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鈥淏eing an UpSkill youth apprentice has taught me more than I ever imagined. It led me to study business in college. It gave me responsibility and a clearer sense of direction.鈥�

That鈥檚 what college student Owen Snyder about his high school senior year apprenticeship at German American Bank in Bloomington, Indiana. It shaped his pathway to Indiana University鈥檚 Kelley School of Business, where he鈥檚 a sophomore and continuing his apprenticeship. 

His story captures what many young people want and many schools struggle to provide: not just information about possible future jobs, but practical ways to prepare for and get them.

For Hampton University freshman Maegan Godoy, the skills she learned as a high school apprentice at New America鈥檚 Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship, or PAYA, have already proven their worth in her coursework as a political science major, she said during the same webinar.

Far from being just a pathway to an occupation, youth apprenticeships deepen academic learning, helping students connect classroom study to the habits, judgment and responsibility that adult work requires.

This National Apprenticeship Week is the right time to focus on these types of youth-focused programs, because they are a promising way to strengthen the bridge from school to work and adulthood. But there are barriers to their expansion.

One is language. “Youth apprenticeships” is often considered synonymous with internships, job shadowing or ordinary work-based learning. It isn’t.

Youth apprenticeships aim at something richer and more coherent. They tie work to learning, progression, mentoring and recognized value beyond an immediate job placement. They鈥檙e less about letting students peek into adulthood than about letting them practice it. 

PAYA鈥檚 youth apprenticeship includes paid work with skilled mentors, classroom-based instruction, assessment of whether students are learning the skills the job requires, personal support like transportation subsidies for getting to work and a portable credential plus college credit. This isn鈥檛 a casual exposure to a job. It鈥檚 a structured pathway through work.

Another barrier is framing youth apprenticeships as college-versus-career. Done well, apprenticeships aren’t anti-college; they allow students to earn while they learn, test their interests in real settings, build professional habits and keep multiple options open all at once. Maegan’s comments make clear that apprenticeships can strengthen academic study rather than compete with it, while Owen鈥檚 path into finance illustrates how his apprenticeship didn鈥檛 divert him from further education; it gave his education a sharper purpose. 

How many youth apprenticeship programs are there? No one really knows. There is no federally recognized definition of youth apprenticeship, so while some programs are part of the Registered Apprenticeship Program at the federal level or levels, others that are similar operate outside of it. This makes youth apprenticeships harder to count, compare and scale than they should be.

Still, the available evidence tells a clear story about their popularity and value. 

New America, drawing on a Jobs for the Future , that 40,293 young people ages 16 to 24 started registered apprenticeships in 2020, up from 18,877 in 2010. PAYA鈥檚 has also expanded to more than 90 partnerships nationally. But a Department of Labor reveals that while people ages 16 to 24 account for roughly 30% to 40% of all registered apprentices each year, the number of high school-aged participants is much smaller 鈥� only 2.7% of apprentices registered in 2021 were ages 16 to 18. 

That is exactly why National Apprenticeship Week should elevate youth apprenticeship from an interesting subtheme to a central opportunity, particularly as the country rightly worries about the transition from school to work. 

Owen and Maegan together point to a clear way of thinking about this model. Owen described his apprenticeship as having taught him more than he could have imagined, while Meagan presented her apprenticeship as an experience that enriched her political science coursework. 

Taylor White, director of the Postsecondary Pathways for Youth program at New America’s Center on Education and Labor, told me, 鈥淔or many students, youth apprenticeship is the first time school feels connected to their vision for a future 鈥� not to mention a clear pathway to get there. That sense of direction can be just as valuable as the paycheck.鈥� 

If policymakers, educators and employers want more of these opportunities, five practical steps would help. 

• Schools should make room in schedules and graduation pathways for serious work-based learning.
  
• Employers should create apprentice roles for young people that include real supervision and skill development over time.
  
• States and local agencies should reduce logistical barriers, including transportation, scheduling and paperwork.
  
• Community colleges and other education and training providers should align coursework and credit with youth apprenticeships so learning carries forward after high school.
  
• The field needs clearer public definitions and better data so families and policymakers can see where these programs exist and how well they work.听

Youth apprenticeship is not a narrow track for somebody else鈥檚 child. It鈥檚 one of the most promising ways to help young people begin adulthood with knowledge, skills, confidence and direction. 

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