Youth apprenticeship initiatives

Youth apprenticeship programs provide high school students with professional opportunities that combine academic and on-the-job training and mentorship. Apprenticeships include classroom-based vocational education in a high school or technical college setting that is related to paid on-the-job work and connects participants to instructors who also act as mentors. Youth apprenticeships are offered in a variety of fields. Training requirements and applicable government or industry-recognized standards vary by field^{1, 2}. Most formalized apprenticeships in the United States serve adults who have graduated from high school, often through Registered Apprenticeship programs³. 

• Increased employability

• Improved social emotional skills

Youth apprenticeship programs are a suggested strategy to increase employment and gain employment skills^{4, 5, 6}, particularly for disconnected youth⁷. Assessments of apprenticeship-like programs for high risk juvenile offenders suggest increases in youth employment and GED attendance⁸. After school apprenticeship-like programs that introduce disadvantaged high school students to trades or other careers may improve social and emotional development⁹, and promote alternatives to violence and paths out of poverty¹. Countries with strong apprenticeship programs have lower youth unemployment rates than countries without strong programs⁶, and participation in Registered Apprenticeships appears to lead to increases in lifetime earnings^{7, 10}. However, additional evidence is needed to confirm effects of youth apprenticeship programs.

A few states have formalized youth apprenticeship programs; Georgia and Wisconsin, for example, have had programs in place for 16- to 19-year-olds¹¹ since the mid-1990s². As of a 2013 report, only 0.3% of the United States workforce participated in adult or youth apprenticeship programs¹².