And while the tech industry has not relied on apprenticeships as a talent solution in the past, companies such as Amazon, IBM and Microsoft are now building their own apprenticeship programs in-house — an “earn and learn” model — to fill high-demand jobs. These companies offer apprenticeships to help fill their talent pipelines with skilled, loyal and diverse workers.
CTA saw an exciting opportunity to bring tech leaders together to help build apprenticeship programs to address the nation’s skills gap. At CES 2019, CTA and IBM announced the CTA Apprenticeship Coalition, to leverage IBM’s successful apprenticeship program and help members create thousands of new apprenticeships in more than 20 U.S. states. More than 18 coalition members — including Bosch, Postmates, SoftBank Robotics, Sprint, Toyota and Walmart — are either expanding their existing apprenticeship programs or creating new ones.
Building an apprenticeship program requires significant time and resources. To help
expedite the process and set companies up for success, all coalition members will have access to IBM’s own apprenticeship program and receive orientation guides, participate in IBM’s Design Thinking Workshops to ideate a future workforce state, and have access to more than 20 different apprenticeship frameworks for careers in fastgrowing fields including software engineering, data analytics, mechatronics, creative design and program management.
In less than 20 years, the nation will mark the 100th anniversary of its national apprenticeship program. And as the workforce adapts and develops with technology, the nation should continue to strive for greater availability and adoption of IT-related apprenticeships, resulting in more Americans hearing the words, “You’re hired!”
The CTA Apprenticeship Coalition is open for all CTA member companies.
Visit CTA.tech/apprenticeship to sign up or learn more
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