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The brief develops a typology of five different models of youth apprenticeship expansion used by Youth Apprenticeship Readiness Grants (YARG) grantees across their registered apprenticeship programs. The typology is based on information collected from the YARG grantee applications, follow-up clarification calls with grantees, and the grantees’ quarterly narrative reports to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The models are not proscriptive templates for individual registered apprenticeship program standards. Instead, they describe different strategies for organizing partners, training, and services to expand youth apprenticeship.

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Key Takeaways

The following key takeaways emerged from the analysis and can inform future efforts:

• Secondary school-based registered apprenticeship model. Registered apprenticeship programs are sponsored by or organized around secondary schools, including secondary career and technical education programs that provide career-specific academic and technical instruction. These programs target students ages 16 through 18 years of age.
• Postsecondary school–based registered apprenticeship model. Registered apprenticeship programs are sponsored by or organized around colleges or universities and targeted 19 to 24 year olds.
• Intermediary model. An organization called an intermediary supports registered apprenticeship programs by assisting in program design, coordinating partners, providing program supports, and in some cases, sponsoring a registered apprenticeship program.
• Regionally coordinated registered apprenticeship model. An organization or group of organizations are charged with expanding registered apprenticeship and coordinating partners in a specific region around regional assets and resources.
• Youth-supporting mixed-age registered apprenticeship model. Registered apprenticeship programs that normally register adults (age 25 and older) are supported to be more inclusive of youth apprentices (age 16 to 24).

The five models do not encompass an exhaustive typology of the YARG grantees’ activities in expanding youth apprenticeship, nor are the models mutually exclusive. An individual YARG grantee might implement several of these models as a part of its grant activities, depending on its partners and the needs of the registered apprenticeship programs it supports.

The analysis suggests three primary program features for understanding the apprenticeship expansion models implemented by the grantees:

• Youth populations that grant projects and registered apprenticeship programs serve, particularly whether youth are younger (ages 16 to 18) or older (ages 19 to 24), whether they are in school or out of school at the time they are registered, and from a population traditionally underserved or underrepresented in the apprenticeship system, such as women, racial and ethnic minorities, and people with disabilities.
• Registered apprenticeship program sponsor and the role of the grantee. A program sponsor is responsible for operating registered apprenticeship programs. Employers often serve as program sponsors, but schools and colleges, intermediary organizations, joint labor-management organizations, and YARG grantees can also serve as sponsors.
• Educational partner and its role in the grant project. All YARG grantees must have an educational partner to provide related technical instruction (RTI), or off-the-job classroom-based training, for the youth registered apprentices. Some educational partners only provide RTI, while others serve larger partner and service coordination roles for registered apprenticeship programs.

Citation

Payne, P., Kuehn, D. (2023). Urban Institute. Models of Youth Registered Apprenticeship Expansion: Evidence from the Youth Apprenticeship Readiness Grants. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.