Apprenticeships can be lifeline for 177,000 idle Illinois youth

Apprenticeships are a great alternative to a college degree, and there is high demand in Illinois. They can help the 177,000 Illinois youths who are out of work and out of school.

There’s a brewing crisis among Illinois’ youth: they are neither in school nor working. This problem, called “disconnection,” weakens the labor force, increases crime and incarceration rates, restricts opportunity and perpetuates the cycle of intergenerational poverty.

There is a proven solution. Youth apprenticeship can empower, engage and help young people stay connected.

Youth unemployment in Illinois, the number of 16- to 24-year-olds searching for work, was 10.3% in June. That’s 1.4 percentage points higher than the national average. Unemployment among Black and Hispanic 16- to 19-year-olds in Illinois was worse, at 11.3% and 17.0%.

Although youth unemployment in Illinois is worrisome, a more insidious problem has presented itself: high youth disconnection. Youth disconnection is the number of teens and young adults who are neither in school nor working.

These are the young people who are not graduating high school or college. They are twice as likely to live in poverty, and they frequently suffer from family and housing instability. These youth are not merely unable to find work; they are demotivated from searching for it altogether.

In 2021, there were 177,100 disconnected young Illinoisans. That’s 177,100 young Illinoisans whose access to opportunity and pathways to prosperity and wellbeing are at risk.

Without education or employment to occupy individuals’ time and help build their skills, resources and social networks, disconnected youth are vulnerable to hazards that reinforce the cycle of poverty into adulthood. Disconnection is correlated with a higher risk of substance abuse, committing and becoming the victim of crime, incarceration and unstable relationships.

Not only does disconnection harm individuals, but it also costs the public. It is estimated disconnected teens and young adults can cost U.S. taxpayers between $26.8 billion to $93 billion annually, in terms of lower tax contributions and higher reliance on social services.

Illinois’ troubled education system is a major factor in the high numbers of jobless and out-of-school youth. Data from the 2023 Illinois Report Card illustrates the education system’s failings in skills development and student engagement:

• 65% of Illinois students were not reading at grade level.

• 73% of students were not doing math at grade level.

• 28% of students were chronically absent, meaning they missed 10% or more of their school year.

Additionally, increasing financial hurdles to postsecondary education drive young people to drop out of school and reduce their participation in the labor force. Illinois has the sixth-highest in-state college tuition in the nation, contributing to the recent declines in enrollment among continuing undergraduate students at all but three public universities in Illinois.

When they do enroll in college, many young Illinoisans are not graduating. Illinois has a college graduation rate of 47.98%, ranking 30 in the nation. Research from the University of Chicago found 44.2% of Chicago Public Schools’ 2015 graduating class who enrolled in a four-year college and 67.5% who enrolled in a two-year college did not complete a degree or certificate by 2022. The result of enrolling and not graduating college: a lot of debt, a lack of experience and limited odds of success in a tight labor market.

Skills-deficiency, poor school attendance, less educational attainment and unemployment imperil students’ path to prosperity.

There is a lifeline for at-risk youth to stay connected to school and work: expand youth apprenticeships. Apprenticeships are paid work-based learning programs built on cohesive partnerships between employers and educators. They can help Illinois’ disconnected youth.

Apprenticeships foster student motivation and workforce preparation. They have proven income benefits: 93.0% of apprentices are employed at an average salary of $77,000. Apprenticeships include numerous roles in traditional trade sectors, such as construction and manufacturing, but also roles in health care, tech, finance and more. Youth apprenticeships, which align education with labor market needs, empower students for future success.

Youth disconnection

Illinois’ rate of youth disconnection, the percentage of 16- to -24-year-olds who are neither working nor in school, was 12.0% in 2021. The state had the second highest rate in the Midwest after Michigan.

School closures and disruptions during the pandemic certainly worsened youth disconnection rates. For example, Chicago saw an increase from 12.3% in 2019 to 15.4% in 2021. It remains a serious problem four years after the pandemic.

According to a study by the University of Illinois Chicago’s Great Cities Institute, 8.3% of 16- to -19-year-olds and 15.6% of 20- to 24-year-olds in Chicago in 2022 were neither in school nor working, exceeding both the state and national percentages. That is over 45,000 young Chicagoans.

In Illinois and Chicago, the inequity of disconnection is striking, impacting low-income Black and Hispanic youth the hardest. In 2022, 17.5% of Black 16- to -19-year-olds and 29.6% of Black 20- to -24-year-olds in Chicago were neither in school nor working. This is more than four times the percentage of their white counterparts. There were 5.4% of Hispanic 16- to 19-year-olds and 15.2% of Hispanic 20- to -24-year-olds in Chicago disconnected in 2022.

Research shows youth disconnection hinders young people from developing skills, experience, resources, and connections needed to navigate the labor market and obtain work.

Skills and engagement

To break the cycle of poverty and thrive in the labor market, young people need a mixture of academic, technical and soft skills, such as problem solving. Recent survey data reveals nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults don’t believe their local school adequately advances such skills, and 51% of Gen-Zers don’t believe their education has prepared them for the workforce.

Illinois public schools are no exception. The public education system’s failure to sufficiently advance skills and facilitate engagement is evidenced by students’ low levels of proficiency in basic subjects and high rates of chronic absenteeism.

Only 22.3% of Chicago Public Schools’ 11th grade students were proficient in reading in 2023 and only 19.1% were proficient in math. Among Black CPS students in 2023, only 10.7% were proficient in reading and 7.7% were proficient in math.

Nearly 40% of students in CPS suffered from chronic absenteeism. This also disproportionately impacts Black and Hispanic students. Chronic absenteeism among Black CPS students in 2023 was 45.8% and 40.3% among Hispanic students.

