Iowa high schools invest in apprenticeships for students to get experience in careers in need of employees

Iowa high schools are offering more opportunities for students to get a jump start on their career by earning certification in their chosen field and working paid, hands-on apprenticeships in their communities.

A medical academy at Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids is one of the newest programs in the state to launch in spring 2023. High school students will be able to take classes — on their campus — to be a certified nursing assistant, an entry-level job in the medical field.

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“One of the barriers we’re trying to overcome is kids can’t dream what they haven’t seen,” College Community School District Superintendent Doug Wheeler said. ”We want kids to see those opportunities and to do that we need to offer that here.“

In creating a medical academy, the district is responding to a community need for more medical professionals. While not all students will end up working in the medical field, it’s an opportunity for them to explore a career that could give them “financial security,” Wheeler said.

Although high school students already can enroll in free courses to become a certified nursing assistant at Kirkwood Community College, Wheeler wants to remove any barriers to these programs by offering it on the high school’s campus.

“We’re not a community college,” Wheeler said. “We can’t provide every single thing our kids might be interested in, but what we’re trying to do is give them the experience.”

Some of the classes offered will include a medical terminology class and physiology — taught by the district’s own registered nurses.

Students will wear scrubs and learn in a classroom that’s set up like a hospital room, with a hospital bed, mannequin as the patient, blood pressure cuffs and stethoscopes.

This is one of the district’s first steps toward offering career and technical training in its high school. The district also is considering a culinary school taught by a chef and offering students an internship in its communication’s department, in which they can develop video, photography and writing skills.

The apprenticeship model is gaining traction in schools, said Teri Vos, director of work-based learning at Central College, in Pella, and employers are working to train students for the workforce, regularly meeting with education leaders, she said.

“Even more recently, there’s a real recognition that there’s such intense need in some of those skilled areas that an apprenticeship aligns with so well,” Vos said.

Vos said there has been a stereotype historically that apprenticeships and careers to which they lead require long hours and hard work in dingy environments. However, these jobs now are being recognized as “cream of the crop,” Vos said.

“There are going to be more students and parents who realize what a viable option apprenticeships are,” Vos said.

The Pella Community School District has one of the largest apprenticeship programs in the state, in its Career Academy of Pella.

An important part of growing career and technical education in high school is helping parents understand the value of learning a trade, said Lowell Ernst, director of K-12 instruction for the Pella Community School District.

“Parents’ vision is often all kids going to college, even though that’s not the right route for all kids,” Ernst said. “Many apprentices will have the opportunity to out-earn college educated people and pursue something they really like.

“Students aren’t leaving Iowa because they don’t like Iowa. They just want a good job. (Positions in manufacturing), which Iowa is quite good at, are really high-quality jobs. It’s not a default. This is a preferred career existing in my backyard.”

Schools and employers are collaborating to ensure students graduate with the professional skills and competencies employers are looking for, Ernst said.

“I think Iowa is known to be a state of people who work collaboratively and are working diligently to find workforce solutions that are unique,” Vos said. “A lot of states are looking to us and what examples we’re setting and following our lead.”

Ernst said he gets questions from two or three school districts a week about Pella’s apprentice programs and how they can be replicated.

Pella’s work-based learning program is designed to help students find a career path by providing opportunities that will benefit them beyond high school. Students get on-the-job training from approved businesses along with classroom instruction, allowing them to earn money while they learn.

Students are introduced to a variety of skilled areas in which they experience hands-on learning, helping them identify areas of interest and guide them toward relevant postsecondary education.

Pella offers registered apprenticeships — a partnership between local businesses and the school — in culinary and hospitality, engineering assistant, certified nursing assistant or patient care specialist and welding.

Students can earn certifications — nationally recognized career credentials — in early childhood education. A certificate of completion — which provides career experience without nationally recognized credentials — can be earned in information technology.

Class credits are garnered at work sites during apprenticeships, from Des Moines Area Community College classes taken online or on the Ankeny campus, and earn an associate degree while in high school.

The apprenticeships are paid positions. Students can work a full-time job — 40 hours a week — during the summer after their junior year of high school. They then work four hours a day during their senior year of high school on top of finishing their diploma. By the time they graduate, they will have up to 2,000 hours of training in a career field.

Toward diverse teachers

The Iowa City Community School District launched a Grow Our Own program this past year to foster students’ interest in becoming teachers and promising them a job in the district — if one is available — after graduation from the University of Iowa.

The program is a part of the district’s diversity, equity and inclusion plan and aims to support students’ interest in teaching careers, especially students of color.

District officials hope the program attracts former students back to the district as teachers and helps diversify the staff. About 7 percent of teachers in the Iowa City Community School District are people of color, while 43 percent of the students are young people of color.

The students will be helped with their college application and can obtain advice on financial aid and grant opportunities. Once on campus, they’ll be informed about resources that provide academic help and mental health support.

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This article is from Iowa Ideas magazine, published by The Gazette.

The district is working with Educators Rising, a curriculum established in Arlington, Va., for students to learn about the profession and explore career opportunities, develop skills and make informed decisions about pathways to becoming a teacher.

This program is different from a statewide apprenticeship program launching this fall that provides opportunities for current high school students to earn a paraeducator certificate and associate degree.

Nineteen school districts are recipients of the state’s new Teacher and Paraeducator Registered Apprenticeship Pilot Grant Program. Iowa has more than 1,000 paraeducators and students in 143 schools. Of those, 110 are creating the first-ever registered apprenticeship program in their school.

This could train more than 500 new paraeducators and 500 new teachers in Iowa. A total of $45.6 million, funded through the federal American Rescue Plan Act, will support the program.

School districts will be required to partner with local community colleges or four-year colleges and universities to provide the required education and training to program participants.

Laurie Phelan, president and chief executive officer of Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates, or iJAG, said with so many school districts struggling to adequately staff schools, the apprenticeship model is a new opportunity to train future educators.

“There have been challenges for individuals getting into teaching career,” Phelan said. “Young people in a program like ours have never seen themselves being a teacher because they have to work and they can’t go into debt.

“If they can learn and earn in a hometown school with teachers who are leaders, how good is that?”

IJAG assists students with barriers to graduating from high school or transitioning from high school to continued education and careers. It provides dropout prevention and school-to-work transition services for students, beginning in seventh grade.

Phelan and iJAG Vice President Carly Harper consulted with the Iowa Department of Education on the teacher and paraeducator apprenticeship.

“The apprenticeship model offers to meet folks where they are, no matter what their life circumstances,” Harper said.

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The Iowa Ideas Conference is coming up Oct. 13-14, 2022. The virtual conference will be free to attend, but registration is required. To see a complete conference schedule, click here.