Just 3,200 Illinoisans complete apprenticeships each year despite potential to fill nearly 150,000 job openings

Declining reading and math scores decrease opportunity for students in Illinois. Apprenticeships, which provide paid on-the-job training and classroom instruction, are an in-demand alternative to a college degree that can build key skills and help meet future employment needs.

Illinois’ unemployment rate is 5.5%. Among 20- to 24-year-olds, it’s 7.8%. In fact, many Illinoisans ages 16 – 24 are neither working nor in school. Illinois’ public schools contribute to this problem by insufficiently preparing students, especially those from low-income households, for college or careers. Under preparation increases the risk of negative social and economic outcomes.

Youth apprenticeships, however, can expand opportunity for Illinois students. With $9 million, or 3%, of what the state spends on some higher education administration salaries ─ Illinois could foster a thriving youth apprenticeship system.

The 1.4 million Illinoisans living in poverty, of which 39% are Black and Hispanic and about 29.0% are children age 17 and younger, are most vulnerable to consequences of the opportunity gap. The opportunity gap between young people across different socioeconomic and demographic backgrounds in Illinois prevents students from unlocking their full potential.

Disparities in skills further compound the opportunity gap. For example, many low-income youths are hindered by weak reading and math skills. A 28- and 30-point gap exists between low-income and non-low-income students in math and reading proficiency at Illinois public schools. As part of the national epidemic of declining reading and math scores among American students, only 21% of low-income 3rd through 8th graders in Illinois are proficient in reading and only 13% are proficient in math.

Poor proficiency in these foundational academic skills reduces students’ opportunity to achieve long-term prosperity. Skills-deficient students are four times more likely to not graduate high school. They are also more likely to have weaker future employment prospects, lower salaries, negative physical health outcomes and less psychological wellbeing.

To reach students early and narrow the gaps in skills and opportunity, Illinois should increase its investment in youth apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are paid work-based learning opportunities, and they are not restricted to construction and manufacturing trades.

The top apprenticeships in 2023 included:

• Nursing
• Human resources
• Software development
• Data analysis

Apprenticeships create diverse talent pipelines, build crucial skills that students need to thrive in school and in the workforce, and support social mobility and the American opportunity ideal. They increase employment outcomes, offer an above national average starting salary of $77,000 and can provide $300,000 in additional lifetime income and benefits.

Inadequate K-12 preparation

Education is vital to equal opportunity and social mobility, entwined themes of the American Dream. A quality education is what makes equal opportunity possible. A 2023 report from the Archbridge Institute identifies “education and skills development” as one of the four key components of social mobility.

Nevertheless, public schools in Illinois, at both the K-12 and college levels, are failing to provide the quality education and skills development that Illinois students need for future success. This perpetuates the opportunity gap.

Illinois’ K-12 public schools are woefully underserving students, despite the state increasing spending to nearly $24,000 per pupil and Chicago Public Schools increasing spending to about $30,000 per pupil in 2023. Roughly two-thirds of Illinois 3rd through 8th graders were not reading at or above grade level, and 73% were not doing math at or above grade level. Among CPS 3rd through 8th graders, 74% were not reading at or above grade level, and 83% were not doing math at or above grade level.

Among low-income 11th grade CPS students, about 86% were not proficient in reading in 2023 and 88% were not proficient in math. Among Black CPS students in 2023 the lack of proficiency is even more concerning. 89% were not proficient in reading and 92% were not proficient in math.

Inadequate K-12 preparation leads students to miss out on opportunities in college and beyond. Research shows lack of preparation is among the four main barriers to college completion, especially for low-income students. Foundational reading and math skills are also strongly linked to employment outcomes and increased earning potential.

Studies find quality education provides substantial long-term benefits for children from disadvantaged families. In addition to improved economic and education outcomes, other positive social outcomes include reduced rates of teenage pregnancy, criminal activity, substance abuse and welfare dependence.

College and the opportunity gap

In principle, a college education promises to increase an individual’s chances of rising out of poverty. Poor rates of graduation, questionable return on investment, and inadequate workforce preparation and skills development prevent Illinois’ public colleges and universities from upholding that promise. This too perpetuates the opportunity gap.

Less than half of students at public universities in Illinois, about 39%, are graduating, slightly above national average. A University of Chicago study found only 55.8% of CPS’ 2015 cohort who enrolled in a four-year college and 32.5% who enrolled in a two-year college completed a degree by 2022, below national average for the 2015 cohort at both types of public institutions.

Nationally, the gap between low-income and non-low-income students’ in bachelor’s degree completion is 45 percentage points. When students enroll in college but fail to complete a degree, they are burdened by debt and left with fewer resources to navigate the labor market.

Those who graduate may still struggle to obtain work. The national unemployment rate for recent bachelor’s degree recipients is 12.9%. With the sixth-highest in-state college tuition in the nation, Illinois’ public undergraduate programs placed the worst in the Midwest in return on investment in 2022. 150,475 Illinoisans with a bachelor’s degree or higher, were living in poverty in 2022. Illinois’ college graduate poverty rate is 4.5%, ranking 28th in the nation.

