Despite tech layoffs at some leading tech companies, many sectors are struggling to fill roles — and nationally no sector is as tight as tech with over 3.9M open tech jobs and 2x huge growth in roles projected each year across cybersecurity, UX and software development to areas like gaming, cloud, and IT business analysts.

“All told, the US produces about 65,000 students with computer science degrees each year, a number that’s gone up dramatically over the past few decades.” according to Ars Technica.

But the number of students completing AP courses in computer science is dropping — and of course — at a rate of 65K graduates per year with 3.9M+ open roles, we’ll never find enough people to grow our businesses.

Increasingly businesses are looking for innovative solutions to grow tech talent — and many are finding professional apprenticeships an attractive way to grow talent. So, what is an apprenticeship?

Apprenticeship starts with a job and is driven by the employer making a commitment to train the apprentice.

• Paid Work — Apprentices are employees who are paid wages and benefits, allowing them to earn and learn.
• Work-Based Learning — Apprenticeship is a work-based learning model with structured on-the-job training (OJT) provided by a company-assigned mentor.
• Classroom Learning — Also known as “related instruction,” this is the theory and technical skills related to and required to be proficient on the job.
• Mentorship — Apprenticeship develops leadership skills in both the mentor and apprentice. Experienced mentors train to the greatest depth and breadth of knowledge and skills needed for the job/scope of work.
• Credentials — Upon successful completion of the apprenticeship, the apprentice receives a certificate of completion of the apprenticeship in that specific job role. This certificate/credential is portable and recognized by industry as attainment of the skills and knowledge necessary for success in that job role.

Growing talent on the job via apprenticeship not only means more say in who is hired into higher-level or technical 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 and delivered at the speed of business.

Moving hiring from consuming talent to growing talent is a big culture shift that takes time to prepare as a business. Here are a few tips that can help you tap into talent in tech and get ready to add apprenticeship to your talent development strategies:

1. Identify people internally who are champions for leadership, mentorship, and diversity who can drive the process.
2. Consider trends in tech, growth in business needs, and opportunities to support your current workforce. Growing talent internally through training and promotion is a step forward in creating life-long learning as a practice.
3. Look at roles open longer than 6 months—if the work isn’t getting done, you are losing money and it’s time to revisit hiring practices.
   1. Assess current role descriptions, requirements, and opportunities to remove internal barriers to hiring, need for deeper onboarding, and existent technical documentation to support hiring.
   2. Take a look at your current headcount and business needs to identify places where apprenticeship might be added as a prong in your talent development strategies.
4. Connect with Apprenti to partner on tech apprenticeships that provide a loyal, stable workforce eager to learn, grow, and deliver on KPIs.
5. Bring on professional apprentices who are as committed to growing your business as you!

Tapping into talent is a growth industry. Grow your business by growing the people in it—and perhaps add a few new faces via apprenticeship to see the ROI of talent development in action.

Meet the Authors

Evelyn Van Til is a culture architect active in designing and delivering innovation in hiring tech talent. She is currently a Strategic Partnership Manager at American Student Assistance (ASA). She previously served as the National Apprentice Experience Program Manager at Apprenti where she delivered 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, Evelyn 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.

American Student Assistance is a national nonprofit changing the way middle and high schoolers learn about careers and navigate education-to-career opportunities.

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.