Apprenticeship Degrees Are Gaining Ground. What Will It Take to Scale?

A few years ago, the idea of combining a college degree with a paid apprenticeship was still unfamiliar—and, in some corners of higher education and government, viewed as something that didn't even exist in the United States. Today, Apprenticeship Degrees are gaining recognition and adoption across states, employers, higher education, and government.

So what comes next?

In this episode, the two co-founders of Apprenticeship Degrees (and the technology that drives them) come back together for an intimate and honest discussion exploring the state of the field, the challenges at hand, and what comes next. Host Joe E. Ross is joined by Reach University co-founder Dr. Mallory Dwinal-Palish, now president of Craft Education, to talk about the ways the Apprenticeship Degree field has evolved—and what still stands in the way of taking it to scale.

They challenge some conventional assumptions about what's holding Apprenticeship Degrees back. Are accreditors really the obstacle? Does expanding apprenticeship require entirely new curricula? And why might the biggest opportunities lie instead in the less glamorous work of controlling costs, braiding public funding, redesigning systems, and giving academic credit for work?

Mallory also makes the case that many of the field's biggest constraints are solvable—but only if higher education and workforce leaders rethink how they approach funding, mentorship, data, and employer partnerships.

Check out the CAEP playbook Building and Scaling Teacher Apprenticeships: https://www.crafteducation.com/webinars-downloads/building-scaling-teacher-apprenticeships

This is a second part of an ongoing conversation on the podcast. Be sure to check out our previous conversation with Mallory here: https://reach.edu/blog/apprenticeship-2.0-the-origin-future-of-u.s.-apprenticeship-degrees-in-higher-education

Music by PaulYudin from Pixabay.