Apprenticeship Degree Institute

Center for the Apprenticeship Degree is launching its inaugural cohort of the Apprenticeship Degree Institute. The Apprenticeship Degree Institute is a professional learning community and collective action group for K-12 school and district leaders who want to bring apprenticeship-based degree programs to their communities. The application for the spring session has closed; stay tuned for future sessions!

Membership

The Apprenticeship Degree Institute is designed for K-12 schools and districts that want to: build a long-term solution to teacher and paraprofessional shortages, diversify their teaching faculty, and create career pathways within their school or district. Members should be leaders who drive talent initiatives within their organization.

Objectives

Members of the Apprenticeship Degree Institute will:

Connect with other peers who are implementing grow-your-own strategies and share best practices with one another.
Learn about the apprenticeship-based teaching degree model and the steps necessary to co-create an apprenticeship-based teaching degree program.
Build an action plan for establishing the necessary systems and implementing best practices in their context.

In concert with other K-12 schools and districts in their geographical area, build collective power to encourage a local educator preparation program to create an affordable, flexible, and efficient apprenticeship-based teaching degree program and to make their state more hospitable to such programs. For this reason, we recommend encouraging peers in your geography to apply to this program as well.

Structure

The Apprenticeship Degree Institute will convene virtually 2 times per month for 1.5 hours per session from March through June. Members are expected to attend all sessions.

Cost

The inaugural cohort of the Apprenticeship Degree Institute is fully subsidized so there is no cost to members.

Timeline

March 1 - Applications due

March 10 - Applicants notified

Sessions will be held virtually Mondays at 10am-11:30am PT / 1pm-2:30pm ET on the following dates:

March 27 - Understanding Grow Your Own Models
April 10 - Complete a Landscape Analysis
April 24 - Set Goals for Your Grow Your Own Program
May 8 - Create a Plan for Implementing/Improving Your Program
May 22 - Create an Educator Preparation Provider Target List and Begin Outreach
June 5 - Recruiting Apprentices
June 19 - Managing & Overseeing Apprentices: Understanding RAP Requirements & the Craft Tracker

This is an approximate 3-4 hour commitment per month, for a total of 15 total hours over 4 months.

Application

The 5-minute application form was due by March 1, 2023, to apply. Since a core component of this program is collective action, applicants are strongly encouraged to invite peers in their geographical area to apply as well. A sample message you can use is below.

Sample Email Message

Hi ___,

Have you heard about apprenticeship-based teaching degrees? They enable people in paraprofessional or similar roles in your district to get their BA while working - they're intentionally flexible (scheduled around work), affordable (some are as low as $900/year), and relevant (work experience actually counts as credits).

I think a program like this would go a long way towards addressing teacher and para shortages, diversifying our teaching faculty, and creating real career pathways within our schools, so I want to see a program like this in our community. Center for the Apprenticeship Degree is launching an institute for K-12 schools and districts to help us bring a program like this to our community.

To make a compelling case to universities that would confer the degree, we will be more powerful if there are several of us schools and districts that want a program like this. To that end, I'm hoping that you will join the institute with me. If you're interested, the application is due ______ and more info is at the link above.

Thanks for considering it!