US adds only 194,000 jobs in September 0:55
(CNN) -
If you don't have a four-year college degree, you're not alone.
Most American adults of working age do not have one.
You may assume that you have little chance of developing a high-paying career with benefits and growth potential in a Fortune 500 company. After all, many jobs require a bachelor's degree.
But your chances may be better than you think, thanks to a growing network of white-collar apprenticeships that create jobs at front-line companies, including big tech players like Google, Amazon, and Salesforce.
Such programs result in paid on-the-job training, benefits, and access to employee and alumni networks.
Face reality
For the past five years, employers have been trying to figure out two things:
One is the long-predicted skilled labor shortage, especially in technology.
The other is the need to actively address systemic inequalities and unconscious biases in your hiring and promotion practices.
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To stay competitive, they have found that they have to broaden their search for high-potential candidates, as there is now greater recognition that no race, ethnicity, gender, zip code, or diploma has a monopoly on talent.
"We are a talent-based company. It is our only asset. So we expanded the opening," said Pallavi Verma, senior managing director at consulting firm Accenture, which created its first apprenticeship program in Chicago in 2016 and has had a few years since. 1,200 apprentices in 35 cities.
"[The program] is part of our talent strategy."
Year Up is an organization that provides free, college credit-eligible job training at 29 U.S. locations and like many nonprofits and community colleges across the country, partners with employers, such as Accenture, to find high potential learners.
Year Up specifically provides technical and business skills training to prepare potential candidates for a corporate job before recommending them to an employer.
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The group's primary mission is to help close the opportunity gap, especially for applicants who belong to minorities.
"Requiring a four-year college degree excludes 70% of Blacks and 80% of Latinos," said Morris Applewhite, Director of Corporate Engagement for Year Up.
A few years ago, Chance Rodnez, now 30, came to Accenture after graduating from one of the free Year Up programs. After working as an Accenture apprentice, he was hired full-time as a junior analyst.
Since then, he said, he has been promoted twice and now works as a senior cloud computing analyst.
"It has been a life-changing experience," Rodnez said.
Big Blue moves further towards skills-based hiring
IBM was one of the first technology companies to create an apprenticeship program, which began in 2017.
By the end of this year it will have trained more than 1,000 apprentices and hired most of them, said Kelli Jordan, IBM's director of career, skills and performance.
Their average apprentice salary is about 50% higher than the average local income where a person is working, according to the company.
And once someone is hired, you usually see an increase in salary from there.
Up to 20% of IBM jobs no longer require a four-year college degree, Jordan said.
Many people are quitting their jobs.
How to do it correctly?
But of course moving up the ladder of many large companies will eventually require candidates to have a bachelor's or higher degree.
Learners can also find support in that regard.
At IBM, for example, some of your training courses can earn you apprenticeship college credits, up to 45 for your software engineering apprenticeship.
At Bank of America, job candidates without college degrees are considered for entry-level and sometimes higher positions through an internal program called Pathways, which offers on-the-job and related training, a coach, as well as payment and benefits, including tuition reimbursement for college.
To date, the company has hired 10,000 people from low- and middle-income communities through the program.
However, it aims to hire 10,000 more by 2025.
More learnings are likely
There is reason to believe that the availability of apprenticeships and a greater emphasis on skills than on degrees in recruitment will grow.
Together with Aon, Accenture has created a playbook for other employers to use as a guide in creating their own apprenticeship programs.
Meanwhile, there is increased interest in closing the wealth and opportunity gaps.
Late last year, a coalition of CEOs formed OneTen, a nonprofit organization that aims to advance the goal of hiring, promoting, and advancing 1 million black people without four-year degrees "toward sustaining careers. the family "for the next decade.
And employers that don't have an infrastructure to directly hire, train, and coach high-potential apprenticeship candidates can now work with a company like Multiverse to help create and manage apprenticeship programs for them.
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The UK-based company was founded in 2016 and has just started operations in the United States this year.
Since its founding, it has provided research, training, coaching, networking and placement of 5,000 apprentices at more than 300 employers.
Slightly more than half of the participants in your program are people of color.
Meanwhile, half are women and a third come from low-income communities, the company said.
The vast majority of apprentices who complete their program stay with their companies for at least two years.
So far, Multiverse has acquired 12 US customers, including Google, Verizon, and Class Pass.
But that number could more than double by the end of the year, said Sophie Ruddock, vice president and general manager of its North American operations.
"We are seeing demand take off," he said.
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