Announcing the launch of Community, the free apprenticeship network

Apprenticeships are a fantastic tool when they work as designed, but they're littered with difficulty -- hard to register, hard to understand, hard to promote, and hard to run.

Apprenticeships need to be simpler if the industry is to grow.

Some of these difficulties are cultural. We don't have a shared understanding of what an apprenticeship is in the U.S. We know what college is. For the majority of Americans, that's not true of apprenticeships.

Some of these difficulties are structural. We haven't invested in the apprenticeship ecosystem the way we have college. There's no common application like for college. Unlike the cap and gown for colleges, there's no visual in our minds of apprenticeship success looks like. There's no easy place to find apprenticeships. Heck, it's not even clear how to get into many apprenticeships.

That needs to change, and with the launch of Community, we aim to do just that.

Apprenticeship cannot be a best kept secret

Ever hear the phrase that apprenticeship is the "best kept secret in workforce"? We have, and we cringe every time.

To change this, apprenticeships need a platform for self promotion dedicated just for them. That's what the WorkHands Community is all about. This is a community to promote your occupations, your partners, videos of your program, pictures of your program.

One place to find apprenticeships

We know a state apprenticeship administrator that once told us this story. She said, I go and talk to students at high schools and community colleges. I tell them all about apprenticeships and what a deal they are. You get an education! And a job! And no debt! It's an easy sell!

Obviously, their next question is, where do we find one of these apprenticeships?! And there simply is not a good answer -- not a universal one at least.

There are state directories. There's apprenticeship.gov. There's intermediaries in some areas and in some industries.

There needs to be one place. That one place needs to cross OA and SAA lines. And, that one place needs to be maintained by the apprenticeships, themselves. Government directories go out of date and don't get updated for months at a time.

Manage your presence in Community, and it will ALWAYS be up-to-date. We'll even remind you periodically to make sure that's the case.

Show (not tell) what apprenticeships are

We've yet to meet an apprenticeship program that does not have a YouTube video chock full of success stories and pictures of apprentices in action. Great! Let's feature them right alongside your standards. Let's feature them right alongside your open applications.

Similarly, many systems treat applications for an apprenticeship as if they're just another job post. They're not! Every single apprenticeship opening should have the complete details of the program right next to it - the related instruction, the certifications they'll earn, the skills they'll develop, and how their wages will grow. Standard job posts leave this information out.

Not on WorkHands Community.

Map the ecosystem

Apprenticeships are not just another job. They're not just another education pathway. You've invested in building a coalition of partners that help with training, with employment, with labor, with additional services and funding. This ecosystem exists in the shadows for most apprentices and applicants. They don't know how the pieces fit together or how connected they'll become in the program. Demonstrate the full stakeholder backing of your program by listing your partners.

Make it free

To be a singular place for all apprenticeships, Community needs to be free. It cannot just be a place for those apprenticeships with recent grant funding or solid financial backing.

Are you already using WorkHands? Great. You'll find the tools to manage your presence in Community already.

Not using WorkHands? Submit a claim for your organization, and once verified, you can start managing your presence in Community. You're not at all required to use paid WorkHands tools for tracking and running your program.

Using a competitor for tracking and management? No problem. You can use WorkHands Community, too. You can even send applicants to another site to apply elsewhere.

Sure, we do need to keep the lights on so we'll layer in premium tools -- WorkHands+ -- over time for things such as custom job application tracking and custom form tracking, but promotion of your apprenticeship will always be free.

What's next

Well, that's really up to you.

This is just a first pass at what a Community of apprenticeships needs. What else can we build for you? Do you want to demonstrate clear pathways from PreApprenticeship partners? How about embeddable tools for your own website? Custom URLs for your program?

Ask, and you shall receive. Now, get in there, find your state, find your organization, suggest it if it's not already in there, and help us help you grow this industry.