Apprentice Nation: How the "Earn and Learn" Alternative to Higher Education Will Create a Stronger and Fairer America (2023, BenBella Books) offers "commentary, critique, and potential solutions to the problem of obtaining economical and equitable educational opportunities and entry into the workforce for all."
March 14, 2025
In the current political climate, it is difficult to find a topic on which people from both sides of the aisle agree. Apprentice Nation: How the “Earn and Learn” Alternative to Higher Education Will Create a Stronger and Fairer America (BenBella Books), has blurbs on its cover from both a Republican and a Democrat. Throughout the book, author Ryan Craig provides commentaries and quotes from politicians in both parties as he explains the value of apprenticeships and the policies and procedures that have challenged the growth of apprenticeships in the U.S. He notes that expanding apprenticeships has bipartisan support and has been a priority for over 10 years.
Craig has a vested interest in apprenticeships as his firm, Achieve Partners, and a nonprofit for which he is a founding board member, Apprenticeships for America, both work in the learning and employment space. In the introduction, Craig lays out his argument for how the skills and experience gaps, which he states exist for workers today, could be solved by apprenticeships. His book offers a self-described road map for how America can become an apprentice nation. While it can be challenging to keep up with the alphabet soup of acronyms, this book offers commentary, critique, and potential solutions to the problem of obtaining economical and equitable educational opportunities and entry into the workforce for all.
Craig splits his book into five parts. Part I, “College Nation,” begins with an overview of the history of apprenticeships in America. Craig ends Chapter 1 by identifying the most significant barrier as the rise of college. Chapter 2 explains why colleges are problematic, beginning with how removed colleges are from the real world.
In Part II, “Learning to Love Apprenticeships,” Craig looks outside the U.S. to what other countries have done in the realm of apprenticeships. Craig begins Part III, “Becoming an Apprentice Nation,” with the role of intermediaries. Craig explains that intermediaries are the key to the success of apprenticeships in the U.S. Specifically, he identifies the importance of what are considered high-intervention, heavy-lift activities being done by intermediaries. He suggests that companies doing what he calls “Hire-Train-Deploy (HTD)” will be at the apex of the apprenticeship generation.
Part IV, “Apprentice Nation,” begins with an explanation of how hiring currently works in the U.S., including how the digitization of hiring has impacted job seekers. He terms the system “pedigree- and degree-based hiring.” His solution to the inequities this system causes is hiring that is skills-based. Craig explains, “In the AI era, the future of career launch and socioeconomic mobility will depend on scaling pathways that not only teach but also provide work experience.” Finally, in Part V, “Directory of U.S. Apprenticeship Programs,” Craig provides information about non-construction sector apprenticeships in the U.S., including contact information.
Apprentice Nation should be read by anyone who is interested in the “Earn and Learn” model and understanding how the U.S. can encourage and grow apprenticeships for youth and adults.
Karen S. Kopitsky (kkopitsk@charlotte.edu) is a doctoral student at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte.