Medical Office Manager

Report: The potential of new industry apprenticeships to move 800,000 Americans into better-paying careers

Multiverse and Burning Glass Institute examine which in-demand jobs could be filled with learn-and-earn training
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The apprenticeship model in the United States is ripe for reinvention, expanding beyond the traditional trade fields and into other high-demand careers, which will lead to economic advancement for more Americans, according to a new report out today from Multiverse and Burning Glass Institute.

An apprenticeship is a job which provides a paid worker with an on-the-job learning opportunity at no cost to the apprentice. The number of active registered apprenticeships has grown by 106% in the last decade, totaling more than 600,000 this year, according the U.S. Department of Labor.

The report – Untapped Potential: How new apprenticeship approaches will increase access to
economic opportunity
– makes the case that workers, employers, and the economy would benefit enormously by the development of learn-and-earn jobs across a broad spectrum of industries.

Expanding on-the-job training opportunities would also benefit workers and job seekers of all ages at all points in their careers, argues the report.

“We consider how a next generation apprenticeship structure in the U.S. could reduce critical talent shortages, address the needs of the majority of U..S workers who are unable to access higher-wage work or underemployed in their job, and advance equity and opportunity.

“By mapping apprenticeship-ready occupations in the U.S., this report identifies the pathways that workers can follow to move from various occupations across industries – which could result in $28.5 billion in higher earnings each year – creating pathways to higher-wage roles for workers across America.”

The report adds that scaling up could create another 830,000 apprenticeships annually.

What Are These ‘Apprentice-Ready’ Opportunities?

Untapped Potential research identifies 149 target occupations ready for brand-new or expanded apprenticeships, 20 of which already boast “substantial and growing numbers of apprenticeship opportunities.”

To qualify, these target occupations must:

  • consistently pay more than $20 per hour.
  • be in-demand, with the number of jobs in the occupation steadily growing.
  • be open to a person without a bachelor’s degree who can learn the needed skills through apprenticeship and by bringing to bear their existing skills.
  • require no more than five years of related experience.
  • make good use of the on-the-job training.

Careers meeting that criteria include medical and health services manager, project manager, computer systems analyst, software developer, computer systems engineer, architect, human resources specialist, and more.

Additionally, Untapped Potential identifies the types of workers who could benefit by an expansion of the types of jobs using a learn-and-earn model.

For example, the report says as many as 68 million workers who are not college graduates are in midcareer roles with “limited progression pathways, and are in need of opportunities to upskill.” Another 12.8 million workers with bachelor’s degrees are underemployed, “stuck in jobs that offer limited future prospects.”

How Do We Get There From Here?

The report concludes a joint effort involving employers, business coalitions, educational institutions, advocates, and policymakers is needed to scale up apprenticeships in the United States.

You can read the recommendations from Multiverse, which helps place workers in apprenticeships with major global companies, and labor market research firm Burning Glass Institute on how each stakeholder can be a part of the apprenticeship expansion here: Untapped Potential.

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.