Apprenticeships are making a comeback

Recruiting a skilled labor force has always been a challenge for companies, but a proven method that goes back centuries is gaining renewed emphasis as the need for highly trained workers continues to grow.

Apprenticeships date back at least to the Middle Ages in Europe when professional guilds oversaw how skills like blacksmithing and the building trades were taught to new generations. According to educators and an increasing number of companies, that tradition is experiencing a rapid resurgence and is proving to be a highly effective way for firms to secure a growing pool of skilled workers.

BMW scholars Jude White and Ryan Rusche. Photo by Jay King

Growing your own talent

According to Jennifer Moorefield, associate vice president for economic development and corporate training at Greenville Technical College, apprenticeships are among the most effective methods for companies to develop a highly-skilled workforce in areas like advanced manufacturing.

The state’s technical and community colleges have decades of experience partnering with businesses to develop educational programs tailored to meet the training needs of industry, she says. This is especially true in fields requiring a high degree of technical training for robotics and mechatronics, precision machine tooling, electronics engineering, and automotive technology, among others.

Apprenticeships geared to a company’s specific needs help ensure a supply of critical workers. “Sponsoring an apprentice is a great way [for a company] to build the pipeline,” Moorefield says.

In South Carolina: There are 37,282 apprentices across 2,668 occupations

Jennifer Little, director of career services at Spartanburg Community College, says companies increasingly understand that apprenticeship programs are a highly effective way to secure the “best and brightest” talent.

She adds companies have also discovered the investments they make in apprentices tend to result in loyal employees. The skills apprentices acquire also tend to give them more job options.

“Our technicians coming out of these programs are highly sought after,” Little says.

Aerial footage shows the BMW plant in Spartanburg County. Photo provided.

BMW: A case study

Recognizing that the employees it trained to staff the company’s North American automotive manufacturing hub in Greer in the mid-1990s would eventually retire, BMW Manufacturing launched its Scholars program in 2011 to develop a pipeline of new talent.

BMW manager of talent programs and training Paul Sinanian says the company recognized that the traditional method of just hiring new workers from an existing talent pool would not be sufficient to meet the company’s needs. From that recognition the Scholars program was born.

BMW works primarily with four area technical colleges — Spartanburg Community College, and Greenville, Tri-County and Piedmont technical colleges — where students take classes full time and apprentice at BMW about 20-25 hours a week.

Alicia Hyder is a 2019 graduate of the program who now works at the Greer plant. She says the real-world experience was an invaluable part of her education.

“I enjoyed that I was able to do hands-on work while working on my degree,” she says.

Hyder has since received a bachelor’s degree in engineering technology management from USC-Upstate while working for BMW.

Sinanian says the company is looking to expand the Scholars program beyond high school to include middle school students in the future as the technical demands of advanced manufacturing processes continue to grow.

“Our job is to expand the pipeline outside the company,” Sinanian says. “Every opportunity to bring more into the pipeline, we’re exploring.”