Workforce Development through Apprenticeships

During my time at Siemens, I learned a ton about global workforce challenges and solutions. Here in the United States, more than 20,000 students every single year are placed on waiting lists for imaging programs. Twenty thousand individuals who have raised their hands and said, “I want to serve in healthcare.” Yet, we tell them to wait. Meanwhile, health systems are struggling to staff CT, MRI, X ray, and interventional suites. Patients are waiting. Teams are stretched. The need is urgent. The problem is not passion. It is capacity. That is why I believe so deeply in apprenticeship degrees and true earn and learn models. When we align employers and academic institutions, we expand seats. We create paid pathways. We reduce debt. We build loyalty. We connect education directly to workforce demand. And we open doors for individuals who cannot afford to sit on a waiting list for two years without income. Apprenticeships are not just a workforce strategy. They are a dignity strategy. They say to a future imaging technologist, “You belong here. We will invest in you. You can learn and earn at the same time.” If we are serious about solving workforce shortages across imaging and allied health, we must rethink how we structure access. What would happen if every large health system committed to scaling apprenticeship degree pathways in imaging? How many waiting lists could disappear? #Heartleader #Healthcare #Imaging #Radiology #Education #Apprenticeships

Business leaders are grappling with skills shortages and a lack of candidates with relevant experience for in-demand roles. The problem is clear - but fortunately so is the solution: applied learning (or on-the-job training) through reskilling, upskilling, and early career talent programs. The current misalignment between the supply of skilled talent and the demand of employers is at the heart of my latest piece in Fast Company. Co-authored with Opportunity@Work founder & CEO Byron Auguste, we explore the critical opportunity to provide, "huge boosts to business productivity and to the wider economy through pathways that are built for all workers at all stages in their career and educational journey." In this piece, you can learn more about: - The 30 million STARs (workers Skilled Through Alternative Routes, rather than bachelor’s degrees) in the US who already have the skills for roles with at least 50% higher salaries than their current jobs, if employers #TearThePaperCeiling.  - How, according to Multiverse research with The Burning Glass Institute, apprenticeships could move 830,000 people in the US into higher-wage roles, resulting in $28.5 billion more in annual earnings.  - The emerging in-demand roles, including cybersecurity and data analysis, that are increasingly being filled through apprenticeship pathways. This piece underscores the need for the private and public sectors to collaborate and scale these programs - and with skills-based hiring increasingly prominent and various states offering tax credits for workforce training, we are already making strides. As the US economy looks for innovative ways to build new industries, let’s ensure we also build effective pathways to success for workers of all backgrounds, all ages, and all career stages. #FutureOfWork #SkillsGap #TalentDevelopment

Apprenticeships will matter more than ever. Apprenticeships, long treated as a secondary route into work, will move from a niche pathway to a necessary engine of workforce development. As the UK faces rising skills shortages and growing youth unemployment, as well as pressure to keep pace with fast-moving technologies, the case for combining structured learning with on-the-job training is becoming impossible to ignore. The government’s recent pledge to create 50,000 apprenticeships underscores this shift. “Apprenticeships have a critical role to play in shaping the future workforce,” Hays UK&I CEO Thomas Way said. “While university degrees will always have a place in the modern working world, apprenticeships offer something uniquely powerful: hands-on experience and a direct connection to the skills businesses need today and tomorrow.” Tesco’s decision to expand its 15-month Stronger Starts programme to 1,500 apprenticeship places by 2027 is an early signal of where things are heading. Successful apprentices leave with GCSE-equivalent credentials, functional skills and a guaranteed path to permanent work. Employers across the West Midlands have also pledged more than 16,000 training and work experience opportunities as part of plans to tackle youth unemployment, which sits at double the national average in parts of the region. Hospitality giants like Diageo and Mitchells & Butlers PLC are using structured programmes to create pathways for young people who have struggled to break into work. For a labour market being reshaped by automation and artificial intelligence, apprenticeships will become a strategic necessity: “As technology evolves at pace, organisations must build a sustainable pipeline of talent equipped for roles that didn’t exist a decade ago,” Way said. “Investing in apprenticeships isn’t just about filling roles – it’s about future-proofing our industries.” ✍🏾 Solange Uwimana 📷 Getty Images 💡 This is one of a several ideas LinkedIn News is highlighting in our annual list of predictions. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/BI26UnitedKingdom Join the conversation in the comments or share your own prediction in a post or video with #BigIdeas2026.

