Money in jeopardy for program helping Wyoming adults go back to school

Europen-inspired apprenticeship programs in Indianapolis, Indiana, pay students to work and train for jobs allowing them to gain career experience and pay part, or all, of their college tuition before graduation.

As a stopgap solution to housing insecurity among students, Long Beach Community College launched the Safe Parking Program, which allows students to sleep in their cars in a designated lot that has Wi-Fi, bathrooms and showers, and security on duty. The pilot program started with 13 students and was later expanded to become a permanent offering.

As society debates the value of a traditional college degree, states, employers, and even colleges are opting to focus on apprenticeships that allow students to learn on the job and gain real-world experience while also being compensated for their work. Nationwide, there are about 680,000 registered apprentices working in fields ranging from information technology to aquaculture to fashion.

To quickly build a skilled workforce, two Kansas community colleges and Panasonic created an accelerated 8-week apprenticeship, funded by the company and featuring tailored classroom and practical training. The program aims to fast-track workers into Panasonic's new EV battery factory while providing clear career pathways through stackable credentials.

Shasta College partners with timber companies to help train apprentices for the industry, providing pre-apprenticeship coursework and helping to facilitate state and federal funding that offsets the cost of on-the-job training. So far, about 50 people have completed the pre-apprenticeship program, while 15 have completed the full apprenticeship.

After leveraging COVID-19 relief funding to make tuition free, campuses in the Peralta Community College District saw enrollment rebound nearly to pre-pandemic levels and the share of students of color and older students enrolled increase.

The Brazosport school district has a unique teacher apprenticeship program which covers the cost of aspiring teachers’ coursework and pays them to teach under a mentor educator for a full year. Twenty-five new teachers graduated from the program this year and will be required to work in the district for at least three years, and research shows that about 86 percent of educators who complete similar programs are still teaching in the same district after three years.

Co-op programs such as those at the University of Waterloo allow students to get paid for hands-on experience in their chosen field while also completing academic coursework. Last year, the university facilitated roughly 25,000 work terms across six academic faculties.

Through Chicago's early college high schools, which allow students to take college-level coursework while still working toward their diploma, about 600 students graduated this spring with at least 15 college credits, while 50 students earned a full associate's degree.

Dallas College’s success coaches provide more hands-on advising for students, helping them not only navigate their coursework and degree trajectory but also connect with resources such as help with transportation and food aid. The college has nearly 240 success coaches serving more than 64,500 students.