Youth apprenticeship

There is a way to help Illinois’ teens and young adults build skills and stay connected to school and work: expand youth apprenticeships.

The Illinois Career Pathways Dictionary defines “youth apprenticeship” as paid work-based learning for 16- to 24-year-olds enrolled in secondary education or pursuing an equivalency. Youth apprenticeship programs must include the following:

1. 1. 1. • 450 hours of paid on-the-job training.
         • Structured, classroom-based technical instruction.
         • Regular skill-competency and progress assessments.
         • Career exploration opportunities.
         • Student support services, such as case management or counseling, and additional skills advancement opportunities.
         • Application assistance, upon program completion, for entry-level employment, admission to a registered or non-registered apprenticeship program or admission to other post-secondary education options.

Upon completion of a youth apprenticeship, students can earn a secondary, post-secondary or industry credential.

Although apprenticeship has been associated with traditional trade occupations such as construction, automotive repair, plumbing or electrical wiring, it can also encompass a wide range of roles in high-demand sectors. The Chicago Apprentice Network, for example, offers programs in cybersecurity, nursing, accounting, retail management, insurance services, corporate IT and more.

Illinois has 21,905 active registered apprentices. About 45% are aged 24 or younger. Few are enrolled in programs solely for youth. In 2021, only 57 youth apprentices in Illinois were registered in such programs. Illinois had the fewest registered apprentices in programs specifically for youth in comparison to all its Midwest neighbors.

Illinois should expand its youth apprenticeship infrastructure through the reallocation of funds to help deter youth disconnection and unemployment in the state. This proven work-based education model enhances students’ skills and engagement.

First, youth apprentices gain real-world work experience and enhance their technical and academic skills, enabling their success in the labor market. Research shows those who complete vocational training, which includes apprenticeship programs, are hired at a higher rate than those with either a bachelor’s or graduate degree.

More than 71% of graduates from The Wisconsin Youth Apprenticeship Program were offered continued employment. Results from other countries also reveal youth apprenticeships’ impact on employment. In Germany, more than half of all youth enroll in an apprenticeship. The country has the lowest levels of youth unemployment among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, at 6.6% in June.

Through youth apprenticeship, students experience navigating the day-to-day challenges of the workplace, from managing deadlines to dealing with difficult colleagues. This builds their interpersonal communication, independence, resilience and confidence. The very capacities, alleged by older generations, that Gen-Z lacks in the workplace.

Additionally, the adult supervision and mentorship provided through youth apprenticeship can give teens and young adults the opportunity to accumulate social capital, an important factor for  labor market success and economic mobility. Mentorship gives youth apprentices access to resources, information, industry connections and referrals.

Second, apprenticeship engages students by giving their academic instruction a real-world setting. Contextualized learning and work-based learning have been found to positively impact students’ critical thinking skills and boost their motivation.

When students are more motivated, they are less likely to experience chronic absenteeism and less likely to drop out. These are key factors in preventing youth disconnection. One study found enhanced engagement and motivation in California schools decreased chronic absenteeism by 52.3% and decreased the drop-out rate by 76.5%.

After School Matters is a Chicago non-profit that has created youth apprenticeships and paid internships throughout the city since 1991. It has seen positive student outcomes. A study found After School Matters’ participants missed fewer days of school and were 2.7 times more likely to graduate than non-participants.

As this evidence shows, expanding youth apprenticeship can help keep young Illinoisans connected to school and provide a pathway to long-term success in the workforce.

Recommendations

Despite its many benefits, Illinois’ investment in youth apprenticeship remains paltry. Illinois dedicated only slightly more than $28 million to secondary school programs in 2022, the least amount dedicated out of the top seven most populous states.

Illinois had 20,417 total active apprentices in 2023, but only about 3,218 apprentices completed programs on average during the past five years. According to a 10-year employment projection, Illinois will have about 148,749 job openings within the top apprenticeable sectors in 2032. That’s about 14,875 new jobs Illinois will need to fill each year, with the need growing.

Up to 11,657 more apprenticeship completers per year could help meet future employment demands. At an average cost of $4,770 per apprentice, to meet the state’s future need through expanding apprenticeship, Illinois should spend up to approximately $55.6 million on apprenticeship infrastructure per year. That’s up to an additional $6.9 million annually.

In comparison, Illinois currently allocates $2.6 billion for higher education, more than 90 times the amount currently invested in apprenticeships. A large portion of that university funding isn’t spent on students or faculty: it’s spent on administrative bloat.

In 2023 there were 2,715 university administrators, of which 73.3% received a base salary of $100,000 or more, totaling more than $287 million. If just 3.0% of that was reallocated to secondary-level youth apprenticeship, Illinois would have an additional $6,939,631.7 and spend almost as much as Ohio, a leader in career and technical education.

Other barriers to expanding youth apprenticeship include registration requirements and regulations that deter employers and make apprenticeships difficult to adapt outside trade occupations, a lack of public awareness and stigmatization of apprenticeship as inferior to the college-career pathway.

Illinois can reduce these barriers by:

• Reallocating funds from higher education administrative bloat to youth apprenticeship, making investment between apprenticeships and higher education more equitable and helping destigmatize vocational education.

1. 1. • Simplifying program registration and providing customizable occupational frameworks, to ease employer and intermediary participation.
      • Incentivizing “high intervention” intermediaries who can help register youth programs, recruit apprentices, provide training and serve as the employer of record.
      • Increasing marketing and community outreach efforts to help intermediaries promote apprenticeships, particularly for non-traditional industries or occupations.
      • Encouraging cross-sector, cross-industry, and cross-institutional partnerships and coalitions to support youth apprenticeship expansion and program cohesion.

Implementing these recommendations can help grow Illinois’ youth apprenticeship system, strengthening its workforce and keeping its at-risk youth connected to school and work.