BMW’s Rising Scholars program lets 12th-graders launch a pre-apprenticeship in advanced manufacturing, including paid work and training, while finishing high school. The German-style learn-and-earn model is building a skilled workforce in South Carolina, reports Vicki Phillips in Forbes.
BMW Manufacturing's Spartanburg plant has been working with local community colleges for years. Now it's starting earlier.
Many young people are wary of college costs and eager to start earning, reports CNBC's Jessica Dickler.
They "are choosing career-connected pathways." “The reality is, as air conditioning and plumbing companies, we are desperate for labor,” says Tom Howard of Lee's Air. “It’s a massive problem.” His company trains and hires new workers.
Youth apprenticeships grew by 70 percent between 2011 and 2020, according to Jobs for the Future (JFF). However, less than 2 percent of young Americans enter apprenticeships each year.
Of course, 12th grade is better late than never but this is a 50 year full circle. When I entered my high school in 1976, it was the year they moved all classes that taught you how to do something useful up the road to the vo-tech school. You could go, but it half-day and there was no way to take the "college prep" classes and to the vo-tech. And sadly, the hierarchy was the vo-tech kids were "smart". And to an extent that was true then as getting into the trades was hard as they were filled up with all those 5 or 10 years older who were being dumped out of the factories as they closed.
It would…