After college, some students remain unemployable in their field of study. 46.0% of surveyed employers reported they had to provide remedial training to recent graduates to get them up to speed, and nearly one in five employers reported that recent graduates with four-year degrees needed workforce readiness training. This is an extra business cost, added to the average $1,252 per employee that is already spent by employers on new-hire development.

Students’ lack of workforce-readiness is in part due to both K-12 and higher education’s misalignment between curriculum and industry-needs. Research indicates that the lack of university faculty with relevant private-sector experience and limited employer engagement with academic programs contribute to this misalignment. Missing in-demand skills, such as career-specific technical and digital skills, restricts students’ opportunity for future success.

39% of college graduates reported they did not apply to an entry-level role due to lacking necessary skills. For instance, entry-level jobs in numerous industries are now reliant on workers with digital competency, and 90% of jobs in Illinois require digital skills. Without such skills, young Illinoisans will struggle to obtain employment. Digital skills deficiency, often due to limited access to technology resources outside of school and inadequate training in school, disproportionately impacts low-income individuals and results in lower earnings potential.

Expand youth apprenticeships in Illinois

To close the opportunity gap, Illinois students need:

• K-12 and college curriculum focused on skills development, in alignment with current and future industry needs.
• More work-based learning and professional network-building opportunities at both the secondary and post-secondary levels.
• Awareness and access to affordable, effective career pathways and college alternatives.

To make this a reality for Illinois students, there is a simple solution. Support and expand apprenticeships, by increasing the quality and quantity of programs for youth and programs outside of traditional trade occupations.

Youth apprenticeships are rigorous work-based learning opportunities that combine classroom instruction and on-the-job training from a seasoned mentor. They typically last a few years, and at the end, students earn a secondary, post-secondary or industry credential.

And the best part? They are paid from the start. Ryan Craig, author of Apprentice Nation and co-founder of Apprenticeships for America, lauds apprenticeship as a much needed alternative from college’s unpredictable “pay-to-train-and-pray-that-employment-follows” model to a more empowering “earn-while-you-learn” approach.

While apprenticeships have historically been most prevalent for trade occupations, like construction, manufacturing, plumbing or automotive repair, this education model is adaptable for a wide range of other high-demand jobs, as shown in the table below. Apprenticeships in cybersecurity, health care and finance are all available through the Chicago Apprentice Network.

Illinois should continue to support and increase youth apprenticeships in non-traditional, high-demand fields. Doing so can help Illinois narrow the opportunity gap.

Apprenticeships offer students an education with little or no debt, and they increase students’ chances of employment post completion, frequently at a higher than average starting salary. They also enhance students’ confidence in the return on their educational investment and build a sense of occupational pride.

Illinois should work to balance its investment between higher education and apprenticeships. It can do so by reallocating funds away from bloated areas of the higher education budget to expanding youth apprenticeships. Illinois offers meager funding for youth apprenticeship, at slightly more than $28 million for secondary-school programs in 2022. By contrast, Illinois allocated $2.6 billion to higher education in 2024, more than 90 times the amount invested in apprenticeships.

A substantial portion of public university funds are not supporting students, but rather they are covering the cost of increasing administrative bloat. The number of administrators at public universities in Illinois increased about 10% between 2015 and 2024. Meanwhile faculty only increased 2.4% and student enrollments decreased by about 5.3% during the same period. There are more than 2,700 university administrators, of which 73.3% receive a base salary of $100,000 or more, totaling more than $326 million.

What should Illinois be spending on youth apprenticeships? According to a 10-year employment projection, Illinois will have 148,079 job openings in the top apprenticeable sectors in 2032. Only about 3,218 apprentices in Illinois completed programs on average over the past five years. Up to 11,590 more apprenticeship completers per year will be needed to help fill approximately 14,808 new jobs and satisfy future employment demand.

At an average cost of $4,770 per apprentice, Illinois should spend approximately $55.3 million on apprenticeships per year. That’s an additional $6.6 million annually. If just 3.0% of what was spent on college administrators’ exorbitant salaries was reallocated to youth apprenticeship, Illinois would have an additional $9,802,783 and spend almost as much as Ohio, a leader in career and technical education.

In addition to reallocating funds to expand apprenticeship, Illinois should also:

• Develop statewide marketing efforts to raise public awareness and destigmatize vocational education.
• Prioritize investment in building a system of “high intervention” apprenticeship intermediaries to help register programs and recruit participants.
• Build customizable occupational frameworks, or detailed guides on the required skills-competencies and responsibilities related to specific occupations, which employers can easily adapt to develop programs for their individual needs.
• Simplify program registration.
• Encourage partnerships across industries, institutions and communities.

If Illinois can strive to prioritize investment in youth apprenticeship, the state will help narrow the opportunity gap for many young Illinoisans. This is the way to ensure the promise of public education and equitably uphold the ideal of the American Dream.