CSG, DIAG USA Lead Apprenticeship Study Trip to Germany
By Mary Wurtz and Miriam Farnbauer
That was one of the biggest takeaways for Cynthia Urban, executive director of the Pennsylvania Senate Education Committee, after traveling to Germany in September 2023 with DIAG USA to learn about the German apprenticeship model.
In September 2023, thanks to funding from the German Foreign Ministry and the Goethe Institut, DIAG USA hosted a Transatlantic Apprenticeship Study Trip and convened policymakers, state apprenticeship and workforce professionals, higher education leaders, industry partners and policy researchers for a six-day study tour of Stuttgart, Munich, Bayreuth and Berlin to deepen their understanding of the German Dual Education System and ideate on how to grow apprenticeships in the United States.
Participants visited German companies, vocational schools, educator preparation providers and chambers of commerce and industry to better understand how industries train their current and future workforce through apprenticeship. The study trip finished off with a visit to the German Foreign Ministry and the U.S. Embassy in Berlin.
In the German Dual Education System, apprenticeship — a combination of on-the-job training and classroom instruction — is fully incorporated into the education system. Vocational schools are fully publicly funded, and high school-aged students spend part of each week studying and the other part of the week working for a company. This cooperation between education and industry is enshrined in German law.
“One thing that I really enjoyed about Germany was how clear the role of industry was for everyone involved.”
Denise Miller, Director of Apprenticeship, Colorado Department of Labor and Employment
This approach contrasts with the American Registered Apprenticeship system, which is governed by the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Apprenticeship. The Office of Apprenticeship has begun to encourage greater partnerships between the K-12 education system and industry through new initiatives like Youth Apprenticeship Week and the promotion of pre-apprenticeships, job exploration programs to help prepare young people to enter a Registered Apprenticeship Program. However, integration of apprenticeship with education is rarely the norm.
“One thing that I really enjoyed about Germany was how clear the role of industry was for everyone involved,” said Denise Miller, state director of apprenticeship for the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment and a study trip participant. “In the United States, we use the term ‘industry-led’ as part of apprenticeship, but that term has gotten a bit muddled.”
Jon Caffery, regional director of employer engagement, talent development and retention at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California, had similar takeaways on the relationship between labor and education.
“There’s been a real disconnect,” Caffery said, referring to the funding for upskilling and retraining dollars available through the K-12 Strong Workforce Program, an initiative of the California Community College System. These funds, which support on-the-job training, technical instruction and other resources, often remain disconnected from apprenticeship.
Caffery proposed linking these training dollars from local workforce boards with apprenticeship initiatives. By collaborating with industry to understand their needs, he explained, colleges, workforce boards and apprenticeship intermediaries could work together to “actually drive the workforce development together.” He also added that stronger engagement between the K-12 education system and industry is essential to expand apprenticeship programs in the long run.
Study trip participants also remarked on how well-prepared German students are for what comes next for them after secondary school.
“Our students really have no idea even when they graduate high school, even when they go to college, what their job is going to be,” Caffery said about American high school students. “It was really surprising to me that students in Germany know what they’re going to be doing when they’re in high school.”
Urban, a former teacher, had similar takeaways on how the German system better primes young people for specific career paths.
“I didn’t realize how blended the experience was [in Germany],” Urban said. “I did a semester of student teaching, and that was the only hands-on, practical experience I got for my trade, which in this case was education. But for them, they’re going to school and getting the hands-on experience in a blended way all week long, and I think that’s so important.”
Caffery, Miller and Urban all agreed that there is a lot they learned from the study trip that can be brought back to the United States.
According to Miller, her office, Apprenticeship Colorado, and the Colorado Legislature have been working recently to better integrate apprenticeship into K-12 schooling. Thanks to funding allocated in 2024, Colorado will now have two full-time positions in the state career and technical education office and within Apprenticeship Colorado to provide technical assistance around implementing apprenticeships within the education system.
In California, Caffery has been working with stakeholders in Orange County to promote a regional intermediary model for sponsoring Registered Apprenticeship Programs, which is similar to the models and the role played by chambers of commerce and industry in Germany. An apprenticeship intermediary can sponsor apprenticeship programs on behalf of employers, help develop apprenticeship standards and curriculum, and provide technical assistance to ease some of the burdens placed on employers who want to develop apprenticeships.
In July 2024, the Biden-Harris administration announced $244 million in new investments into the U.S. apprenticeship system, signaling that apprenticeship is only likely to grow in popularity over the next several years.
“The message to kids, even when I was in school, was ‘you’re not going to amount to anything if you don’t go to college,’” Urban said. “Thankfully, the pendulum has swung back in the other direction.”
As that “pendulum” continues to swing in the other direction, states can look to Germany and other transatlantic partners to learn how apprenticeship can provide a meaningful, fulfilling alternative pathway.
DIAG USA
is a nonprofit foundation founded in 2015 that brings together stakeholders at a local, regional and national level to promote and implement apprenticeship programs based on the German Dual Education System. This dual training system is business-driven and ensures that apprentices meet the employers’ demands of today. DIAG USA acts as an apprenticeship intermediary to provide guidance for schools and employers to accomplish their goals and to ensure that these critical collaborations are built in long-lasting and sustainable ways by providing innovative career training programs to empower a skilled workforce.