In the United States, apprenticeships are often associated with particular industries like the building trades. But in Switzerland and other parts of Europe, apprenticeships are common in many other industries.
In fact, 70% of Swiss high school students participate in that country's apprenticeship program as part of their high school education. Can a similar model work in the U.S.? In this video, a team at Harvard Kennedy School's Project on Workforce discusses recently published research which used data from CareerWise Colorado, an organization that places high school students in two- and three-year apprenticeships, to determine whether such a program could help students and employers in the American labor market.
The Project on Workforce is an interdisciplinary, collaborative project between the Harvard Kennedy School's Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy, the Harvard Business School Managing the Future of Work Project, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. The Project produces and catalyzes basic and applied research at the intersection of education and labor markets for leaders in business, education, and policy. The Project’s research aims to help shape a postsecondary system of the future that creates more and better pathways to economic mobility and forges smoother transitions between education and careers.