Strahlende Klassenzimmer und verschiedene Sportteams gehören zu der Berufsschule einer großen amerikanischen Marinewerft. Eine Ausbildung dort hat wenig Ähnlichkeit mit einem traditionellen Berufsbildungsprogramm in den USA. Und genau das ist der Weg zum Erfolg, so der Autor des Artikels in der New York Times.
A New Look at Apprenticeships as a Path to the Middle Class
With its gleaming classrooms, sports teams and even a pep squad, the
Apprentice School that serves the enormous Navy shipyard here bears little
resemblance to a traditional vocational education program.
And
that is exactly the point. While the cheerleaders may double as trainee pipe
fitters, electricians and insulators, on weekends they’re no different from
college students anywhere as they shout for the Apprentice School Builders on
the sidelines.
But instead of accumulating tens of thousands of
dollars in student debt, Apprentice School students are paid an annual salary of
54,000 dollar by the final year of the four-year program, and upon graduation
are guaranteed a job with Huntington Ingalls Industries, the military contractor
that owns Newport News Shipbuilding.
"There's a hunger among
young people for good, well-paying jobs that don't require an expensive
four-year degree," said Sarah Steinberg, vice president for global philanthropy
at JPMorgan Chase. "The Apprentice School is the gold standard of what a
high-quality apprenticeship program can be."
Long regarded by
parents, students and many educators as an off ramp from the college track,
apprenticeships are getting a fresh look in many quarters. The idea has recently
captured the attention of several presidential candidates from both parties,
with employer-oriented apprentice programs increasingly seen as a way to appeal
to anxious Americans looking for an alternative route to a secure middle-income
job.
Last month, Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed a plan that
would offer companies a 1,500 dollar tax credit for each apprenticeship slot
they fill. And in a speech laying out his economic plan on Tuesday, Senator
Marco Rubio of Florida, a Republican primary contender, vowed to expand
apprenticeships and vocational training if he makes it to the White
House.
Wisconsin's Republican governor, Scott Walker, who
formally entered the presidential primary race on Monday, has promoted
apprenticeships in his state and increased funding for them even as he has cut
aid to Wisconsin's vaunted university system.
"We know this
works," said Thomas E. Perez, the labor secretary, describing how big companies
have long trained young people in Germany, which has 40 apprentices per 1,000
workers, compared to about three per 1,000 in the United States. "It's not hard
to figure out why the Germans have a youth unemployment rate that is half what
it is here."
But there is a downside to the innovative approach
used at the Apprentice School in combining skills-based education, a
college-like experience and a virtually free ride for its nearly 800 students
(even class rings and textbooks are covered): This approach has been rarely
duplicated elsewhere.
Despite prominent mentions by President
Obama in several State of the Union addresses and bipartisan support in
Congress, apprenticeship programs have struggled to gain a foothold among
employers.
Furthermore, the programs were devastated by the sharp
losses in manufacturing and construction jobs that started with the last
recession.
Between 2007 and 2013, the number of active
apprentices in the United States fell by over one-third, from about 451,000 to
just under 288,000, according to Labor Department data. In 2014, that number
increased for the first time since the recession, rising by 27,000.
Now, Mr. Perez has set a goal of doubling
enrollment by 2018.
In late June, he traveled to North Carolina,
where he was joined by two local Republican members of Congress, to spotlight
Washington’s efforts to expand apprenticeships, including 100 million Dollar in
new grants to be awarded this autumn.
In Mooresville, touring the
factory floor and giving a speech at Ameritech Die & Mold, which has teamed
with local high schools and a nearby community college to recruit and train its
apprentices, Mr. Perez said what was needed was not simply more government
financing or new private-sector programs.
"At the educational
level, we need a comprehensive strategy to change the hearts and minds of
parents," Perez told the audience, which included several parents of
current Ameritech apprentices. "There are highly selective, four-year colleges
that are easier to get into than many apprenticeship programs."
The Apprentice School gets more than 4,000 applicants for about 230 spots
annually, giving it an admission rate about equivalent to that of
Harvard.
Perhaps the greatest reason that students and their
parents are showing more interest in apprenticeships is the financial equation.
While the typical graduate from a four-year private college in 2014 left campus
with a debt load of 31,000 dollar and started work earning about 45,000 Dollar a
year, Apprentice School students emerge debt free and can make nearly 10,000
Dollar more in their first job.
Other programs are equally
promising. For Ameritech workers like Shane Harmon, who completed an
apprenticeship there in 2012 and earned an associate degree at Central Piedmont
Community College as part of the program, a middle-class lifestyle is already
within reach.
Many of his high school friends who have graduated
from college are back home living with their parents, Mr. Harmon said. By
contrast, at age 23, he already owns a home, has no student debt and is paid 18
Dollar an hour.
"I didn't want to sit in a classroom for four
years, not knowing if I'd have a job," he said. "I'm a hands-on guy."
The trade-offs between college and an apprenticeship inevitably raise one of
the thorniest educational and economic issues today: Who should or should not go
to college.
When the former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, a
Republican presidential contender in 2012 who has begun a long-shot campaign
again, brought up the question during his last primary bid, he was mocked in
some quarters.
And economic data clearly shows that most holders
of bachelor's degrees will earn far more over the course of their working lives
than typical high school graduates with technical training, and more than
recipients of associate’s degrees.
But that's not the real issue
for many young people, said Mike Petters, chief executive of Huntington Ingalls,
which owns and financially supports the Apprentice School.
"If
you're in the two-thirds of Americans that don't have a college degree, how do
you feel if someone says to be a success, you have to have it?" Petters said.
"It shouldn't be a requirement for a middle-class life. We have people in our
organization who don’t and are great, who’ve raised families and had great
lives."
It is not necessarily an either-or proposition, according
to the director of the Apprentice School, Everett Jordan. A new partnership
between the Apprentice School and Old Dominion University in nearby Norfolk,
Va., allows apprentices to earn a bachelor's degree in five to eight years, paid
for by Huntington Ingalls.
Mr. Jordan,
himself a 1977 graduate of the Apprentice School, notes that other alumni have
gone on to earn degrees in medicine, business and other fields, or served as top
executives at Huntington Ingalls. Of the current crop, he estimates about 85
percent will eventually take on more senior salaried positions at the
company.
But however much Mr. Everett
and other administrators try to make the Apprentice School resemble a
traditional college, its connection to a military contractor means that in some
ways it resembles a top military academy like West Point more than a typical
university. For many people, that is a plus.
For example,
students receive training in dining etiquette, how to buy a house and how to
prepare for job interviews.
Similarly, having a dedicated
customer with very deep pockets - the Pentagon - enables Huntington
Ingalls to cover the 270,000 Dollar cost of training each apprentice.
"The skilled worker is a public good," said Petters, who occasionally sounds
more like Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City and other liberal politicians
than an otherwise conservative corporate executive. "Do you give kids swimming
lessons or do you take them and throw them off the end of pier and see if they
can swim? We believe in swimming lessons."
He added: "The
Apprentice School has been and will forever be the centerpiece of what we do
here. I know there's a red-state view and a blue-state view. This is a
shipbuilder’s view."