Elkhart County is at the forefront of a movement slowly spreading across Indiana and the nation to make apprenticeships a common offering in high school.
In April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order calling for the creation of 1 million new apprentices, the latest step in a bipartisan push for apprenticeships that began during the Obama administration. The “earn and learn” model is taking hold in more than 30 states alongside growing disillusionment with the concept of the four-year college and the fact that well-paying jobs that don’t require bachelor’s degrees are going unfilled nationally.
But in the United States, the number of apprenticeships for high-schoolers is still tiny, just over one-tenth of a percent of students, according to an estimate by the think tank New America.
In contrast, 70% of high school students in Switzerland--often held out as a model for such training schemes--participate in these programs.
What I want to highlight here is the recognition that rural locations pose natural limits to these programs.
Transportation has been a limiting factor, too. There’s no public transit system, and students who can’t rely on their parents for rides are often out of luck. “We’d love to offer a bus to every kid, to every location, but we don’t have people to run those extra bus routes,” [said a high school principal in Elkhart County].
I also appreciate this comment--not rural specific--from the woman who oversees college and career programs at one Elkhart high school:
apprenticeships help convince students of the importance of habits such as punctuality, clear communication and regular attendance. “It’s not from a book,” she said. “They’re dealing with real life.”
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