Schools and communities like to boast how they are making great strides in connecting students with real work opportunities, but efforts mostly amount to career exposure events like career days or job shadows, according to an article in The 74.
“The ultimate internship…a paid experience…we still have a long way to go to provide more opportunity for young people to experience those,” says Julie Lammers, senior vice president of American Student Assistance (ASA), a non-profit connecting students to career training.
Only five percent of students or less have the opportunity for apprenticeships or internships, according to estimates.
At the request of The 74, the U.S. Department of Labor compiled data showing about 10,000 16- to 18-year-olds started apprenticeships nationally last year. That’s less than a tenth of a percent of the more than 13 million students that age. And the number included 18-year-olds who started apprenticeships after graduating high school.
There are slightly more internships than apprenticeships for high schoolers. A 2018 survey found that 79 percent of students were interested in trying a work experience, but only 2 percent completed an internship in high school.
ASA’s survey found that close to half of employers offer mentorships, job shadowing, open houses and field trip visits. These practices don’t go nearly far enough in providing the skills and training needed for the world of work.
Schools and businesses can’t stop at just exposing students to careers, says Noel Ginsburg, a member of the U.S. Department of Labor’s advisory committee on apprenticeship. “It’s not a bad thing,” he said. “It’s just not enough.”
A hierarchy of work experiences often distinguishes between those where students “learn about work” and those where they “learn how to work.”
Work-based learning can include experiences ranging from career awareness and career exploration to more intense career preparation and career training. The top level of the hierarch can be career immersion, development or participation.
Here’s the challenge to more intense prep: low-level career experiences like job fairs take just a few hours of time for students and businesses, while apprenticeships and internships require much more time and resources from schools and employers. It can be hard to find students who can commit to working several hours a week and fit that within their high school class schedules. It’s also hard to find companies willing to take on high school students and train them.
ASA’s 2023 survey pointed to several issues businesses contend with as they start high school internships: finding appropriate work for students, devoting staff for training, scheduling around class schedules and student transportation to work.
Many times, since few companies take on interns or apprenticeships, students are placed in government offices or with nonprofits that advocate for work opportunities.
Schools and communities can also use experiences that partly simulate or mirror work experience. These include students doing exploratory summer internships with industry associations or schools partnering with companies so students earn money by doing a project, such as a small coding or marketing task, through school for the company.
Many apprenticeship advocates claim some of the barriers are more about attitudes than real problems.
“Culturally, U.S. companies haven’t traditionally viewed themselves as a training ground or an extension of the classroom,” says Ginsburg, founder of CareerWise, the nation’s largest youth apprenticeship program. “There’s a big difference between having an intern look over your shoulder and actually expecting real work from an apprentice.”
He says businesses should recognize that while they won’t see immediate returns, they will if they are patient and take the time to train students well.
“It’s hard,” he says, “before it gets easy.”
The 74
