In partnership with nearly 50 higher ed, state, employer, and philanthropic leaders, NCAD is achieving meaningful proof points to bring Apprenticeship Degrees to everyone, everywhere.
September 5, 2024 - Building on prior collaboration with Reach University and its National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree (NCAD), Western Governors University (WGU) today signaled its commitment to the Apprenticeship Degree by acquiring Craft Education Inc., a data science platform purpose-built to track, assess, and report on-the-job learning in Apprenticeship Degree programs.
Craft will now be part of a nonprofit division of WGU — and made available to all higher education institutions.
In a statement, WGU indicated it expects that prioritizing work-based learning models will position the university to “positively impact over a million lives in the next decade” at what is already the nation’s largest online university with 175,000 students across all 50 states.
This news marks a milestone in field-building and systemic impact efforts of Reach University’s NCAD. The milestone also stands as a major proof point for the Apprenticeship Degree, as a growing number of higher education institutions seek to adopt job-embedded pathways to assist working adults in degree completion and support regional and national employers in addressing continued labor shortages.
3M Apprenticeship Degrees by ’35
Although Reach’s apprenticeship-based technical assistance and collective impact offerings have been available to peer institutions of higher education (IHE) since 2022, NCAD launched to formalize this work in February of this year. NCAD serves as both an engine for adoption and as a thought partner in this space, offering a number of technical assistance services to partner organizations. These impact services range from best practices to on-site talent development across Apprenticeship Degree policy, financial, and accreditation learnings.
NCAD has collaborated with nearly 50 institutions, such as WGU, CommonSpirit Health, Michigan’s Talent Together, and a number of universities and community colleges. This work seeks to advance widespread Apprenticeship Degree adoption and a moonshot commitment, unveiled by Reach University at the 2023 Clinton Global Initiative.
Together with partners, Reach University seeks to lead all of U.S. higher education to become embedded in the American workplace and to collectively achieve three million Apprenticeship Degree completions by 2035. WGU’s expectation to “positively impact over a million lives in the next decade” is expected to accelerate the shared timeline to achieve this bold goal.
“To make the Apprenticeship Degree an option for every working adult, in every community, Reach decided early on that we would not – and could not – achieve this without the commitment of many colleges and universities,” said Reach University President Joe E. Ross.
“It’s always been clear that to ensure Apprenticeship Degrees have an early impact at scale across a variety of sectors and geographies, we must not only create the enabling conditions for expansion but also ensure that the biggest universities operating in all 50 states also invest in the model. WGU’s announcement signals a major market transition. The opportunity is now within reach for every college and university, regardless of size and scope, to embrace this work-based pathway,” continued Ross.
A Vanguard of IHEs
WGU is the first national university to commit to prioritizing the Apprenticeship Degree, joining a number of regional and statewide institutions in effectively turning workplaces into college campuses. These NCAD partner institutions include the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, University of Colorado Denver, The College of New Jersey, Colorado Mountain College, Bunker Hill Community College, MassBay Community College, Middlesex Community College, Quinsigamond Community College, and others.
Reach University and NCAD leadership collaborated with WGU in its exploration and planned implementation of work-based learning pathways. Last academic year, Reach University’s NCAD, together with Reach University leadership, provided a series of professional development workshops for WGU’s faculty and senior executive team that included training around lessons learned and tools to support Apprenticeship Degrees.
Given the seriousness of the WGU’s commitment to apprenticeship and work-based learning pathways, Reach has also committed to providing leadership talent and personnel to ensure WGU's success in becoming a nationwide proof point for the Apprenticeship Degree.
Led by Dr. Dwinal-Palisch, a small team of Apprenticeship Degree practitioners recommended by Reach will join WGU’s Craft division to “focus on developing the ecosystem platform for enabling work-based pathways across higher education and employer partners” with fidelity to the Reach Method. Dr. Palisch will concurrently transition at Reach University to the role of senior advisor to the university president and CEO, Joe E. Ross.
Courtney Hills McBeth, WGU’s chief academic officer and provost, shared earlier this year in Paul Fain’s "The Job" that “We’re reimagining our teacher education model… Essentially taking the teacher apprenticeship model and embedding it in our curriculum. The university has learned from Reach, which has been a great partner.”
These efforts are part of NCAD’s ongoing commitment to open sourcing the Apprenticeship Degree and providing professional development and technical assistance for interested IHEs across the country. NCAD has conducted similar trainings for a network of education providers and industry partners in the health care sector convened by Bloomberg Philanthropies and Building Impact.
