Apprenticeships and co-ops give people something concrete to say yes to.
When someone’s deciding whether to enroll in a workforce training program, vague promises don’t do much work. “We’ll help you find opportunities” is easy to say and hard to believe. But when you can say “this program includes an apprenticeship with [Employer]” you elevate your program into an offer adult learners can’t refuse.
Access to employers through apprenticeships, co-ops, and internships is one of the strongest tools a workforce program has. It’s concrete, it’s marketable, and it gives employers a structured way to build their own new-hire pipelines instead of posting a job and hoping.
There’s a second opportunity once someone’s hired. Employers often have informal ways of helping people move up once they’re in the door — mentorships, stretch assignments, and introductions to people who can open doors — but they’re rarely built on purpose or offered to everyone equally. That’s a way workforce leaders can add real value beyond just supplying candidates.
Building pathways for new hires and current employees pays off in two ways:
- Recruitment: Concrete partnerships are easier to sell than vague promises.
- Retention: People who see a real path to advance are more likely to stay with the employer you placed them with.
The case for structured employer access
Most employers are bullish on the value of apprenticeships, co-ops, and internships. But while they see the potential, they want proof of ROI (estimated at 44%) and help with the administrative load.
That’s where a workforce partner earns their keep, in selling the benefits and taking on the parts of running these programs that employers don’t want to manage themselves. Here are some tips for setting up these kinds of programs with employers:
- Start with two or three employer partners who have a real, near-term openings.
- Nail down the term length, number of slots, and who supervises on the employer’s side.
- Handle what employers dread most: candidate screening, onboarding paperwork, and check-ins during the term.
For existing employees, you can offer your employer partners even more access pathways that help talented employees advance:
- Map which mentorships or stretch assignments already happen informally, and which manager or department they run through.
- Where nothing exists yet, propose one concrete starting point — a single mentorship track or stretch-assignment rotation — rather than a full program.
- Put it in writing: who’s eligible, what the path looks like month by month, and who owns it.
What adult learners actually respond to
Advice like this is easier to picture when you see it play out in a real life. Recently, we sat down with someone who’s dedicated her career to building the kind of access she never had when she was starting out.
Katherine Sanchez, program manager at Northwell Health’s Institute for Community Health and Wellness, and co-chair of the Higher Education Network at Healthcare Leaders of New York, says, “Potential has never been an issue. Access is.”
Katherine has built mentorships, created stretch assignments, and organized networking events so the students she works with now can build real careers from them. Her advice to organizations is to build pathways that bring people in, like apprenticeships and co-ops, and help them grow once they’re there. Do both well, and you become the kind of organization talent seeks out.
Read the full interview with Katherine Sanchez, part of BOUNCE’s Workforce Voices series.
