The Apprenticeship Outcomes Lab: Turning Data Into Smarter Workforce Decisions
As employers, workers, and policymakers navigate rapid changes in the labor market, they need information about which training pathways lead to strong career outcomes. Registered Apprenticeship is a proven strategy for developing talent and advancing economic mobility, but to be more intentional with these efforts, decision-makers also need timely, accessible evidence about long-term employment outcomes, earnings growth, and return on investment.
To address this need, AIR and the U.S. Census Bureau have established the Apprenticeship Outcomes Lab, a first-of-its-kind public-private data collaborative dedicated to expanding the evidence base on apprenticeship outcomes. The Lab links Registered Apprenticeship Partners Information Database System (RAPIDS) records with employment, earnings, and other administrative data to create a longitudinal view of apprenticeship outcomes across industries, occupations, and regions.
The Lab goes beyond research. It transforms apprenticeship data into practical tools, metrics, and insights that help employers, program sponsors, workers, and policymakers make informed workforce investment decisions. By connecting data producers and data users, the Lab ensures that evidence remains relevant to the workforce challenges stakeholders face. The Lab is helping build a national evidence infrastructure for apprenticeship.
How the Lab Works
The goal of the lab is to give states and other decisionmakers the tools and resources they need to scale apprenticeship, through three projects that ensure its evidence is rigorous, accessible, and useful:
Apprenticeship Outcomes Engine
The Engine is built on a first-of-its-kind linkage of longitudinal Registered Apprenticeship records with employment, earnings, employer, and other economic data, and serves as the foundation for the entire Lab. With these data, the Engine studies what apprenticeship returns to workers and employers over time and the conditions associated with stronger outcomes.
Apprenticeship Outcome Portal
The Portal will be an open-access website that makes the Lab's data and research available to the public through interactive tools and dashboards. State leaders, employers, practitioners, and researchers will be able to use it to explore apprenticeship outcomes in their own state or region.
Apprenticeship Outcomes Research for Scale
Research for Scale will engage state apprenticeship leaders and other field partners in the design and development of the Lab's research and tools, so that the work reflects how decisions about apprenticeship growth are made and what evidence those decisions require. Lessons from these partners will inform the Lab's research agenda and the products it builds.
Why AIR
AIR brings deep expertise in apprenticeship, workforce development, and evidence-based decision-making. Through decades of work with federal agencies, states, employers, and workforce organizations, AIR has helped strengthen workforce programs and build the evidence needed to improve outcomes.
Through the Lab, AIR combines rigorous research, stakeholder engagement, and evidence translation with the U.S. Census Bureau's data capabilities. The result is actionable insights, metrics, and tools that help employers, policymakers, and program sponsors make smarter apprenticeship investments and strengthen workforce pathways.
Our Projects
Upward Apprenticeship Initiative: Supporting Apprenticeship Intermediaries and Community Colleges
The Upward Apprenticeship Initiative is a multiyear effort to expand the reach and impact of apprenticeship, especially for low income adults.
Strengthening the Apprenticeship Pipeline: State Strategies for Expanding Pre-Apprenticeship
AIR conducted a nationwide survey of state and territory approaches to pre‑apprenticeship and developed case studies of two states with robust pre‑apprenticeship efforts: Pennsylvania and South Carolina.
What Works to Expand Apprenticeships at the State Level
Between 2016 and 2025, AIR’s apprenticeship team supported states to expand the use of apprenticeship as a key workforce development strategy.
How Industry Intermediaries Strengthen Apprenticeship Systems
Since 2020, AIR has worked with the U.S. Department of Labor as an industry intermediary to drive the creation of new apprenticeship programs with the goal to increase and diversify the tech talent pool in America.
Enhancing Electrician Apprenticeship Selection and Retention
AIR works with the electrical training ALLIANCE’s apprenticeship program to conduct job analysis and implement and test apprentice selection procedures.
