What are Apprenticeable Occupations?

An Apprenticeable Occupation is a trade or profession that is recognized by the Department of Labor (DOL) as worthy of a registered apprenticeship. The term "occupation" simply refers to the type of trade or skill that that the apprentice will be learning.

So what's that mean?

The standard

But what makes an occupation worthy of an apprenticeship? If you go looking on a DOL website or apprenticeship.gov, you'll find something along these lines:

Apprenticeable occupations are: 1) customarily learned in a practical way through a structured, systematic program of on-the-job supervised training supplemented by related technical instruction; 2) clearly identified and commonly recognized throughout an industry; and 3) involve the acquisition of manual or technical skills and knowledge.

But really, almost any occupation could meet that definition so what's going on in practice?

In practice

In practice, an occupation is deemed apprenticeable if it takes at least a year of training to be sufficient in that career. Apprenticeships can be 4-5 years long, but they must be at least a single year of training. This means many retail jobs are out. Your local barista is certainly skilled, but it's unlikely they required 2,000 hours of training and 144 hours of coursework to get there.

Industry agreement is another piece of the puzzle here. The finest baristas in the world may require the training described above, but is that an industry standard? Likely, no.

Finally, the other standard you'll hear referenced (officially or unofficially) is that apprenticeable occupations should lead to family-supporting wage. Again, most retail jobs wont fully make the cut. Here, too, there'll be some nuance. What defines a family supporting wage? Is it the same in different locations? All great questions.

Becoming apprenticeable

Occupations become apprenticeable when an employer, or some other sponsor, decides they want to run an apprenticeship program, starts the process, and finds their occupation is not on the list. That brave soul, or organization, then can submit an Apprenticeship Occupation Request to initiate getting the occupation added.

From there, you'll need to fill out a checklist with national contacts in the industry who'll be able to vouch for the training plan you come up with, national agencies who certify or oversee the industry, and then many of the things you'll put into your eventual apprenticeship standards, too. The goal is to engage industry to come to a conclusion that, yes, this occupation is worthy of an apprenticeship, and yes, your plan is sufficient to train apprentices in the industry. It's a plan that could become the standard for others so that industry input is essential.

Once approved, that occupation is now on the list!

The List

There are currently over 950 occupations that have been recognized as apprenticeable, and occupations are continually being added to the list.

Apprenticeable Occupations can been found in a myriad of industries. Examples of these can include, but are not in any way limited to:

• Building Trades (Carpenter, Electrician, Mason, etc)

• Education Professions (Early Education Educator, Teacher’s Aide, etc)

• Industrial Trades (Machinist, Maintenance Technician, etc)

• Healthcare Professions (Certified Nurse Practitioner, Registered Nurse, etc)

• Technology Professions (Software Engineer, Data Scientist, etc)

• Food Service Trades (Cooks, Server, Restaurant Manager, etc)

• Non-Traditional Trades (Marketing Specialist, Hair Braider, Horticulturalist, etc)

Want to see the full list?

See if your industry has any approved registered apprenticeship standards by visiting apprenticeship.gov's apprenticeship occupations page. You can search there or even download the full list.