How expanding apprenticeships can fuel economic recovery

In the past five months, we have faced a pandemic, record unemployment and nationwide protests over the killing of George Floyd that have laid acutely bare ongoing systemic racism. Yet again, low-income Asian, Black and Latinx communities have been disproportionately hurt in this compounded crisis. Much uncertainty remains about how soon the economy will fully reopen and what jobs will remain when it does. What is certain is that we need to start now to ensure that workers hit hardest by the shutdown have a clear path back to the workforce.

Even in the best of times, in the words of Gov. Gavin Newsom, “for too many, our economic (success) has become a spectator sport.” As lieutenant governor, Newsom called for the creation of 500,000 “earn-andlearn apprenticeships” by 2029. As an upcoming report by the

Bay Area Council Economic Institute highlights, investing to scale up apprenticeship programs can be a game changer in getting displaced workers into new good-paying jobs, addressing structural racial inequities that have blindly hampered career advancement and restarting our economy.

Modern apprenticeships — more and more embraced in Silicon Valley and throughout California — are proving to be one of the best paths we have for those who have been systematically held back from advancing into high-skill, high-pay jobs. Most of California’s 4.9 million job losses have been in the leisure, hospitality and service-heavy sectors, but in some parts of the state, technology and financial jobs have actually grown. California doesn’t need to just get people back to work, it needs to get many into new lines of work, a very difficult task.

Studies have shown that apprenticeships are most often used by people reentering the workforce or making an earlystage career switch, including mothers returning to work, veterans and recently laid off workers. Armed with previous professional work experience, apprentices also have the “soft skills” that can make them more attractive to employers than candidates coming out of four-year colleges. Apprenticeships are a great choice for those with limited financial means to switch to careers in new innovative fields, such as the tech sector, manufacturing, health care and finance. This matters a lot, because these are the fields that are currently hiring and will only expand as the recovery sets in.

Apprenticeships are not new; in fact, they have been around for hundreds of years. They are most successful when set up as an “employer and training partner” relationship, with training partners including community colleges, nonprofit community-based organizations or boot camps. This allows the training partner to give baseline knowledge and skills, while allowing employers to quickly adapt the training they offer to keep pace with business and technology changes. Major Bay Area companies have shown increased interest in on-the-job learning models and are already taking on hundreds or perhaps thousands of apprentices each year. Retention rates of former apprentices have ranged from 76%-100%, according to the Economic Institute report.

These employer-led programs also remove barriers to entry by opening up positions to workers without college degrees. Apprenticeships allow a greater deal of customization on training, can decrease costs associated with recruitment, hiring and retention, and lead to a more diverse workforce.

While apprenticeships provide important benefits for workers and employers, they are not free. That’s why California should incentivize companies to create and expand apprenticeship programs with matching funding or through tax credits such as those offered by the California Competes program. California needs to invest in new ways of reconnecting the workforce with growing fields now or we will continue to see increasing disparities in unemployment rates, widening wealth gaps and limited economic mobility for the most vulnerable in the state.

Most of California’s 4.9 million job losses have been in the leisure, hospitality and service-heavy sectors, but in some parts of the state, technology and financial jobs have actually grown.