In the U.S., apprenticeship has often been thought of as a program only for the trades, but around the world, companies of all sizes from global enterprises to small businesses are using apprenticeship to grow talent on the job because learning by doing is a proven method of mastery in every industry.

Experience is key and as technology evolves evermore quickly, businesses need to innovate, adapt, and leverage technology to stay ahead of the competition. The pace of change is swift and competition is fierce.

It’s also become increasingly difficult to find people who already have the experience, technology proficiency, and background requirements necessary to operate. Requiring specific degrees, pedigree, or experiences might have made sense at one time, but now it limits access to diversity, innovation, and talented people who can grow your business.

Forward thinking companies—from insurance and banking to education and healthcare—are turning to apprenticeships to grow talent in-house, on the job.

By giving people the opportunity to gain experience and learn on the job, businesses benefit:

• When positions are filled, work gets done.
• With proper staffing levels, work is more balanced.
• By delegating routine tasks to apprentices, work is more focused.
• By growing people, work is more connected.
• By coaching people, work is more collaborative.

All this benefits business’ bottom line. Not only does it mean more say in who is hired into higher-level roles, but it also enables companies to ensure training is directly tied to new or emerging tech roles, processes, and tools instrumental to future growth.

The KPIs gained by changing the way you source talent include a 20-25% cost savings over traditionally sourced talent. Businesses see the gains when shifting from churn and burn to train to retain via apprenticeship.

We know that people are our business—so when we invest in growing people, they not only learn best practices, but we gain a workforce that is stable, loyal, diverse, creative, and happy with unbeatable ROI outcomes on retention, innovation, and motivation!

Meet the Authors

Evelyn Van Til is a culture architect active in designing and delivering innovation in hiring tech talent. She currently serves as the National Apprentice Experience Program Manager at Apprenti where she delivers onboarding programs connecting people into software development, cybersecurity, network, DevOps, cloud, data, tech support, analyst or sales via apprenticeships at local businesses. Based in Columbus, Ohio, she has previously served at The Ohio State University, The Ohio Department of Education, Tech Talent South, along with a variety of other roles in tech education and workforce development.

Apprenti is bridging the tech talent and diversity gaps, igniting a new paradigm in apprenticeship to develop untapped talent and strengthen the tech ecosystem nationwide

Emily Fabiano (Contributor) is the founder of Workmorphis, a cross-sector workforce consultancy helping organizations build a more resilient workforce to thrive in a changing economy. Fabiano has deep experience in workforce transformation at the government level, working at the cross section of workforce strategy, economic development, and public policy. With a keen understanding of the unique challenges facing today’s and tomorrow’s workforce and the ability to communicate across sectors, Fabiano brings a new level of understanding and collaboration required to address the necessary changes to better connect industry and education to prepare people for jobs.

Workmorphis provides a full suite of services, including strategic advising and implementation and diversified workforce pipeline strategies, to help employers attract professionals from a variety of backgrounds and experiences to maximize opportunities for the company and employees.