The Apprenticeship Outcomes Lab: Powering the Future of Work With Data, Tools, and Partnerships
Registered apprenticeship is a proven pathway to economic mobility, but it has not expanded at the pace demanded by today's workforce and economy. This is in part because employers, workers, and policymakers lack timely, useable information about its costs, benefits, and outcomes. Knowing which jobs and skills training actually pay off is challenging, and AI's rapid reshaping of work makes this even harder. Accessible information about the outcomes of different skilling and career choices is urgently needed.
In a joint partnership, AIR and the U.S. Census Bureau at the U.S. Department of Commerce established the Apprenticeship Outcomes Lab, a public-private data collaborative, in August 2026. In this Q&A, AIR Vice President Christina Yancey explains what the Lab is, its goals, and how it hopes to influence decisionmaking around apprenticeship programs.
Q. What is the Apprenticeship Outcomes Lab?
Yancey: The Apprenticeship Outcomes Lab is a growing partnership between AIR and the U.S. Department of Commerce established to answer questions the field has long struggled with. Using newly linked administrative records that connect Registered Apprenticeship data (Registered Apprenticeship Partners Information Database System, or RAPIDS, records) to employment and earnings outcomes, the Lab provides evidence on whether apprentices stay employed, how their earnings hold up over time, and what employers gain from hosting apprentices.
The Lab will be using these findings to develop practical tools to help program sponsors, employers, and public agencies guide their apprenticeship investments, while also giving individuals better information to compare apprenticeship with other education and training options.
Q: What are the goals of the Apprenticeship Outcomes Lab?
Yancey: The Lab serves two intertwining goals: to produce evidence and to create capacity for users. Through AIR’s work supporting registered apprenticeship, we hear all the time from our community partners that they need better information on which geographies, sectors, occupations apprenticeship are a good fit and for which workers and types of businesses it benefits. They need to access these insights quickly, easily, and without friction.
Christina Yancey
Vice President
Our vision for the Lab is to serve as the national evidence infrastructure and community of practice around apprenticeship outcomes.
Christina Yancey
Vice President
The Lab will create a feedback loop between data producers and data users, ensuring that public-facing tools, analyses, and resources evolve in response to real-world questions and decisionmaking needs. We will create apprenticeship evidence that is accessible, actionable, and responsive, while building the partnerships needed to sustain and continuously improve this national data resource over time.
Q: How will the information the Lab provides be different from what is available through existing data systems and evaluations?
Yancey: Existing data systems like RAPIDS allow decisionmakers to see apprenticeship participation and completion rates at an aggregate level, but not what happens at a more granular level or what happens afterwards—especially for the more than half of apprentices who don't complete their programs. Past evaluations, including those I sponsored as the Chief Evaluation Officer at the U.S. Department of Labor, were limited to specific states at a single point in time, with no way to track outcomes years later or compare across industries and program models.
The Lab changes what’s possible by linking RAPIDS data with IRS W-2 and other administrative records, creating longitudinal information on employment, earnings, and industry that follows apprentices well beyond program completion while maintaining rigorous privacy and confidentiality protections. The Census Bureau has already matched and validated these records, giving the Lab a strong foundation to build upon.
The Lab is also exploring partnerships for additional data integrations that can finally allow us to study, at scale, which industries produce the strongest wage outcomes, how different program models affect retention and earnings, and where employer engagement efforts matter most—insights previously impossible to generate.
Q: What will it mean for the Lab to be successful?
Yancey: The Lab will be successful if a wide range of stakeholders are making smart decisions around adopting apprenticeship programs and scaling them. We also hope to influence the development of outcomes labs for other skill systems. While the Lab is just getting off the ground, we are grateful to the many partners that are already supporting this important work. We are eager to grow our network of collaborators and encourage those who share a passion for apprenticeship and actionable data to get in touch.
