The making of a highly skilled worker

HR Magazine, July, 1994 by Beth Rogers

For companies that are or will be experiencing labor shortages, apprenticeship programs are a way to groom ideal employees.

Developing an apprenticeship program isn't entirely altruistic, it makes economic sense. At least that's the corporate philosophy of German-owned Siemens Stromberg-Carlson, a company that has developed successful apprenticeship programs for 100 years.

Gary Garman, manager of training and development at the company's Lake Mary, Fla., plant, explains why such programs are necessary: "We didn't feel like we had totally capable workers--we had a hard time finding good, entry-level technicians. And, it took them a long time to get up to speed and be as good as we needed them to be."

The plant's technician apprentice program can be a direct route to the top, says Garman. Many of the company's directors were former technicians.

Though there is a real concern that other companies might raid their employees, Garman says that the type of investment they make in their apprentices usually spawns tremendous loyalty.

In his opinion, most vocational schools turn out people whose skills are often useless and community colleges turn out "someone who theoretically is very good but has no real applied or hands-on skill and it takes us a good year of training to get them up to speed."

Even with the best technical schools, the learning curve is about six months. With the apprenticeship program, Siemens expects new employees to "hit the ground running" and be productive right from the start. He notes that many of the apprentices have already made valuable suggestions to the company.

For the past two years, Siemens has been working with two Lake Mary high schools and Seminole Community College. The high schools were selected because they already had an electronics technical prep program in place. High school students involved in the pre-apprenticeship program go to school full time, then work at Siemens three hours a day, twice a week for minimum wage. The only criteria to get involved with the program are the students' desire and good math skills.

College students enrolled in the program are expected to complete a two-and-a-half year curriculum while working 20 hours a week at Siemens. Siemens compensates apprentices for their tuition and books and pays them a stipend starting at $450 a month for the first term. The stipend increases $75 per month each term, so that by the time they're near graduating, they are paid nearly $800 a month. Siemens has a contract with apprentices that requires them to work for a year after graduation or the tuition is treated as a loan. As full-time employees, technicians start off earning in the high teens or low '20s.

Garman says the expense of maintaining apprenticeship program is proven to more than pay for itself in the company's German facilities. In fact, such programs are commonplace in Germany and credited with creating the country's renowned manufacturing might. The verdict isn't in yet on Siemen's American apprentices, because the first class won't graduate until January 1995. But, notes Garman, after 11 months of training, the American apprentices scored higher on their intermediary tests than their German counterparts, an indication that American youths have more aptitude than they're often given credit for.

He notes that Germany spends more on training than the United States and mentions often-cited figures that less than 10 to 15 percent of U.S. businesses do the bulk of all the training. Garman adds that most American business training is "sink-or-swim training." Siemens' philosophy is that the building and equipment are subordinate to "the expertise and intelligence of the people who build the products and them."

CONNECTING CANDIDATES WITH EMPLOYERS

The recent passage of the School to Work Opportunities Act (H.R. 2884) should help build a national framework for apprenticeship programs. While there are no guarantees, the expectation of such programs is that high school graduates will ultimately be able to walk right into meaningful jobs. Jobs for the Future (JFF), in Cambridge, Mass., is a nonprofit organization that conducts research, provides technical assistance and proposes policy innovation on workplace development, economic development and learning reform. Since 1990, JFF has been matching employers with students through its National Youth Apprenticeship Initiative. JFF is currently working with 10 exemplary sites around the country and is providing technical assistance to 15 Department of Labor school-to-work demonstration sites.

Mary Ellen Bovaro, JFF's communications director, describes apprenticeship programs as a "broad-based solution to the chronic problem of kids graduating from high school and then floundering in the labor market. This gives them a structured path to careers and further learning."

For employers, Bovaro says, "It ensures that they're going to have workers that know their industry, that have been part of the company for a while, and workers who apply what they learn in school to the job. It's more of an assurance that they're going to have workers that can produce.