Apprenticeships: A Pipeline to Prosperity

“A well-educated workforce builds the foundation for shared economic prosperity.”

— Noah Berger and Peter Fisher;

Economic Analysis and Research Network

Report: A Well-Educated Workforce is Key to State Prosperity (August 22, 2013)

A Pipeline to Prosperity

EARN WHILE YOU LEARN WITH APPRENTICESHIPS

Since its inception in August 2020, College of Lake County’s apprenticeship program created new pathways to student success by combining career-related classroom instruction with on-the-job training guided by a mentor. It’s a win-win situation: student apprentices earn while they learn and get a jumpstart on their chosen careers while local employers gain access to a custom-trained workforce.

CLC’s new student apprentices are a diverse group: • Darrell Berg, a 59-year-old Navy veteran and former computer programmer, is apprenticing with Aon to find a pathway back to corporate America after a decade of semi-retirement.

• Olivia Peterson (pictured above), a 28-year-old with master’s degrees in music and library science, is preparing for a new career in auto collision repair after she experienced a dearth of opportunities in the music field and her prospects for a second career as a librarian dimmed during the pandemic.

• Jesse Navarro, a 44-year-old former factory worker, is apprenticing at Leppala

Machining to get the specialized skills he needs to program and operate advanced manufacturing equipment.

Their circumstances and career interests couldn’t be more different. But their apprenticeship experiences have one thing in common: they’ve been life changing.

“I never thought I’d be returning to corporate America—and, by the time I realized I might have to, it would have been difficult to follow a traditional pathway,” says Berg. “This apprenticeship program was the answer for me. It’s not just for students coming out of high school. It’s for everyone.”

Peterson wanted to forge a career in a field where women were underrepresented.

“I read a story about a woman who, like me, was educated in a different field but really wanted to expand opportunities for women,” she says. “She decided to start a new career as a mechanic, opened her own shop and now employs an all-female staff of mechanics. I was so inspired by that. Then I received a brochure about College of Lake County’s apprenticeship programs in the mail. When I opened it, there was a photo of a young woman buffing a classic car, with copy that read: ‘Come join one of our apprenticeship programs.’ I was sold! I’m having so much fun now—and I’m finally in a situation where I can say, ‘I just want to be at work.’” After 26 years of general factory jobs, Navarro’s apprenticeship experience has inspired him to dream bigger.

“Right now, my main goal is to finish the apprenticeship program,” he confides. “But after that I may get into some form of engineering— robotics and automation or aerospace. Or maybe I’ll run my own shop.”

The seeds of CLC’s apprenticeship program were planted in 2017 during the college’s strategic visioning process.

“We wanted to remove barriers to student success by developing an apprenticeship program that would reduce the cost and time involved in getting a college degree while equipping students with skills that were aligned with marketplace needs,” says Vice President of Community and Workforce Partnerships Dr. Ali O’Brien. “We also wanted to create a more robust workforce pipeline by preparing students to fill positions in need of qualified applicants as baby boomers reached retirement age and manufacturing continued to expand in Lake County.”

“The data coming in at the county and national level indicated apprenticeships were a successful way for employers to fill their talent pipeline and increase their retention rates,” she adds. “So, we reached out to local businesses and corporations to gauge their interest in partnering with us and to determine their specific industry needs, which became the main drivers of our program design.”

Meanwhile, O’Brien and her team were making good on another strategic objective: the establishment of the college’s new Community

94%+

Percentage of apprentices who retain employment after apprenticeship completion

$1.47

Employer return on every dollar invested in apprenticeships

$70K

Average starting salary for students who have completed apprentice programs

$300K+

Lifetime earning average for apprentice graduates

Sources: apprenticeship.gov and nationalapprenticeship.org

and Workforce Partnerships Unit (CWP)—which has a multifaceted mission and resources that range from the James Lumber Center for the Performing Arts to a Workforce and Professional Development Institute and a Career and Job Placement Center.

COMMUNITY AND WORKFORCE PARTNERSHIPS

The CWP unit was part of a broader effort to position the college as a hub for education, culture and workforce prosperity. “It was conceived,” says O’Brien, “to bring the college, community organizations and local employers together to achieve that goal.”

With this new infrastructure in place, the team forged ahead with program development. “We built workforce relationships, gathered commitments from employers, hosted information sessions for current and prospective students, talked to local workforce boards and contacted community organizations to spread the word about the program,” recalls Dr. Sylvia Johnson Jones, executive director of the CWP’s Career and Job Placement Center. “We also worked closely with CLC faculty members and apprentice employers to strengthen the academic components of the apprenticeships and ensure what was taught in the classroom was relevant in the workplace.”

The first workforce partners to commit to the program were as diverse as the apprentices they hired.

“We have everything from a mom-and-pop machine shop with four employees to global corporations,” says Apprenticeship Manager Daniel Ortego. “Aon, which has made a national commitment to growing its apprenticeship program, was the first to partner with us. Ten other workforce partners signed after that, enabling us to offer apprenticeships in five fields of interest: automotive, business, horticulture, manufacturing and information technology.”

By August 2020, the program was in full swing, with 21 apprentices ranging in age from 18 to 59 pursuing new educational and career opportunities in specialties running the gamut from automation, robotics and mechatronics to cybersecurity and landscape design.

In March 2021, the program got another boost. Manufacturing x Digital (MxD)—which equips U.S. factories with digital tools and expertise and leads cybersecurity and workforce development efforts to ensure that digital manufacturing has the security and talent it needs to be effectively deployed—collaborated with CLC to financially support the manufacturing apprenticeship program.

GRANT-FUNDED APPRENTICESHIPS

With a $244,000 grant that originated from the Siemens Foundation, MxD is now partnering with the college to help close the digital skills gap in the Lake County area by aligning workforce training with market needs through CLC apprenticeships. The grant will cover tuition fees and some living expenses for students enrolled in automation, robotics and mechatronics and computerized numeric control apprenticeship programs. A portion of the funding also will be used to integrate cybersecurity into the college’s curriculum to support the development of a local workforce equipped to handle cybersecurity threats in manufacturing settings. Because it removes many of the traditional barriers to degree completion and career advancement, apprenticeships have been a saving grace for the students in our first cohort.

Max Lehman, a 30-year-old CLC apprentice at Siemens in Buffalo Grove, is a case in point. Lehman was previously working full-time as a waiter and trying to squeeze in a class or two as he pursued an associate degree in automation, robotics and mechatronics. He was serious about his education, but life kept getting in the way.

Now he’s working in his chosen field and earning a salary with benefits while making steady progress toward his degree as a full-time student. His educational expenses are fully paid, and he receives a stipend to help with living expenses such as rent, transportation and work clothing. “I feel way more confident about my future now because I’m earning a degree while gaining a skill set that’s in high demand,” says Lehman. “In a little over a year, I’ll graduate with zero debt and a full-time job at one of the top companies in the country.”