Upward Apprenticeship Initiative: Supporting Apprenticeship Intermediaries and Community Colleges
Apprenticeships can help people gain skills, earn wages while they learn, and access family-sustaining careers. Yet many employers, educational institutions, and workforce organizations face challenges in developing and expanding apprenticeship opportunities. The Upward Apprenticeship Initiative helps strengthen the systems that support apprenticeships so more learners can access career pathways that lead to economic mobility.
The Upward Apprenticeship Initiative is a national effort led by AIR in partnership with Ascendium Education Group. Through technical assistance, research, peer learning, and field-building activities, the initiative helps strengthen apprenticeship systems, improve learner outcomes, and expand access to apprenticeship opportunities across the United States.
Christina Yancey
Vice President
Apprenticeship is one of the most powerful pathways to good jobs—yet it remains underused and out of reach for too many adults. The Upward Apprenticeship Initiative creates an opportunity to generate evidence and scale practices that expand impact.
Christina Yancey
Vice President
About the Initiative
The Upward Apprenticeship Initiative supports organizations that play critical roles in designing, delivering, and expanding apprenticeship opportunities.
Through coaching, peer learning, technical assistance, and applied research, the initiative helps organizations strengthen apprenticeship programs, increase employer engagement, and improve outcomes for learners pursuing career pathways through apprenticeship.
A defining feature of the initiative is its integration of practice and research. Insights generated through coaching, technical assistance, and peer learning inform ongoing research, while research findings are translated into tools, resources, and strategies that help organizations improve practice and drive systems change.
Strengthening Apprenticeship Intermediaries
The Strengthening Apprenticeship Intermediaries (SAI) component focuses on state and local apprenticeship intermediaries that help employers develop, launch, and expand apprenticeship programs.
Three year-long cohorts will each engage nine apprenticeship intermediaries in peer learning and continuous improvement activities. Participating organizations will strengthen employer engagement strategies, increase apprenticeship opportunities, and contribute lessons that can benefit the broader apprenticeship field.
Success Through College Apprenticeship and Learning Experiences (SCALE)
The Success through College Apprenticeship and Learning Experiences (SCALE) component focuses on community colleges as key partners in supporting apprentice recruitment, retention, and completion.
A three-year cohort of eight community colleges will participate in technical assistance and continuous learning activities designed to strengthen learner success. Participating colleges will improve recruitment and completion practices, enhance data use, and deepen understanding of the apprentice experience.
Research and Continuous Learning
Research is embedded throughout the initiative to identify what works, for whom, and under what conditions.
The initiative examines topics including employer engagement, apprenticeship intermediary practices, community college strategies, apprentice recruitment and persistence, data collection and measurement, systems change, and long-term sustainability.
Findings will inform project activities and contribute new evidence to the field about expanding apprenticeship opportunities, improving learner success, and promoting economic mobility.
