Job-Ready IT Talent

A new partnership seeks to take the risk out of IT apprenticeships to encourage corporations to foot the bill. Also, a workforce platform for companies and governments that connects jobseekers with apprenticeships and training, and an essay on how student loan limits could worsen the healthcare workforce crisis. (Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Subscribe here.)

Hiding the Wiring on Apprenticeship

Registered apprenticeship is growing slowly in the U.S., with recent expansions into tech and healthcare. Yet despite sunny rhetoric about the earn-and-learn model, federal funding remains flat while employer support is tepid.

Advocates continue to be hopeful that Republicans in Washington will put new money into apprenticeship. But a White House nudge for a nonbinding pledge from employers seems more likely for now. And previous administrations didn’t move the needle much with that approach.

“The administration wants the employers to do their part,” says Michelle Sims, CEO of YUPRO Placement. “But employers don’t want to do that—right now running lean is in.”

Sims thinks the staffing industry could help companies take the plunge with IT apprenticeships. 

YUPRO is a skills-first placement firm owned by the nonprofit Year Up United. The public benefit corporation has partnered with Franklin Skills, an established apprenticeship and workforce training intermediary. Their new turnkey, contract-to-hire apprenticeship program seeks to derisk hiring for roles in data analytics, mainframe, networking, and project management.

Dubbed SKILLSFIT, the approach is aimed at large corporations, particularly in finance. And it’s designed for companies that don’t expect to see federal grant money for their apprenticeships. Even if they do, Sims says funding funneled through WIOA and state government often takes months to get to employers.

The new program seeks to offer immediate benefits to employers, with apprentices on contract as YUPRO employees, earning wages while working and learning. “We are fronting the payroll,” says Sims. 

YUPRO also handles hiring and compliance, while Franklin Skills conducts a career-fit assessment with candidates followed by 100 hours of preplacement training for apprentices. When participants complete the full apprenticeship program, which lasts either 26 or 52 weeks, employers can convert them to full-time workers.

Franklin Skills has been a key partner for IBM in its “new-collar” apprenticeship programs, including ones for mainframe system administrators. Demand for mainframe skills is high, particularly across the banking and data center industries.

Despite serious skills gaps across tech roles, apprenticeship remains a tough sell, says Kimberly Nichols, the founder and CEO of Franklin Skills. To get past the risk aversion of employers, she says apprenticeship intermediaries must make the process as frictionless as possible by handling all the administrative work and delivering pre-vetted, job-ready talent.

“We call it ‘hiding the wiring,’” says Nichols.

A big part of the partnership’s workforce strategy is the sourcing by YUPRO, which offers a talent marketplace of 200K skilled job candidates, most of them without degrees. Those potential workers have participated in the Year Up program or job training through YUPRO’s 50+ other nonprofit provider partners.

The all-in cost to an employer for a mainframe apprenticeship through the new partnership is $100K, says Sims, including wages. That’s roughly 25% less than a company typically would spend to fill that role.

Nichols is confident that their solution for registered apprenticeship can work at scale.

The Kicker: “The sustainable model is getting the employer to pay,” she says. “Once they try it, they love it.”

Operating System for the Labor Market

BuildWithin is a workforce platform that got its start as a tech company focused on grassroots advocacy that was running its own apprenticeships. The company pivoted four years ago to fill what it saw as a gap in the talent platform space.

These days, BuildWithin works with employers and workforce agencies to match jobseekers with apprenticeships as well as jobs, internships, and short-term training programs. It also manages intake and eligibility checks for training through the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

The company is focused on tech and tech-adjacent workforce development and recently secured approval from the U.S. Department of Labor for AI-related registered apprenticeship occupations, including AI data annotator, machine learning curator, and prompt engineer.

Ximena Gates Hartsock, the company’s CEO and co-founder, describes BuildWithin as an operating system for today’s labor market: “Apprenticeships are the wedge, but the category is workforce modernization itself.”

