The goals of an apprenticeship program are to provide an employee with a fair wage and broadly applicable and nationally recognized certification, create career advancement opportunities, and cultivate an advanced skill-set that meets an employer’s needs and yields overall positive returns on investment for employers. Registered apprenticeship, supported through the Department of Labor, allows organizations to expand their talent sources without lowering their standards for hiring, since typical requirements like work experience are actively met on the job.
While apprenticeship programs have been available across numerous industries for decades, rampant market growth, as well as labor shortages in recent years, have led to a need to modernize the apprenticeship model to meet companies’ growing and dynamic labor market and hiring needs. For example, risk management company ClearForce has joined Safal Partners, a workforce solutions organization, to provide employers with a high-quality, streamlined way of recruiting, training, and upskilling workers in critically needed tech occupations through a one-of-a-kind national registered apprenticeship program. Their unique approach includes cutting-edge behavioral monitoring of employees throughout the apprenticeship process, to optimize the development of apprentices while also de-risking the hiring process for companies.
Although apprenticeship is most seen for skilled trade roles in construction and manufacturing, the apprenticeship model has been modernized to incorporate needed flexibility such as competency-based training, virtual or hybrid instruction delivery, and direct alignment with both industry credentials and academic credit toward college degrees. The model can be customized and used by nearly any industry or company, with similar significant benefits. By embracing this low-risk method of hiring, organizations can enjoy the productivity of a capable employee, and workers can gain the skills, credentials and certifications necessary to further their career growth.
One of the fastest-growing sectors for modern apprenticeship is technology. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) tech occupations are on pace to grow faster than all other fields in the U.S. However, the workforce pipeline is not keeping pace. Industry experts and hiring managers are voicing concern that roles are taking longer to fill and current educational pathways are not sufficiently preparing young professionals for the workplace. For example, according to Cyberseek.org there are currently nearly 600,000 open cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. alone and a 68% supply/demand ratio – meaning there are only enough cybersecurity workers to fill 68% of the jobs that employers demand. Infosec’s 2020 IT and Security Talent Pipeline Study found that 72% of hiring manager respondents indicated there are “not enough qualified candidates to fill open cyber positions.”
The growing shortage of workers across the tech space as well as in other critical sectors including health care, transportation, hospitality, and utilities as well as blue-collar industries like construction and manufacturing, is leaving employers with several options: endure long-term staffing shortages, seek capital-intensive opportunities to automate, lower or adjust hiring standards, or develop some type of in-house apprenticeship or expedited professional development pipeline.
Long-term staffing shortages, particularly for key tech and cybersecurity roles, could have serious ramifications. With cyberattacks on the rise by malicious actors, both foreign and domestic, short-staffed organizations are vulnerable to data breaches and other attacks that could lead to data loss or lasting financial and/or reputational damage.
Lowering or adjusting hiring standards could help employers fill roles more quickly, but are the tradeoffs worth it? For example, simply removing or changing requirements around academic degrees, industry experience, or criminal background restrictions would likely immediately grow organizations’ eligible applicant pool. However, without a plan to assess and develop talent, it is unlikely to result in the high-quality, engaged workforce they are seeking.
Having a structured training and assessment or certification plan in place for critical occupations enables organizations to refine hiring requirements, expand talent sourcing, and create career pathways to increase long-term worker loyalty. Apprenticeship is the gold standard for workforce training. Assessment or certification is key; registered apprenticeship programs focus not only on training, but also ensuring that apprentices demonstrate gained knowledge and proficiency to reach mastery of the occupation, gauged by assessments throughout the program.
Apprenticeship equips employers to take a skills-and aptitude-based approach to hiring for critical occupations. By utilizing industry-validated training frameworks that combine both structured on-the-job tasks and related instruction, employers can more confidently mitigate hiring risk and broaden their pool of qualified applicants. For example, by honing in on skills and competencies required for tech roles and developing a structured training plan for qualified applicants to gain those skills, companies can remove the default requirement for a college degree for all professional roles. That is especially critical considering that according to 2019 U.S. Census data, more than half (58%) of the American workforce does not hold a college degree.
Even for roles requiring a college degree, given the speed at which technology advances, the information a candidate learned in school may very well be outdated, especially if a job calls for a combination of a bachelor’s degree plus several years of work experience. Apprenticeship provides a way for recent graduates to gain immediately relevant on-the-job training that most typically have not received as part of their college degree program.
Apprenticeship also enables employers to expand their list of interested and qualified individuals by providing valuable federal and state resources to support employment of non-traditional candidates, such as non-violent criminal backgrounds. While employers may have a policy to exclude candidates with a criminal history from consideration outright due to a belief that past behavior is some guarantee of future behavior, according to the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM), 66% of managers who followed fair chance hiring practices and hired an individual with a criminal history rated that person’s work as comparable to employees without a criminal history. In addition to support and resources from local workforce development boards, employers with registered apprenticeship programs can be eligible for federal tax credits and access the Federal Bonding Program. This provides Fidelity Bonds at no cost to employers who hire individuals with criminal records.
Combining behavioral risk management with an apprenticeship program can help to further focus, and in some cases expedite the development of critical skill sets in apprentices while also de-risking the hiring process. Together the approaches enable managers to continually evaluate apprentice performance based on customizable risk assessment criteria (including, but not limited to felony and violent criminal records, sex offender registries, and adverse social media postings) to ensure the candidate does not present a threat to the organization’s reputation or its other employees. Candidates can be continually monitored for the duration of the apprenticeship. Employers can also be immediately notified through push-based alerts of potential causes for concern. The result is an improvement in hiring and development criteria without lower hiring standards.
An additional advantage of apprenticeship is that it provides an employer a structured method for bringing talent that would not otherwise typically qualify for a position, starting the apprentice at a lower price point (typically 40 to 70% of the pay rate for a fully skilled employee), recognizing that they are going to be receiving highly-valuable training, mentorship, and instruction, and providing the hiring manager with a way of evaluating an apprentices’ progress through training critically-needed skills and competencies before committing to a permanent full-time hire.
A contemporary apprenticeship program designed to meet the dynamic labor market and employer needs of the 21st century can set a company apart in its search for top talent. If organizations don’t take steps to expand their hiring and development processes it is all but inevitable that crucial roles will go unfilled or employees will be hired without the full capability needed to perform their jobs and contribute to employer expectations. Innovative advancements in risk assessment technologies and services are key to creating modern apprenticeship programs. There would be no need to choose between reducing hiring quality or filling positions with qualified applicants. Companies can now confidently have both.
Steve Milovich is currently president of Milovich Partners, senior advisor to the Boston Consulting group and a member of the ClearForce Advisory Board. Steve has held senior human resources executive positions with The Walt Disney Company, PepsiCo and Honeywell.
Katie Adams is senior director at Safal Partners. Katie leads the firm’s strategic development and execution of innovative workforce development solutions for public sector clients.
