A New Look at Apprenticeships as a Path to the Middle Class

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Have you heard of a 4-year college program that imparts valuable skills that make you instantly employable and pays you upwards of 50,000 dollars a year? The Apprenticeship School at Newport News, Virginia (USA) is one such program, paying students while skilling trainee pipe fitters, electricians and insulators who are guaranteed a job with Huntington Ingalls Industries, the military contractor that runs Newport News Shipbuilding.

Such programs are testament to the fact that apprenticeships work and they benefit all concerned: the apprentice, the employer and the local community. Politicians across the spectrum from Hillary Clinton to Marco Rubio have supported such initiatives. But the success of these programs seems to be difficult to replicate.

Why? Read all about the Apprenticeship School and the hurdles faced by similar programs.