December 22, 2024

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— Nicole Cohen, NPR Education senior editor

Matthew Atha does steel work at Ironworkers Local 29 during an apprenticeship in Dayton, Ohio.Megan Jelinger/AFP via Getty Images

Hi Everyone,

Steve Drummond here, senior editor on the team, with an update on one of our favorite topics: the postsecondary push for alternatives to the traditional four-year degree.

Right now, it seems like everyone’s talking about apprenticeships as a path to a high-paying job without taking on a lot of student debt. But as the Hechinger Report’s Jon Marcus reported for us this week, there’s a catch: There aren’t nearly enough employers offering apprenticeships right now to meet the demand for them. That’s making it difficult to fill the surplus of well-paying trade jobs that are currently sitting empty.

As Jon reports, there’s good reason for the all the buzz:

Apprenticeships combine paid on-the-job training with classroom time. Increasing their use has bipartisan support and was a rare subject of agreement between the presidential candidates in the recent election.

They've also benefited from growing public skepticism about the need for college: Only 1 in 4 adults now says a four-year degree is extremely or very important to get a good job, the Pew Research Center finds. And nearly two-thirds of 14- to 18-year-olds say their ideal education would involve learning skills on the job, as in apprenticeships, according to a survey by the ECMC Group.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there are more than 680,000 students in apprenticeship programs right now, and that number is growing fast.

We’ve done a lot of reporting recently in the push for different career paths out of high school, and this story reminds me of one of our most popular stories of all time, also from Jon Marcus and the Hechinger Report, about how so many well-paying trade jobs are going unfilled.

When we first published that story in 2018, it got millions of page views, and in the years since so many people were still reading it that Jon updated it for us last year.

Here’s a bit of what that reporting found:

While a shortage of workers pushes wages higher in the skilled trades, the financial return from a bachelor's degree is softening, even as the price, and the average debt into which it plunges students, remain high.

But high school graduates have been so effectively encouraged to get a bachelor's that high-paid jobs requiring shorter and less expensive training are going unfilled. This affects those students and also poses a real threat to the economy

Which also explains why there’s such great demand right now for apprenticeships. And, as this week’s story notes, they’re often a good investment for employers:

In fact, 94 percent of apprentices stay with their employers when they're finished with their programs, according to the Labor Department. And for every dollar invested in an apprenticeship, an employer realizes an average return of $1.44, the Urban Institute found.
And yet the disconnect between the number of employers offering apprenticeships, and the much larger number of students seeking one, remains.

Stay tuned for more reporting on this topic in 2025.

Meanwhile, as the holiday break approaches for schools and colleges, we’ll be taking a break as well. We’ll be back in class – and your inbox – in early January, with pencils sharpened and a fresh outlook for the new semester.

— Steve Drummond, Executive Producer, NPR Ed

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Now, let’s get into some news …

1. California man allegedly messaged Madison school shooter about plans ahead of attack. The community at a small Christian school in Madison, Wis., is reeling in the aftermath of the school shooting. According to court records from the San Diego Superior Court, the shooter, Natalie Rupnow, was in contact with a 20-year-old man in California who on Tuesday was issued a gun violence emergency protective order, which requires a person to surrender any firearms they have. Read the story here.

— Meg Anderson, reporter, National Desk

2. Biden creates a new national monument marking the legacy of Indian boarding schools. President Biden announced a new national monument to tell the story of the more than 400 boarding schools where tens of thousands of American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian children were sent for assimilation. Read the story here.

— NPR Washington Desk

And something to make you smile …

Connie Hanzhang Jin/NPR

With the holidays around the corner, all the gift wrapping and family visits can really pile on the stress. Graphics reporter Connie Hanzhang Jin offers you a little dance break.

Experts share their best advice on how to dance. No skills required — except, great music. As you read the comic, follow each step — and you'll be moving and grooving in no time.

Take a look at the full comic strip here.

Student Podcast Challenge …

Producer Janet Woojeong Lee here with some exciting news!

NPR Ed's Student Podcast Challenge will return in 2025! So teachers, parents, students, please help us spread the word. Our national podcasting contest for fourth graders, middle and high school students will be open for entries from Jan. 6 through May 2. Students can make a podcast about any topic they're interested in, as long as it's between three and eight minutes in length. For the latest, subscribe to our weekly contest newsletter that's coming back this month.

Can't wait to listen to your stories! As always, thank you for reading and listening.
We’ll be taking a break from the newsletter until the new year. Happy holidays!

— The NPR Education Team

— Janet Lee, Associate Producer, NPR Ed

— Nicole Cohen, Senior Editor, NPR Ed

— Steve Drummond, Executive Producer, NPR Ed

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