Officially announcing the launch of the WorkHands blog!

For some time now, WorkHands' mission has extended beyond paid tools offered at workhands.com. WorkHands singular mission is to Make Apprenticeship Simpler, which simply cannot be confined to a paid product.

If you've been following along, you've seen this with the Apprenticeship Monthly newsletter or our work to build the Registered Apprenticeship Standards Library at apprenticeshipstandards.org in conjunction with The Urban Institute as part of the Registered Apprenticeship Technical Assistance Center of Excellence for Occupations and Standards.

Launch Announcement

We already mentioned the blog as part of our What's new in Q2 2024 post, but we haven't yet explained what we're doing here. So, we're excited to officially launch the WorkHands blog as part of continuing to make apprenticeship simpler. This is a project years in the making, and we couldn't be more excited to finally see it come to fruition.

"How does a blog make apprenticeship simpler?," you might ask. Great question. Alone, it does not.

The core idea behind the WorkHands blog is that you are not alone on your apprenticeship journey. This will be a platform where we seek to replicate what we love about apprenticeship conferences -- shared experience, insights, best practices, and lessons learned -- from around the country. Some of the articles you read will come from the WorkHands team. Many will not.

You can already see this with our Make Apprenticeship Simpler interview series featuring an apprentice, a sponsor, and an apprenticeship researcher. (In fact, if you're interested in joining that conversation, sign up here for your 15 minutes of Make Apprenticeship Simpler fame.)

What to expect

Here's what you can expect from the WorkHands blog. First, we strive to be helpful and informative at all costs, even at the cost of promoting our own business.

Our head of marketing wont like our writing this, but we do not plan to use this blog to constantly promote WorkHands paid products and prompt you to sign up for a demo. There'll be some of that, sure (we need to keep the lights on somehow), but a lot less of it than he'd like (sorry, Joshua!).

You can expect a mix of reviews, opinions, how to's, and recaps. Ever wonder what goes on at apprenticeship council meetings? Or is that webinar worth your time? How about upcoming legislation on apprenticeship?

You can expect insights from the WorkHands team learned from serving over 600+ apprenticeships nationwide. You can expect insights from the WorkHands team based on over 10 years of experience in the industry. You can expect insights from the WorkHands team as a company that lives its own values as a registered apprenticeship sponsor building its own team via apprenticeship. You can expect insights from the WorkHands team that are not limited to any particular industry or sponsor type.

What not to expect

We covered this already, but don't expect to see your feed full of WorkHands self promotion. We'd rather our clients promote Workhands for us.

You should not expect to find overly dense, academic language. Simplicity is a core WorkHands value, and our written communication should be just that.

You should not expect a one-size-fits-all approach.

You should not you expect WorkHands to leave out part sof the story around apprenticeships because it's uncomfortable or makes the system look bad.

What's next

Now that you know what we're up to, what to expect, and what not, here's a sense of what you'll hear from us over the coming few months.

WorkHands truly believes in apprenticeship, which is why we're a registered apprenticeship, ourselves. You can expect to hear from various members of the WorkHands team about their experience registering our apprenticeship, or what it was like as an actual apprentice.

You can expect to hear from even more voices as part of our Making Apprenticeship Simpler series, how apprenticeships should be more transparent, and challenges from difference perspectives.

Want something else? Great. We want to hear from you. Send us an email, and we'll make sure to cover your favorite topic next.