Why make apprenticeship simpler? Part 1: A multipart agreement

As I recently wrote when explaining why we do not call ourselves an apprenticeship management system, WorkHands focus is 100% on how to make apprenticeship simpler.

But, why? Why do we assume that apprenticeship needs to be simpler? Let's explore this in our next few posts.

A three way agreement

To start, apprenticeship is inherently complicated.

Harry Leech of Apprenticeships for America makes this point clear in his Making Apprenticeship Simpler interview when he talks about how apprenticeship is an investment to meet many different parties needs.

Even if you did everything that could possibly be done to simplify apprenticeships, it'll still be somewhat complicated.

Why is that? Apprenticeship is very often an agreement between three parties -- an employer, an education provider, and an individual apprentice.

The employer

Ultimately, the employer in question wants to grow their business. To do so, they need people and simply cannot find them, or, they know they wont be able to find them reliably if they don't invest in making those employees, themselves.

As a result, the employer turns to apprenticeship to solve their hiring problem. They need an individual. However, they're also a customer for training.

Whether that employer runs their own training center, works with a local community or technical college, or purchases online content, it's highly unlikely they are the authors of the training material. Even if an employer finds content they need, they then need to make sure its in a format that works. Can they teach classes at night? Or online? Is the training center or school even remotely close to the location?

Right off the bat, the employer has two needs -- employing an individual and purchasing training materials that fit their needs in order to do so. If they're to use funds towards this, they're going to want a return on that investment, too.

The educational institution

The educational institution could be the employer with their own training center, but it's often a private training center, a union training center, a community or technical college, a content provider, or an online learning management system.

Regardless of the institution, the educational organization wants to be paid for their training. This could be a direct fee to the employer for content, or it could be from government reimbursement for putting people into classes at a local community college. The end result is the same. Butts in seats -- real, virtual, or otherwise -- matters.

To do that, the educational institutions need the employers. They need validation that their content is worthwhile. They might need donated equipment. They might need the employer on an industry board. Their content, if it's to be relevant, needs to constantly evolve or they wont get those butts in seats, nor the funding that goes with it.

They also need shining examples, students, of their relevance. They need success stories and satisfied customers who can speak to how their training helped the individual advance.

The apprentice

Finally, we have the apprentice to tie it all together. The apprentice needs a career. They need direction. They need to pay their bills.

The apprentice is looking for an employer, or any path, really, that will help them accomplish those goals.

In exchange, the apprentice gives their time for night classes. The apprentice works for a fraction of what they expect to make later on to justify the investment in their not-quite-ready selves. The apprentice gives their attention to learning the employers' business, their way of doing things.

Bonus: unions, associations, certifiers

To top it all off, those aren't the only players in this agreement.

Many apprentices are in union programs. They may run the apprenticeship through their training center, but they're typically a slightly different entity. In this case, the apprenticeship is run by the union training center but overseen by a joint training committee comprised of labor, employers, and educational institutions.

Many employers are in heavily regulated industries. They're going to have a say in what passes for suitable training. These certifiers, or regulators, help standardize and license training for positions ranging from utility workers to medical assistants to ensure, regardless of apprenticeship, that someone in the field is qualified to be so.

Many employers participate in associations. All of this is a lot to manage so they may have an association that helps drive suggested content, providers, etc.

Win-win-win

All of which is to say, the coordination amongst different needs and wants is complicated before a single boot hits the ground.

Before you've layered in a single bit of regulation or bureaucracy, before you've started to define all of these things, before you've figured out how to measure all of these things, it's complicated.

Three-way, or multi-part, agreements are not common for a reason. When it works, however, it's the rare a win-win-win.