In 2019, Kim Kardashian made the news for an unusual reason: the reality star announced she was signing up for a four-year apprenticeship with a San Francisco law firm. Under California law, it’s possible to become a lawyer by apprenticing with a law firm: you don’t need to actually go to law school. In 2021, she announced on Instagram that she had passed her first-year baby bar exam.
Apprenticeships have been a way to enter a wide range of careers in Germany, for instance, for decades, and about half of all young people in that country choose these programs over traditional college degrees to get started in their chosen careers. These programs have been taking root in the United Kingdom over the past few years, and now they are showing up in the United States to a great welcome: when employers announce apprenticeships leading to jobs in various fields, they receive hundreds of applications for every opening they have.
According to the US Department of Labor, there are about 700,000 apprenticeships active across various industries in the US at any given time. There are many others, as well, that aren’t registered with the Labor Department, and, therefore, aren’t counted. While many apprenticeships are in skilled trades such as plumbing and machine operation, modern opportunities exist in what are known as white-collar or new-collar fields. Various companies also offer apprenticeship programs for specific needs that they have. CVS Health, for example, trains thousands of apprentices to manage their pharmacies, or handle logistics. Amazon trains hundreds of apprentices to become technical support staff.
What does apprenticeship mean?
An apprenticeship is an alternative path to a career that would traditionally need a college degree. In an apprenticeship, you learn mostly through hands-on training on a job, under the supervision of an experienced expert. Apprenticeships also involve pay: they are an earn-as-you-learn career opportunity. These programs are available in the fields of law, computer hardware support, computer coding, cyber security, financial services, and healthcare.
Often, employers who announce apprenticeship programs tend to reach out to local community colleges for help. While the employers offer hands-on training, the community colleges offer the classroom learning that is often a part of these programs.
Apprenticeships that are registered with and certified by the government are called registered apprenticeships and come with government oversight. They have to answer to quality standards, and they need to provide credentials that are recognized throughout the country.
Apprenticeships differ from internships in that they replace a college education. While you would enter an internship for a year at most after college and may not be compensated, an apprenticeship offers actual training over many years in place of college, gives you a qualification, and comes with pay. Additionally, while an internship may or may not lead to a job, an apprenticeship is almost guaranteed to end up in a job.
Finally, an apprenticeship gets you into a white-collar or new-collar career with no student loans to repay. Quite the opposite, you end up with a living wage while you learn.
How do you find an apprenticeship program?
While you could simply search on the internet for apprenticeship programs in the fields that interest you, there are other, more focused ways to go about your search.
- The US Department of labor has an apprenticeship search engine (apprenticeship.gov/apprenticeship-job-finder).
- Your local technical or community college could have information. They often work with employers who provide apprenticeship programs.
- A labor union in your area could put apprenticeship programs together.
The pros and cons of choosing an apprenticeship over a college degree
An apprenticeship gives you certain advantages:
- From day one, you gain knowledge and experience that you can actually apply to a real-world job.
- You gain people skills, experience in being part of a team, and skills in communication and numeracy.
- You make at least a minimum wage while you learn, and end up debt-free.
- You have greater confidence going to interviews because you know you’ve already succeeded in the workplace.
- You finish with qualifications and usually a job offer.
Apprenticeships can come with downsides, as well:
- You don’t get to experience college life.
- Apprenticeships aren’t a possibility with every career path. In addition, when you don’t have a college degree, you may find it harder to switch careers in the future.
- An apprenticeship is a full-time job. You may find that the stresses and responsibilities that come with full-time work are particularly difficult to deal with if you don’t already have experience in the workplace.
- You’ll have to compete with hundreds of other candidates to land an apprenticeship.
- Once you begin your actual job after your apprenticeship concludes, you’ll find that you need to work alongside other professionals who do have college degrees, making for a situation that grants you lower status in the workplace.
- You may find that your lack of a degree means that your employers give you lower-level responsibilities.
- You may need additional certifications to qualify for certain positions.
Conclusion
Apprenticeships tend to work very well for those who learn better by doing, rather than by reading books. They also work well if you aren’t comfortable with the idea of taking on large student loans. If the special advantages of apprenticeships work well for you, and such a career path is available to you in your field of choice, it can make a great alternative to the traditional path involving a college degree.