NCAD & Systemic Impact Efforts
WGU’s investment in work-based learning and Apprenticeship Degrees is a foundational milestone in a shared effort to embed on-the-job degrees and credentials throughout traditional higher education.
“To effectively usher in a new era of traditional higher ed, NCAD has strategically pursued regional, statewide, and national partnerships across workforce development interests,” said Dr. Eric Dunker, co-founder and Chief Executive of NCAD.
“WGU is setting a new national standard for every accredited college and university, demonstrating how collaboration can accelerate innovation and how work-based learning can serve a powerful cohort of learners ready for both college and career development. We celebrate WGU’s investment — alongside similar commitments from 20 other institutions of higher learning — and take pride in how workforce leaders have both embraced and planted a flag around work-based degrees and credentials,” continued Dunker.
WGU’s investment stands alongside a growing number of impactful NCAD proof points, including:
In Michigan, Talent Together Michigan, a superintendent-led teacher apprenticeship intermediary, is ensuring the state becomes a leader in creating home-grown teacher talent. In 2023, Michigan awarded $66.3 million to Talent Together in an effort to scale registered teaching Apprenticeship Degrees statewide. Talent Together is now on the way to serving thousands of Michigan paraeducators with no-cost and paid pathways to becoming licensed teachers. NCAD is providing deep technical support around U.S. Department of Labor compliance and set-up, data and evaluation, and program design.
“In reflecting on our year one outcomes from Talent Together, so much of which would not have been possible without NCAD,” said Jack Elsey, Founder & CEO of the Michigan Educator Workforce Initiative. “The pipeline for apprentices is real here in Michigan – the numbers are truly exciting, including over 1,350 teachers added to the educator workforce pipeline. Retention rates are exceptional, specifically for candidates of color, and as of this fall, 225 newly-certified teachers will lead their own classrooms, well-supported and better prepared. And we continue to witness high demand from future candidates. So…thank you. Looking forward to maintaining our rich partnership in the years ahead."
In Colorado, Colorado Mountain College (CMC) and CareerWise Colorado have developed a scalable teacher apprenticeship program. NCAD has worked closely with CMC faculty and staff for just under a year to redesign its teacher education program. The CMC program launched last month with over 50 apprentices from mostly lower-income families who will ultimately fill critical teaching roles in 10 school districts, where teachers are hard to come by. CMC will add enrollments it would not otherwise have had, deepen relationships with the communities it serves all while creating career opportunities for the new teachers. plans to scale to over 100 apprentices in 20 districts by 2025, providing equitable home-grown talent pathways for rural-mountain educators. We know that well-designed apprenticeship degree programs keep students in college and improve the lives of the new teachers.
“We’ve been fortunate to have some wonderful partnerships and collaboration with an Opportunity Now grant in Colorado with CareerWise Colorado, and also Reach University and the National Center for Apprenticeship Degree (NCAD),” said Dr. Liz Qualman, Director of Teacher Education at Colorado Mountain College on an episode of Apprenticeship 2.0. “So we feel like we have all the right people at the table to build an exceptional program.”
And beyond K-12, CommonSpirit Health, one of the country’s largest nonprofit health care companies, has launched medical assisting, surgical technology, pharmacy technician, medical lab technology, and sterile processing Apprenticeship Degrees, serving over 300 apprentices. NCAD continues to support CommonSpirit as they continue to look for innovative ways to upskill home-grown talent through apprenticeship degree pathways with local college partners.
"The NCAD Team is an outstanding group of individuals truly dedicated to helping grow the Apprenticeship Degree space,” said Jaime Pearson, MHA, Workforce Development & Talent Acquisition, CommonSpirit Health. “As an employer, they have helped remove barriers, brought forth creative & innovative ideas, and helped connect education and public partners to bring programs to life. NCAD has been an invaluable asset to our team. NCAD is going to help us grow Apprenticeship Degree programs across the US, and we're looking forward to continuing this partnership."
Learn more about NCAD’s technical assistance services and growing partner proof points below.
“Small Giant” Focused on Big Innovation
As Reach University works to achieve three million Apprenticeship Degree completions within the next decade, it will continue to explore groundbreaking innovation through its direct service and collective impact efforts. In the coming months, Reach expects to introduce additional Apprenticeship Degree innovations that build on the Reach Method and that are purposely replicable by other IHEs.
If you are interested in deploying your own Apprenticeship Degree, join us: https://www.ncad.org/
For Media Inquiries
Lauren Bauml
(512) 923-6136
LBauml@Reach.Edu