I have been hearing more interest in apprenticeships this year, and the latest data from Indeed confirms it. Searches for apprenticeship opportunities have more than doubled since 2020 and are up 35 percent in 2025 alone.   The reasons are not hard to see. White-collar hiring has slowed, degrees are losing ground to skills in hiring decisions, and workers are reconsidering what they want from their careers. Apprenticeships offer something tangible: a way to learn, earn, and build skills that lead directly to employment.   What stands out to me is how employers are responding. Nearly 70 percent of HR leaders say they struggle to find qualified candidates, so more companies are building their own training programs instead of waiting for talent to appear. According to recent research, apprenticeships are proving highly effective at closing skill gaps, with success rates above 90 percent.   For the electronics industry, where technology moves faster than traditional education can keep pace, this shift is not optional. Apprenticeships are becoming essential infrastructure for building the talent pipelines we need.   I am curious how this is playing out in your planning. Are apprenticeships becoming a bigger part of your workforce strategy? https://bit.ly/4s3Gns0

For every 100 open jobs in Maryland, there are 33 available workers. By 2035, we're looking at a shortage of 13,800 registered nurses and 9,200 licensed practical nurses. That's 23,000 people we need who won't exist under the current system. I chair Maryland's Apprenticeship 2030 Commission. I can see the math is brutal. The default says wait for more college graduates. More credentials and accreditations. We don't have time, and most of these roles don't need a four year degree. They need capability, they need training, and they need a path to progressively higher wages. Apprenticeships are a delivery mechanism for capability at scale. England went from 65,000 apprenticeships a year in 1997 to 500,000 a year by the mid 2010s. 7.7x growth. They built the infrastructure and the employer adoption to make it real. We're building the same thing in Maryland. Last year, we had over 13,000 active apprentices. By 2030, the target is 60,000. That's 4.8x growth in five years. 2.3% of our state workforce. This is what we're doing. If you're a CHRO or hiring manager or you're working on workforce policy and you're staring at shortages, here's what matters. Apprenticeships work when you treat them as infrastructure. You measure aptitude. You train to outcomes. You cultivate an ecosystem of employers, intermediaries, and educational partners. You build pathways and the skill scaffolding that lead to better wages as skills and capabilities advance. The shortage is real. The solution exists. The question is whether we build it.

There is a structural shift happening in American workforce development right now and most people are not paying attention how the small changes are adding up to something big. This month, the U.S. Department of Labor announced a $243M initiative to integrate AI literacy into Registered Apprenticeship programs across every major industry sector. Days later, DOL and the National Science Foundation formalized a partnership to build 56 state and territory AI readiness hubs — up to $224M — designed to connect workforce training systems, community colleges, and regional employers under one strategy. See what they did there? Next, as of July 1st 2026 Workforce Pell Grants become real: for the first time, need-based federal Pell funding will cover short-term, employer-aligned training programs — as little as eight weeks — at accredited institutions. Taken together, these moves represent a meaningful reorientation of how the U.S. funds and delivers skills-based education. This is not headline news; it is plumbing. But the plumbing is what determines whether the water gets to the people who need it. I believe higher education and workforce development are not separate systems — they are overlapping ones. When federal policy starts treating them as one, it creates real opportunities for institutions and organizations willing to move toward the policy rather than wait for it to arrive on their desk. We have been in the background making moves knowing that this is coming. Watch this space. #WorkforceDevelopment #HigherEducation #SkillsGap

"The Day I Watched £18,000 Walk Off Site (Because We Didn't Train Our Apprentice Fast Enough)" I'll never forget watching Jake pack his tools into that beaten-up Ford Fiesta for the last time. 18 months we'd invested in him. College fees, wages, mentor time. £18,000 down the drain. His exit interview was brutal: "I'm going to Thompson's. They've got proper training systems and their apprentices actually know what they're doing by month 6." That hit hard. Because he was right. We'd done what every contractor does - thrown him on site with our best sparky and hoped he'd "pick it up." No structured training. No SOPs. No measurement of his progress. Meanwhile, Thompson's had apprentices running cable routes independently after 3 months, using proper documentation systems, following standardized procedures. Their apprentices became productive contributors. Ours became expensive passengers. Here's what I learned: College teaches theory. We need to teach productivity. So, I stopped treating apprentice training like a legal obligation and started treating it like the business investment it actually is. We created structured training pathways. Week-by-week competencies. Real measurement systems. Proper mentoring protocols outside of academic requirements. Result? Our next apprentice was generating billable value by month 4. Third-year apprentices now train the new ones. 85% retention rate. Zero poaching from competitors. The biggest mistake electrical contractors make isn't hiring poor apprentices. It's assuming that paying college fees equals providing proper training. College gives them the knowledge. You need to give them the systems to apply it productively. The quicker your apprentice becomes genuinely productive, the better for everyone - including them. www.optimisedenergy.group #ApprenticeTraining #ElectricalTraining #WorkforceOptimization #SkillsDevelopment #ElectricalContractors #ProductivityImprovement #TeamDevelopment #SOPs #StructuredTraining #ApprenticeRetention #BusinessOptimization