United Airlines uses the platform to run its tech apprenticeships, with BuildWithin serving both as a tech platform and as the apprenticeship intermediary. Other clients include Predict Health, a Virginia-based health-tech company, and the Electric Power Board of Chattanooga, an internet and energy company.

“Apprenticeships aren’t just for Fortune 500 companies,” says Gates Hartsock. “They’re a competitive advantage for emerging business, too.” 

For an example on the government front, BuildWithin works with D.C.’s Department of Labor. The city’s residents can apply through the platform—which serves as a single system of record—to get matched to jobs, apprenticeships, free training programs, and college fellowships. For example, through BuildWithin’s partnership with ServiceNow, a large software company, D.C. residents have been hired as specialized ServiceNow administrators.

The company also connects apprenticeship providers and participants with the educational content required for registered apprenticeships. Community colleges and universities offer BuildWithin’s approved technical instruction, as do associations like the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

“Jobs are changing fast and will continue to change,” Gates Hartsock says. “Because we are a technology company building software ourselves, we understand how apprenticeship can prepare someone to be competent in these evolving roles.”

Open Tabs

Academic Preparation
Average test scores declined from 2019 to 2024 for U.S. eighth graders in science and 12th graders in mathematics and reading, according the U.S. Department of Education. The first post-pandemic results for each assessment from the National Assessment of Educational Progress were sobering, a department official said, noting historically low scores for high school seniors on math and reading. The NAEP also described a substantial rise in absenteeism in the pandemic’s wake.

Career Readiness
The entry-level job market has tightened significantly, with 76% of employers reporting flat hiring or fewer entry-level roles, finds an annual report from Cengage. Respondents say AI adoption is contributing to the decline. Employers are reviving college degree requirements in hiring. However, they also are increasingly questioning the value of degrees, signaling that the requirement shift may be due to hiring power being back in employers’ favor.

AI Skills
OpenAI announced that it is building a jobs platform with a focus on AI-related skills, with several major partner organizations signing on. The platform will have a dedicated track for smaller, local businesses and governments to compete for talent. OpenAI also is expanding its academy—a free online learning platform—to offer certifications for different levels of AI fluency. The company said its certs will be grounded in the needs of employers.

Digital Wallets
All 588K students and alumni of Western Governors University now can access a digital learning and employment record. The online university’s WGU Achievement Wallet tracks learning, military service, volunteer work, and more. Students can explore careers with it and generate a résumé highlighting skills and credentials that can be shared with employers. The platform is based on technology developed by iQ4 and in partnership with iDatafy, Credential Engine, and a broad coalition of leaders.

Outcomes-Based Financing
The Republican domestic policy bill’s reforms to federal student loans will trigger a shift to the private lending market, writes Ethan Pollack, a senior director at Jobs for the Future. But available private loans typically feature fixed payments and high interest rates while lacking income-based protections. Outcomes-based financing models can be a better private option, he says, calling for clarity and strengthening of their tax and regulatory treatment.

Corps Jobs and Careers
Service and conservation corps programs offer young Americans valuable work experience and on-the-job training, write researchers at the Brookings Institution. Their analysis found that 13M total workers are employed across 81 corps-related occupations, comprising about 8% of all U.S. workers. The roles typically pay well, although many younger workers have lower wages. About half of the corps-related workforce has a high school diploma or less.

Nondegree Credentials
Two of the primary institutional accrediting agencies in the U.S. are gearing up to oversee noncredit and short-term credential programs, Sara Weissman reports for Inside Higher Ed. The New England Commission of Higher Education plans to launch a recognition process for noncredit providers and a quality endorsement for noncredit programs at traditional colleges. The Higher Learning Commission plans to soon begin reviewing microcredential providers.

Job Moves
Shad Ahmed has been hired as the economic mobility lead for Anthropic. Ahmed until April was a senior adviser at Opportunity@Work, where he previously served as COO, among other roles.

Zach Boren has been hired as senior vice president for policy and government relations at Apprenticeships for America. A former official at the U.S. Department of Labor, Boren also has been a senior fellow at the Urban Institute.

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