November 7, 2023 — Next week marks an important occasion as we will celebrate National Apprenticeship Week from November 13-19, 2023. This weeklong event honors the value of apprenticeships and provides an opportunity to promote and recognize their significant contributions to workforce development.
It is a notable milestone that the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor have expanded registered apprenticeships to include educators. This move recognizes the importance of apprenticeships in the field of education and highlights the value of these programs in addressing the challenges of teacher shortages. As a result, we have much to celebrate during National Apprenticeship Week.
In education, teacher residency programs and teacher registered apprenticeship programs play a crucial role in creating accessible pathways for aspiring teachers to enter the workforce. Teacher-registered apprenticeships include on-the-job training with a mentor teacher and related coursework while ensuring teacher candidates earn. At the same time, they learn and provide a progressive wage during their teacher preparation. Like teacher residency programs, teacher-registered apprenticeship programs are designed to be rooted in partnership between a coursework provider (an approved education preparation provider) and an employer (school or school district).
At NCTR, we are proud to have taken part in the work of Pathways Alliance to develop new National Guidelines for Apprenticeship Standards (NGS) for K-12 teachers to support high-quality teacher apprenticeship programs nationwide.
In order to support teacher residency programs affiliated with our Network, we recently launched a new Community Learning Experience (CLE), titled “Building Registered Apprenticeship Programs for Teacher Residencies.” The purpose of this programming is to help our teacher residency programs understand the process of becoming a registered apprenticeship program (RAP) and the opportunities and challenges that can be involved, as well as provide guidance on creating deliverables that can be included in their applications and enable them to become a RAP. We are excited to continue this initiative involving 36 out of 63 teacher residency programs from 19 different states.
We believe that this programming will provide valuable insights and guidance to those who are seeking to become a teacher registered apprenticeship program. The importance of teacher residency programs cannot be overstated, as they play a vital role in preparing our future teachers and helping to improve the quality of education in our communities. We are committed to supporting and strengthening these programs, and we believe that this Community Learning Experience is an essential step in that direction.