Wisconsin Sets Record High for Number of People in the State's Registered Apprenticeship Program

Friday, December 6th, 2024 -- 10:00 AM

(Joe Schulz, Wisconsin Public Radio) For the third straight year, Wisconsin set a record-high for the number of people enrolled in the state’s Registered Apprenticeship Program.

According to Joe Schulz with Wisconsin Public Radio, during “National Apprenticeship Week” in November, Gov. Tony Evers announced the state had 17,089 enrolled apprentices, setting an all-time record.

The state also had record-high participation in the century-old program the previous two years. In a statement, Evers attributed the record number of registered apprentices to efforts to expand apprenticeship pathways and reduce barriers to work.

Wisconsin became the first state in the country to have a registered apprenticeship program in 1911. The program aims to combine on-the-job training with classroom instruction, and requires participating employers to pay apprentices for their time in class and working.

The program offers more than 200 apprenticeship occupations with over 2,600 employers in traditional fields like construction and the trades, as well as in fields like health care, teaching, child care, information technology and finance.

To showcase the program’s expansion into new fields, Evers and state Department of Workforce Development Secretary Amy Pechacek held a roundtable discussion and signing ceremony at Brookfield Elementary School in November with the first group of teacher apprentices.

“We are laser-focused on the Wisconsin Apprenticeship’s continued growth and what it offers both workers and employers in the modern economy,” Pechacek said in a statement.

“The continued record-breaking success relies on partnerships throughout the state.” David Polk, the director of DWD’s Bureau of Apprenticeship Standards, told WPR the program has been bolstered by young adults increasingly scrutinizing the value of a four-year college degree.

For those students, he said apprenticeship is a “very appetizing choice” that allows them to “earn while they learn on the job.” “It provides a very, very succinct pathway,” he said. “You’re not pathwaying into a job, you’re pathwaying into a long-term career.”

Polk also said participating employers are making an investment in apprentices because it helps them retain workers better than waiting for people to finish a specific degree or certificate program where a company would be competing with other employers.

“We’ve seen more employers committed to making that investment in their workforce because, outside of learning a skill set, an apprentice is also learning that specific company’s culture, what they do very specifically in their workplace,” he said. “The fruits of retention for apprenticeship far outweighs other models.”

He also said the apprenticeship program helps address Wisconsin’s labor shortage, there have been more job openings than people on unemployment in the state since 2021, because it allows employers to find talent faster.

“Now you’re not waiting three, four or five years for an individual to finally finish their studies and then be ready to come into your workplace,” Polk said. “Even when they do that, you have this new individual that is skilled but has to learn your workplace culture.”

In May, DWD announced that Wisconsin had a record high number of youth apprentices during the 2023-24 school year, with 9,932 youth apprentices and 6,671 employers participating in the state’s youth apprenticeship program.

While both programs have been successful in recent years, Polk said there’s still room to grow the registered apprenticeship program. He said there are a lot more occupations that the program could expand into.

“We are very, very happy with the broken record, but we would love to break more,” Polk said. “Widening the occupations served by registered apprenticeship would definitely be one of the priorities to continually expand Wisconsin apprenticeship.”

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