The apprenticeship approach: tailor-made for young adolescents

I had the chance to participate in Opportunity Nation’s Opportunity Summit in Washington DC. The annual event convenes a great number of organizations, including Spark, partnering to provide pathways to education, employment and ultimately prosperity for what are called “opportunity youth.” These are young people aged 16-25 who have dropped out of school or have graduated but have not attained post-secondary training or a degree and are therefore unable to obtain meaningful and steady employment.

There are more than six million opportunity youth currently in this country. It is estimated that the macroeconomic costs of all opportunity youth total more than $6 trillion over their collective lifetimes (a million dollars each), as they draw more from society than they are able to contribute to it.

Spark is engaged in this movement even though our students are younger than those addressed by most others within the Opportunity Nation coalition. Our role, of course, is in identifying young people who are showing early warning signs that they may migrate into this category. Participating in Spark keeps them engaged, on track and ready to graduate high school on time and be successful beyond.

Interestingly, our approach with 13 and 14 year-olds in the middle grades is nicely aligned with many of the strategies employed for older youth. One method that has gained momentum in recent years is the apprenticeship.

There are thousands of registered apprenticeships, cataloged and designated by the Department of Labor. They run the gamut from “traditional” trades like plumbing, utility work and carpentry to new occupations generated by the computer and information age, such as computer technicians and network administrators. Importantly, earning an apprenticeship certificate is portable. They are recognized across states, just as post secondary degrees are. There’s legislative work underway to support these types of apprenticeships. Senator Cory Booker and Senator Tim Scott introduced The Leveraging and EnergizingAmerica’s Apprenticeship Programs or “LEAP” Act to increase apprenticeships through a new federal tax credit for employers. 

Spark calls its project-based learning experiences with engaging mentors in exciting workplaces “apprenticeships.” While these opportunities are not officially registered apprenticeships designed to connect people directly to specific careers, they nevertheless embody the spirit of the apprenticeship approach for younger students. The experience is hands-on, experiential, embedded within the workplace, and guided by an expert mentor.

Our belief is that Spark’s apprenticeship approach is uniquely suited for young adolescents. The middle grades are notoriously challenging for youth. This is the period when students begin to really disengage. Gallup conducts an annual poll of students – some half a million in the sample each year – that measures, as they categorize it, their hope, wellbeing and engagement. Hope and wellbeing actually remain reasonably steady from fifth grade to twelfth grade. Meanwhile, engagement drops. And two-thirds of that drop occurs in the middle grades – sixth, seventh and eighth. Other studies have shown that by the time students reach high school, as much as 60% are “chronically disengaged.”

My sense is this disengagement is driven by a mismatch between the teaching and learning approach in school in these years – which still remains largely didactic in a majority of schools – and what students need in this developmental period. Young adolescents are in an intensified period of identity formation, yet schools rarely tap into their self-interests. They respond most to relationship-based experiences, but their bonds are limited to their teachers and peers, therefore they lack broader social capital. And, they are beginning to think more about their futures, yet they are not offered enough opportunities to explore their options at this stage.

When the organization Get Schooled surveyed students who were chronic absentees, the youth cited their reasons for disengaging: school is “boring” and they didn’t like the subjects. They also indicated what would get them more interested: hands-on activities and a better connection between what there are doing in school and their futures.

Apprenticeships address these needs directly. Obviously, middle grades students are not old enough to engage in registered apprenticeships. But, the apprenticeship approach is uniquely suited to tapping into students’ self-interests, offering a broader set of positive relationships, and examining future professional options. Furthermore, apprenticeships do satisfy young people’s craving for hands-on learning experiences and the connection between education with future careers and the paths to get there.

At Spark, we’d like to see a workplace-based, hands-on learning project become a standard educational experience in the middle grades. It’s the type of opportunity that can get youth fired up about learning, keeping them engaged, on track and ready at a critical inflection point. That’s good for education. It’s good for workforce development. It’s good for young people.