The Two-tiered Strategy For Raising The Skill Level Of The Nation's Workforce

By Author: sadas
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During the 1970s, apprenticeship programs for the trades were established in high schools in eight demonstration sites around the country — currently involving about 1 500 students. Upon completion of high school, these students become registered apprentices. The programs are considered successful; however, their numbers, like the numbers involved in trade apprenticeships nationally (only 300 000), are very limited and are concentrated in the building trades.
Apprenticeships have now reemerged as a means of improving education, particularly, but not exclusively, for those students who do not go on to post-secondary education. At its simplest, the new American-style youth apprenticeship is a systematic mix of academic instruction in secondary and post-secondary schools with employment-based training of students at a level of quality sufficient to certify their ability to perform entry-level tasks in skilled occupations capably and professionally.
The US Department of Labor recently proposed a two-tiered strategy for raising the skill level of the nation's workforce by strengthening and preserving the traditional ...
... apprenticeship system while encouraging the expansion of structured work-based learning which incorporates the successful features of apprenticeship. Through its Apprenticeship initiative, the Department of Labor is currently funding a series of school-to-work demonstration projects designed to help change the way students learn basic workplace skills by applying the principles behind the German system, particularly the use of workplaces as learning environments and the meaningful interrelation of learning and work. Each project involves work-based learning strategies that combine work and classroom learning to better prepare students for high-skill careers. In an effort to address the outdated blue-collar image traditionally associated with the term "apprenticeship", the National Alliance of Business has developed a training model which comprises the elements of apprenticeship but goes by the new term of "job performance learning", thereby hoping to attract businesses to utilize these programs to ensure a highly-skilled workforce.
Other youth apprenticeship and work-based learning programs have been established in communities across the country, including statewide efforts such as those in Michigan. The majority of these programs provide paid work experiences for students that structure learning into the work experience and use curriculum materials and instructional strategies that build on the students' work experiences.