Each year, millions of America’s high school graduates face a difficult choice: Should they follow the pathway to a traditional university degree and hope it yields long-term financial stability and upward mobility? Or should they enter the workforce in an entry-level job and hope it yields long-term financial stability and upward mobility?
A traditional degree doesn’t guarantee financial freedom. Many graduates are burdened by student loan debt and underemployment. The median student loan debt ranges from $10,000 to $14,999, though a quarter of borrowers owe at least $25,000. Additionally, research from the Burning Glass Institute and the Strada Institute for the Future of Work indicates that 52% of bachelor’s degree graduates are employed in jobs that typically don’t require a college degree. Ten years later, that figure only drops to 45%. Meanwhile, many employers no longer regard a college degree as a gatekeeper credential for jobs, shifting from degree-based to skills-based hiring.
Clearly, college alone doesn’t guarantee labor market success. Furthermore, the idea that all high school graduates should attend college is no longer widely accepted. The 25-year mantra of “college for all” has lost its luster. According to the nonpartisan think tank Populace, when Americans ranked their priorities for K-12 education, “being prepared to enroll in a college or university” plummeted from the 10th highest priority (out of 57) in 2019 to 47th in 2022. After all, 62% of Americans don’t have a four-year degree.
Other surveys reveal a growing skepticism about the value of a four-year degree.8 More than half of Americans (56%) think a degree is not worth the cost, with skepticism most pronounced among college degree holders ages 18 to 34.
This situation has many interrelated causes, but policymakers’ chronic underinvestment in career education, workforce training, and alternative pathways to good jobs tops the list. Simply put, high school graduates and working-class Americans lack opportunities to access quality employment outside the traditional two- or four-year degree path.
All of this is a loud call for U.S. political leaders to reorient economic policy around the aspirations and values of America’s non-college majority. Americans want and need new pathways to financial prosperity and upward mobility. Polls and studies indicate that they view work-based learning, such as apprenticeships, as a promising solution to their current workforce challenges.9 The apprenticeship degree model is one of these emerging solutions.
Apprenticeship degrees anchor postsecondary education to paid workplace learning under the guidance of experienced mentors, establishing paid employment as a key component of the degree. The wages offset college expenses, enabling students to graduate with little to no debt, making the degree affordable. Students also receive academic credit for their on-the-job experiences and related classroom instruction, which leads to a degree over a period of two to six years, depending on the program.
The apprenticeship degree model is based on a new public-private partnership that positions apprenticeships as a new higher education pathway, expanding access to postsecondary education for individuals seeking alternatives to the traditional college experience. It also provides a talent pipeline for employers eager to hire candidates with real-world experience.
This report provides an overview of the American public’s demand for alternative pathways to a traditional college degree, with a focus on preparing individuals for the workforce. It then describes the emerging apprenticeship degree model as a compelling way to meet the demands for alternative pathways to workforce preparation. Finally, it proposes a variety of ways to sustainably finance this model, suggesting a blended funding approach.
