National Apprenticeship Week highlights opportunities to learn, earn
National Apprenticeship Week highlights opportunities
FOX 26 Business Reporter Tom Zizka has more on what the week is all about.
HOUSTON - As the high cost of college steers a growing number of people toward different careers, the 'apprenticeship' is becoming a popular option. The Department of Labor says there were nearly 600,000 apprentices across the country in 2022, participating in tens of thousands of government registered programs. Every one of them was learning a job and getting paid to do it.
While the idea of an apprentice might conjure images of trades-workers building and crafting, there's a lot more to it. Truck drivers can be apprentices, and cooks, and office workers.
A gathering at the Greater Houston Partnership, recognizing National Apprenticeship Week, counts hundreds of success stories in Houston, most in 'professional' settings. Brooklynn Glover is among them.
"I was a table-games dealer; I was a barista; I worked at Kroger; I worked at Amazon," she describes her work history.
The 25-year-old 'started' college, but it wasn't for her, and she ultimately found an apprenticeship program in a multi-national business services firm. After two years of learning and earning an associates degree, while being paid to do it, she now has a career.
"Maybe I don't have the capability to go to school, to work, and make money, and fund my way through school," she says, "The apprenticeship program offers a solution to that problem."
The Greater Houston Partnership counts 13 Houston firms among those participating in the Greater Houston Apprentice Network.
"The four-year college degree is excluding talent that could, otherwise, be successful and contribute to the bottom line," says the GHP's Peter Beard.
The selling-point for those companies is finding people who can learn unique specifications that college grads don't always have.
"Employers get the opportunity to bring folks into the workforce; pay them while they're working; pay them while they're learning, but also providing the work experiences that are especially relevant for them to be successful in the workplace," says Beard.
Of the hundreds of thousands of apprenticeship opportunities, a participating Houston firm reports 20% of its new hires are apprentices who will get paid to learn a skill.
Resources to explore how an apprenticeship works, and how to find them:
- https://www.apprenticeship.gov/national-apprenticeship-week
- https://www.twc.texas.gov/programs/apprenticeship/employers