paid while they learn

and if you think an apprenticeship is a

form of settling i challenge you to

think again

the average 20-year net income for

apprenticeship students

is 441 thousand dollars more than the

20-year average for bachelor’s degrees

recipients

and almost 90 percent of employers

surveyed say that having apprentices

added value to their business

beyond all the statistics though there

is a lot to be said for the life

enriching experience that an

apprenticeship offers

apprenticeships create multiple career

pathways to future and educational

opportunities

a traditional apprenticeship combines

eight thousand hours of on-the-job

training that is tailored to the

specific trade the trend

the apprentice is pursuing and

apprentices receive a minimum of 576

contact

hours of education that is selected to

directly enhance and underscore the

on-the-job training

what many prospective apprentices and

their parents don’t realize

is that this education is often

completed at a community college

or can be articulated for credit down

the road more on that later

an apprenticeship differs from earning a

bachelor’s degree and then it’s a job

from day one

programs registered with united states

department of labor office of

apprenticeship

have an earn while you learn model that

requires participants to be paid during

their apprenticeship

that means that apprentices start

earning a wage right away before

enrolling apprentices

are aware of their starting salary when

they’ll get a raise and what

income range they can expect upon

completing their program

plus programs determine the wage scale

that all apprentices will receive

throughout their program so they can

expect equitable pay to other

apprentices in the program

and financially plan for the duration of

it even though apprentices are getting

paid to learn

most apprentices earn college credit for

the educational piece of their program

as many employers utilize community

colleges for the education

this credit can lead to associate

degrees and depending on the industry

it could even later contribute to a

bachelor’s degree so it’s a potential

backdoor entry for those who wish to

pursue such a degree in the future

even for those who do not earn college

credit maybe they went to a trade school

for the educational piece of their

apprenticeship

there are multiple pathways to easily

convert their education to college

credit

through initiatives such as the

registered apprenticeship college

consortium

another sizable difference between

getting a bachelor’s degree and doing an

apprenticeship

is that apprentices are assigned a

mentor or a series of mentors

to ensure the apprentice has the

training she or he needs to be

successful throughout the term of their

program

so while traditional college students

may find inspiration from a professor or

teacher for a single semester

students like apprentices have someone

to guide them through the on-the-job

training over the entire term of the

apprenticeship

this means they’ve got somebody to go to

to talk about the work experience to

talk about how the education relates to

that

it’s impossible to put a value on that

then there’s the value of making

industry contacts from day one

something that won’t likely happen while

you’re getting a bachelor’s degree at

least not as fluidly

because whom you know is as important as

what you know it may be cliche but it’s

true

finally apprentices earn a usdol

credential upon successful completion of

their apprenticeship

this certifies that they are a master in

their trade which is completely

different

than graduating with a bachelor’s degree

and then going out into the world as a

newbie with no practical experience

the usdl credential is recognized across

the country

and clearly communicates a workers

skills to potential employers

apprenticeships are proven workforce

development tools that offer substantial

benefits to both workers and the

businesses that use them

this is why an increasing number of

organizations are offering these

programs

as employers come to view this method of

training as a viable alternative to a

university degree

they also give high school graduates who

aren’t interested in a traditional

degree

real hope for the future and it just may

be the ticket for weary parents hoping

their young birds

will send from the basement and finally

take flight