Apprenticeship Guide

What is an Apprenticeship?

Apprenticeship is a career preparation activity designed to prepare an individual—generally a high school graduate—for careers, traditionally in the skilled crafts and trades. Apprenticeships consist of paid, on-the-job training supplemented by related classroom instruction. Apprenticeship training usually requires one to five years to complete, depending on which occupation is chosen, and results in the apprentice earning a portable, industry recognized credential.

State and federal registered apprenticeship programs are work-based education partnerships between industry, labor, education and government. Apprenticeship is industry driven and provides an effective balance between on-the-job training and classroom/laboratory instruction needed to develop marketable knowledge and skills in one of the 25,000+ programs sponsored nationally. There is a broad span of occupations from low tech to high tech in fields including medical, trades, crafts and technology.

Apprenticeships can be in almost any occupation in which an employer wants to have thoroughly knowledgeable and skilled employees who desire to climb the career ladder via the earn and learn apprenticeship model. In fact, over the past several years many apprenticeship programs outside the traditional crafts and trades have emerged.

For a list of apprenticeable occupations in your area from the State of California Department of Industrial Relations, please click the following link: https://www.dir.ca.gov/databases/das/pwaddrstart.asp.

Registered apprenticeships ensure quality learning by combining on-the-job training with theoretical and practical classroom instructions to prepare exceptional workers. Classroom and laboratory instruction is required in all registered apprenticeship programs. This factsheet focuses on the registered apprenticeship programs wherein the apprentice is trained, paid and receives benefits according to state and federal apprenticeship standards.

Apprenticeships Are Designed To Promote:

• Competence in industry-based skill standards and the ability to obtain a meaningful job that provides a family with a sustainable wage and benefits package.
• Portability across the United States, allowing a journeyman certificate to be fully recognized by employers.
• Advancement on the career ladder into positions in supervision, management and company ownership.

Registered Apprenticeship Key Elements:

• Employer involvement. The employer hires and trains the apprentice at the workplace, using a curriculum and standards customized to the employer’s work processes.
• Structured on-the-job learning. The apprentice learns by doing, with support from their supervisor or other workplace mentor.
• Related instruction. Courses, typically held in a classroom (often at a community college), or increasingly online, complement the applied work experience.
• Rewards for skills gains. Apprentices earn wages from day one. The more they learn, the more they earn.
• National occupational credential. Apprentices receive a nationally recognized credential or certificate once they complete the program

The terms “apprenticeship” and “apprentices” refer to those programs and individuals registered as approved by individual state standards or the United States Department of Labor’s Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training. Registered apprentices fall into two categories of time spent each year in on-the-job training, part-time and full-time as follows.