Alayah Anderson, Nursing Apprentice, on Making Apprenticeship Simpler

Intro

Welcome to another episode of our Making Apprenticeship Simpler interview series, where we ask people across the apprenticeship system a single question: "How do we make apprenticeship simpler?"

In this episode, Patrick Cushing talks with Alayah Anderson, a nursing apprentice and second-semester student at Calhoun Community College in Alabama. Alayah shares how she found the program through her instructors, and why apprentices need clear answers up front about policies, hours, benefits and what day-to-day life at the facility will look like.

If you run or support a healthcare apprenticeship, this short conversation is a reminder that clear expectations from day one make it easier for apprentices to balance school, work and life.

Highlights

1. Introduction and Background

• Alayah is a nursing student in her second semester at Calhoun Community College

• She learned about the apprenticeship from her instructors, who offered it to her cohort

• The program adds clinical hours and better prepares students for the end of nursing school

2. Making Apprenticeship Simpler

• Apprentices need to know how they fit in at the facility: employee, student, or both

• Will they follow all facility policies, and will they get the facility's benefits?

3. What Clear Expectations Look Like

• Spell out the policies, the hours expected and the benefits before the apprentice starts

• Explain how long apprentices are expected to stay after the program

• Show the work-life balance of a typical day at each facility

4. Closing Thoughts

• The first year means balancing life, work and school all at once

• Outlining expectations clearly helps every program, from nursing to electrical to IT

Transcript

Patrick Cushing:

Hey everybody, this is Patrick from WorkHands, and we're here again today doing another Making Apprenticeship Simpler interview. Today we have Alayah in Alabama who's a nursing apprentice. Alayah, would love to know a bit more about yourself. How'd you find the apprenticeship program? And then we can get into our one question.

Alayah Anderson:

Well, I am a student at Calhoun Community College. This is my second semester, and I found out about the program through the instructors that we have there. They offered it to our cohort, just basically stating that it would help us improve our clinical hours, that we would have more by the end of our program, and it would also just prepare us by the end of our term of nursing school. I think that—

Patrick Cushing:

Yeah, that's fantastic. But yeah, so, before you dive right into it, let me ask the question, but like, every time I have this call, whether it's somebody from government, whether it's an apprentice, whether it's an employer, I just have one question because it's what we're all about, is how do we make apprenticeship simpler? So, you know, you're just getting started with the apprenticeship, you're in your second semester for school, you know, kind of fresh into this. What could we do? What can the system do to make apprenticeship simpler at large for someone like yourself?

Alayah Anderson:

I think that, if it could do anything, it would be beneficial for the student coming in to know how they would factor in working at that actual facility? Like, will they have to follow all of the policies? Will they be able to reap the benefits of that facility, or will they just be considered a student and, you know, have to figure out, you know, how to take care of themselves outside of doing the apprenticeship? Yeah.

Patrick Cushing:

Yeah, that's great. I mean, you have to deal with the question of, do I need another job? Is this the job? Am I a student? Am I an employee? How much control do you have over your hours? Things like that. And what would be, if you had a magic wand, what would it look like? How would somebody answer that question? What would they tell you before you got started to help make that better for you?

Alayah Anderson:

Basically, I would just want them to tell me their policies they would expect me to follow, the hours, that they would expect me to fulfill while I'm there, the benefits that I would get while working with them. And it is explained about how long we have to stay afterwards, but just the work-life balance of what it may look like day-to-day with working at these different facilities.

Patrick Cushing:

Totally. Yeah. I think one of the hardest things, especially in that first year for an apprentice, is that balance of life, work, school, you're doing a lot of things all at once. So I think really outlining that in any program, whether it's a nursing program, electrical program, IT program, is huge and makes things clear for everybody involved. So fantastic answer, love it. Really appreciate you hopping on today and I'll let you go about your day. Thanks again.

Alayah Anderson:

Thank you.