The rise of tech apprenticeships in the U.S.

The Biden administration recently launched an initiative to expand the Registered Apprenticeship Program with the Apprenticeship Building America grant program. The grant will make $113 million in funding available to approved programs and is aimed at diversifying and modernizing the U.S.'s apprenticeship programs — something many tech companies stand to benefit from amidst a persistent labor shortage.

Apprenticeships are traditionally associated with more manual trades, but there is rising interest in getting workers into tech roles through apprenticeships, rather than having to obtain certificates or a college degree.

• Apprenticeships can help diversify the talent pipeline in the tech industry. A recent report from the Kapor Center, in partnership with the NAACP, found that according to federal registered apprenticeship data, 17% of apprentices from 2016 to 2021 were Black.
• The programs have proven to be a stronger pipeline to the tech industry for Black workers in comparison to other avenues. In 2020, only 8% of bachelor's degrees conferred in computer science were earned by Black grads. And coding boot camps didn’t fare much better: 6% of coding boot camp participants identified as Black, according to the Kapor Center’s data.

Since Protocol began covering tech apprenticeships last year, companies like Multiverse have expanded in the market and joined partnerships with some of the largest tech companies in the country. Multiverse, an education platform that matches and trains workers in apprenticeship programs, was co-founded in the U.K. by Euan Blair, son of former Prime Minister Tony Blair. Last year, it made a splash after announcing its first U.S. tech partnership, a pilot apprenticeship program with Verizon.

Protocol caught up with Blair about his biggest learnings and takeaways in familiarizing the U.S. market with tech apprenticeships over the past year.

It takes a mindset shift. “We had similar challenges in the U.K., when we started, five [or] six years ago,” Blair said when asked what challenges Multiverse has had in trying to expand apprenticeship in the U.S. “You asked any person what they thought when they heard the word apprenticeship, they would say: blue collar job, manual trades, plumbing, electrical engineer — whatever it might be.”

The more large tech companies take on the programs, the more other organizations see it as a viable way to acquire and train talent. Though, Blair made clear, apprenticeships are not a replacement for boot camps or certificate programs. They’re operating in a different lane entirely:

• “If we take a step back and think about the ed tech landscape … you've got a series of companies that are doing good things. But there are many ways they're operating within the current system as it stands,” he said. “So they're making it faster and cheaper to go and acquire college degrees, or they're allowing more people to access similar types of learning by joining online. Nothing wrong with that at all, but we are explicitly not about augmenting or removing friction from the current system.”
• Instead, Multiverse is focused on what the world would look like if tech companies didn’t use the current traditional methods of screening and assessing people.

There’s a learning curve for all involved. It’s important corporate partners see this as a talent acquisition and retention play, said Blair. Many can misconstrue an apprenticeship as something akin to an internship, which tends to be more temporary, reliant on personal networks or structured around college attendance. 86% of the apprentices who complete an apprenticeship with Multiverse maintain long-term employment after the program, according to the company.

Last, apprenticeship programs are often introduced by CEOs and CTOs, but HR leaders play an important role in making sure the programs are successful.

• “We're often going into companies through CEOs, CIOs, CTOs and board level rather than through HR and talent, because we're trying to ensure the business is ready for this,” Blair said.
• Multiverse tries to make it a low lift for HR by handling the actual training, coaching and the fun work of registering with the Department of Labor as a nationally recognized apprenticeship.
• Thus, a company’s people team can and should focus on making sure these new long-term employees are able to successfully settle into their new work environments. “It's a big statement of intent about who you are as a company,” said Blair about the programs.

Amazon workers in Staten Island have unionized

In a historic win, Amazon workers at a warehouse in Staten Island have unionized. For context, they’re the first group of workers to ever successfully unionize at Amazon, and they won their election Friday morning. My colleague Anna Kramer wrote about the unexpected victory: Amazon, the country’s second-largest employer, has been a notoriously difficult place to unionize. The first serious attempt in Bessemer, Alabama, failed. This Staten Island election was led by a group of workers unaffiliated with any national union and led by activists Chris Smalls and Derrick Palmer, who rallied workers around safety conditions and retaliation concerns.

Read the full story.

A MESSAGE FROM WORKPLACE FROM META

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Workers with PTO are scared to take PTO

In depressing news, a recent survey from Skynova found that about one in five employees have avoided taking time off, either because they felt unsupported by their employer or because they had too much work. Here are some other takeaways from its survey of 800 American employees (200 of whom are managers):

• 38.5% of employers have increased their PTO policy in the past year. Out of those employers, 47.8% of managers anticipated an uptick in employee happiness and 44.2% expected the same for productivity.
• The majority of employees surveyed feel that sick days, mental health days and vaccination appointments should be mandatory PTO.
• Eight out of 10 employees surveyed want mandatory PTO policies that are enforced, as in requiring workers to take a minimum number of days off.

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