National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree (NCAD)

Reach University’s partners and candidates are at the heart of all we do. We couldn’t be more proud for the Today Show & NBC News to feature Ms. Gwen Thomas’ journey into teaching in her hometown of Earle, Arkansas. While teacher apprenticeships are relatively new in most U.S. states, Arkansas, Louisiana, California, and Alabama, in partnership with Reach University, have been at the forefront of job-embedded teacher training since 2020 — resulting in hundreds of paraprofessionals transitioning to qualified teacher roles over the past 1.5 years. These graduates include the amazing Ms. Gwen, a 27-year aide in Arkansas’ rural Earle School District. Under the leadership of Superintendent Ryan Burgess and retired Principal Juanita Dotson, Ms. Gwen trained on-the-job to earn a debt-free B.A. and teaching license. She is now a classroom-ready teacher, supporting the incredible learners in her community. Listen to her story and get to know how teacher apprenticeships are helping states and districts of all sizes address their qualified teacher shortages for good. 🔗: https://lnkd.in/gE78frnr #TeacherShortageSolutions #ApprenticeshipDegrees #Job2Degree

Had the honor of spending two days with the National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree (NCAD) and visionary community college leaders and employers in MA who are committed to building out apprenticeship degree pathways in their communities.

Day 2 in Massachusetts and had great meetings with early education employers, k-12 education employers, community colleges, and the Massachusetts Dept of Elementary and Secondary Education to discuss Apprenticrship Degrees. I was impressed by the leadeship around the table and online. The pot is being stirred that will further blur the lines between education and workforce. #National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree (NCAD)

Why are learners leaving college prior to earning a degree or credential? “Financial constraints and family responsibilities” are at the top of the list, according to a new report from the American Council on Education (ACE) and UCLA. “...institutions can ensure today’s students, many of whom are living with low incomes, working, are parents, or have other caretaking responsibilities, have the resources to cross the completion finish line,” said Kelly Leon of the Institute for Higher Education Policy in Inside Higher Ed. Apprenticeship Degrees not only remove the forced choice between a job and a degree for a working adult, but when done right, offer a debt-free, paid, supportive, and flexible pathway to a degree or credential – putting higher ed innovation to work for working adults. Read more: https://lnkd.in/e6gBRH_T? #Job2Degree #College #Career #AdultLearners #DegreeCompletion

The National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree (NCAD) team had a great day in Framingham, MA engaging with over 40 healthcare and behavioral health employers and 4 community colleges both online and in person to ideate Apprenticeship Degree pathways in solving some pressing talent development challenges in the region. You are going to see some innovative program launches starting in 2025, stay tuned! Thanks to Marjorie Ringrose and Ross Lohr’s steadfast support in creating this momentum and engagement in the Commonwealth. Thanks to David Podell and Colleen Coffey for hosting at your amazing facility. Want to bring something like this to your region, employer, or college? Find out more at www.ncad.org

This week's episode of Reel Talk (our internal video series for the incredible people working and leading here at Reach University) is all about our strategy to drive systemic change in U.S. higher education. Our goal is to make the apprenticeship degree accessible to all. Reach University prioritizes innovation in affordability, employer collaboration, and credit for "learning at work" to embed higher education seamlessly into the American workplace. #HigherEducation #Innovation #SystemicChange #ApprenticeshipDegree

Imagine if some US universities and employers offered clear pathways to apply to jobs that activated a degree path. Kudos to Staffordshire University Apprenticeships and their employer partners for creating clear, concise, debt free, and relevant earn and learn pathways. Interested to hear more? Follow the National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree (NCAD) and visit www.ncad.org to hear what’s possible in the US context. Hint, it’s already happening! Join us. Tom Bewick Reach University Mallory Dwinal-Palisch Joe Edelheit Ross

Sending a huge shout-out to Eric Dunker, Ph.D. and the team at the National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree (NCAD). Last week I was delighted to join their team and a dynamic group of employers and changemakers in business, education, government and philanthropy to explore how apprenticeship degrees can expand economic opportunity and prepare a skilled workforce. Here are a few of my takeaways: 🔤 - Change cannot happen in isolation. Effectively meeting the needs of learners, workers and employers while addressing the miscalibration of skills and credentials we are currently experience requires structured and intentional #collaboration across business, government and education. Some have referred to this triad as the ABCs (academia, business and civic organizations). In the words of my friend Noah Geisel, it takes an ecosystem! 💡 - Our current systems for education and work were not built for our current dynamics. As such, we need to reimagine our education and employment. Apprenticeship degrees provide an opportunity to not only evolve the higher education experience (by addressing #affordability and relevance of what is being learned), but also provide a strategy to reimagine job design and #jobquality. As we confront some of the persistent issues impacting workforce, strategies like this that address both job quality and usher in relevant and affordable educational experiences go a long way in helping to move us forward. 🖼 - While many in Colorado and the US are leveraging apprenticeship as an opportunity to train for entry level positions that often don't require a college degree, the apprenticeship degree can be leveraged for positions requiring higher levels of learning and skill development. During the trip we learned of apprenticeship degrees for clinical and allied health care positions, Space Systems Engineers and more. To help make sense of the various levels of training, the UK leverages the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) as a #qualificationsframework. Recent legislation in Colorado directs our systems to map apprenticeships and training to the ISCED, I look forward to capturing lessons learned from this. 💸 - Money Matters. In the UK there is a national pot of funding (a levy) to subsidize apprenticeship training. Employers pay into this government managed fund and receive funding back as they offer apprenticeship training. While the UK continues to rightsize this approach, the takeaway is that significant funding is needed to adequately train the workforce, our current approach of bearing that cost on the backs of individuals and families alone is not working so new approaches to #talentfinance are needed to advance our earn and learn ecosystem in the US. 💯 - We need systems with NO Dead Ends. Thanks Kyle Hartung for the Chutes and Ladders analogy. We need all ladders, no chutes! #earnandlearn #opportunitymultiplier #thebigblur #apprenticeshipdegree #skills

Thanks Kyle Hartung and Libuse B. for facilitating several key sessions at the National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree (NCAD) in Oxford convening last week! We are thrilled with our partnership with you and Jobs for the Future (JFF) as we continue to build the Apprenticeship Degree ecosystem and make traction towards the JFF North Star goal of improving job quality and pathways to economic mobility for 75 million!

ok, I am convinced that the right solution isn’t to remove degree requirements from more jobs in America. And no, I’m not going to pitch “free college” for everyone on the taxpayers' dime. And, we already have a very strong mechanism that delivers phenomenal results: Work-Based Learning. Thanks to Eric Dunker, Ph.D. and National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree (NCAD) folks, I was recently in Oxford, where I saw firsthand how degrees and apprenticeships can be combined to create amazing outcomes at scale and very economical costs. During our visit, we met several young professionals who started working in the NHS hospital system at age 16, earning and learning. I have a teenager that age, and I’m looking around now, wondering where my son’s opportunity like that is in America. It doesn’t exist yet. Let’s build it together. The time to graduate with a Degree Apprenticeship in the UK (nearly debt-free) was the same as a traditional University program - 4 years. Most of us, myself included, are not dreaming big enough. But, there is now a growing movement to work on some of the biggest and hardest problems in ed/workforce. Thank you to the Reach University team for opening my eyes to what I hope will be the future here sometime very soon. If you had one recommendation, what would it be to start to re-imagine the alignment of incentives across the workforce, education, and businesses to push to bring more and better pathways to career seekers? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.