(TriceEdneyWire.com)—Over the last decades, many American inner cities have seen an economic resurgence. Buoyed by millennials and people’s desire to shorten their daily work commute, neighborhoods and communities that were all but pronounced dead two decades ago now find themselves flush with new businesses and residents.
This is no more evident than here in the District of Columbia, where the economic recovery of the city has been nothing short of breathtaking. However, as many have noted, this growth has not been equally beneficial to all residents.
While policymakers and advocates search for answers and solutions to this problem, there is one time-tested and proven tool that should be a key part of any workforce development strategy-apprenticeships.
Introduced in the 14th century, apprenticeships combine on-the-job training with classroom instruction, teaching workers the practical and theoretical aspects of highly-skilled occupations. Apprenticeship programs can be sponsored by employers, labor groups, or employer associations.
Traditional apprenticeship programs have been primarily relegated to labor fields, such as carpentry or pipefitting, but there are a growing number of companies offering them in high skill/high wage fields, such as IT and engineering.
While we understand that the wage and employment gaps cannot be completely closed until the educational and systematic inequalities in this country are addressed, strong apprenticeship programs can help bridge the gap between the shortcoming of our education system and job readiness for high wage sectors.
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