John Colborn, executive director, Apprenticeships for America, on Work in Progress podcast with Ramona Schindelheim, editor-in-chief of WorkingNation
John Colborn, executive director, Apprenticeships for America, on Work in Progress podcast with Ramona Schindelheim, editor-in-chief of WorkingNation

Making the case for more apprenticeships in America

A conversation with John Colborn, executive director, Apprenticeships for America
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In this episode of Work in Progress, we’re talking about the important role apprenticeships play in preparing people for careers with good pay, benefits, and opportunities for advancement.

You might be surprised to learn that these amazing earn-and-learn opportunities – yes, you get a paycheck as you learn! – are not just in the skilled trades. They’re in a growing number of diverse, in-demand industries.

John Colborn is the executive director of Apprenticeships for America and joins me in conversation. He makes a strong case for why apprenticeships are so valuable.

“An apprenticeship is a job. It’s one of the attractions of apprenticeship. You are very much engaged. This is not a theoretical exercise. You’re very much engaged in the workplace,” he explains.

He adds, “An important feature of an apprenticeship is that there’s mentorship involved. You have somebody in the workplace who is helping connect you to all those unwritten rules that are part of everybody’s workplace, so that you can navigate those and have success there.”

At the end of the apprenticeship, says Colborn, you have a connection to the company – your bosses and co-workers know you – and many people continue working for the company. It’s one of the benefits that go with that apprenticeship experience.

We discuss how apprenticeships offer an alternative to a traditional college education, allowing people to earn a paycheck while learning on the job with a mentor. We also look at the other occupations beyond construction and the other skilled trades that are now using apprenticeships to develop their workforce, jobs like nursing and accounting.

Colborn also talks about how, despite progress, the U.S. continues to lag behind other countries in the number of people in apprenticeships. He says there is an opportunity to expand use of the training model and explains how. He adds that community colleges play an important role in connecting employers to this undeveloped talent.

You can listen to the entire conversation here, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also find our podcasts on the Work in Progress YouTube channel.

Episode 348: John Colborn, executive director, Apprenticeships for America
Host & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Theme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4
Transcript: Download the transcript for this episode here
Work in Progress Podcast: Catch up on previous episodes here

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.