Expanding the U.S. workforce in emerging technology is a pressing challenge. How can we build new talent pipelines for critical industries like biotechnology and AI? CSET’s recent report, "Biotech Manufacturing Apprenticeships: A Case Study in Workforce Innovation," by Luke Koslosky, Steph Batalis, and Veronica Jade Kinoshita, explores a promising solution. By examining the North Carolina Life Sciences Apprenticeship Consortium (NCLSAC), the report offers a practical guide for organizations looking to develop their own programs. A few policy takeaways from the report that caught my eye included: 1️⃣ Provide sustainable funding for the infrastructure that apprenticeship programs rely on, such as regional workforce hubs, technical education programs, and pre-apprenticeship training. 2️⃣ Support regular, regional labor market studies and ensure timely access to data on skills gaps and hiring needs to help target training efforts effectively. 3️⃣ Increase federal and state funding for the startup and long-term costs of apprenticeship programs, including support services for apprentices like stipends and child care — flexible funding is helpful! 4️⃣ Support recruitment initiatives that build awareness and reduce barriers to entry, especially for engaging new and historically underserved communities in the industry. 5️⃣ Create or strengthen regional groups that bring together employers, education providers, and government partners to align their efforts and goals. For organizations in any emerging tech field considering this model, our new report provides guiding questions to start the process: ❓What are your current workforce gaps in terms of roles and numbers, and what specific skills are most in demand? ❓What type of apprenticeship model—employer-sponsored, an intermediary partnership, or a consortium—best suits your organization's needs and resources? Learn more and see how this model could apply to your industry: ➡️ Read the full report: https://lnkd.in/ekcTD7GY ➡️ For industry & workforce developers, see our guiding questions: https://lnkd.in/e3rAhtQV ➡️ For policymakers, check out the "Policy Takeaways": https://lnkd.in/eiNx2qfD

Organizations don't need to create new, high-tech solutions to close the talent gap. Apprenticeships have been around for thousands of years for one simple reason: They work. They combine real-world experience with classroom instruction. They create career paths in high-demand fields like healthcare, IT, and advanced manufacturing. And critically, they expand access to opportunity, especially for people who've been left out of traditional education pipelines. We've long supported apprenticeship programs as a proven solution to workforce challenges. The data speaks for itself: • 4 in 5 organizations with apprenticeships say they help address talent shortages. • 91% of workers who complete apprenticeships stay employed. • They reduce turnover, cut recruitment costs, and increase productivity. • Apprenticeships are good for business and people. Let's stop seeing apprenticeships as "alternative" and start seeing them as essential. #WorkforceDevelopment #Apprenticeships #SkillsGap #FutureOfWork #HRLeadership #PeopleMatter #TalentStrategy #EconomicOpportunity #SHRM

The Australian Government has today released the final report for the Strategic Review of the Australian Apprenticeship Incentive System - Skills for tomorrow: Shaping the future of Australian apprenticeships. ⭐ The report makes 34 recommendations to support high-quality apprenticeships and ensure the Incentives System is effective and responsive to the needs of the labour market, apprentices and government. The report consists of 8 key areas and topics including: ♦️ Executive summary – outlines the purpose, approach, recommendations, next steps, timeline and consultation activities for the review, and context about the apprenticeship system. ♦️ 1. The challenge: meeting Australia’s skills needs – provides an overview of skill shortages and the role of apprenticeships in addressing them. ♦️ 2. Maximising the effectiveness and efficiency of the incentive system – explores the impact of incentives, economic evaluations, past review findings, a summary of evidence and a framework for evidence-informed policy design. ♦️ 3. Raising awareness of apprenticeships and encouraging take up – explores perceptions and promotion of apprenticeships, opportunities for early exposure and structural barriers to encouraging take up. ♦️ 4. Improving the experience for employers and apprentices to encourage completion – explores the impact of workplace culture, employer responsibilities, both on-the-job and off-the-job training and learning, navigating apprenticeship supports and system complexities. ♦️ 5. Increasing apprenticeship participation and completion for priority cohorts – explores the unique experiences and barriers faced by priority cohorts in the apprenticeship system. This includes women apprentices in male‑dominated trades; First Nations apprentices; apprentices with disability; regional and remote apprentices; and culturally and linguistically diverse apprentices. ♦️ 6. Enabling broader vocational education and training system reforms – explores challenges in the broader vocational education and training system related to apprenticeships, including recognition of prior learning, micro-credentials, harmonising apprenticeships between jurisdictions, qualification reform and accelerated apprenticeships. ♦️ 7. Supporting transitions into secure well-paid work and careers – explores support for successful transitions from training to a career and the value of uncompleted apprenticeships. ♦️ 8. Improving data collection and analysis to respond to future challenges – explores the importance of good data and evaluation, current data sources and challenges with apprenticeships data. #apprenticeships #traineeships #skills #VocationalTraining #TAFE https://lnkd.in/gn6f62ff