Learn how to start an apprenticeship in plain-English.
Starting an apprenticeship program means picking the roles, defining the training and wage schedule, choosing a sponsor (you, or a fractional sponsor of record), and registering with the Department of Labor or your state agency. Building your own takes months. Joining an existing registered program through a sponsor takes about two weeks.
Apprentix is a fractional apprenticeship sponsor. We've built and registered apprenticeship programs for employers across the US, we hold the sponsor-of-record obligations for the companies in our programs, and we keep those programs compliant with the Department of Labor, including for contractors on Inflation Reduction Act projects. The steps below are the same ones we run every month.
I know first-hand how daunting it can be to start an apprenticeship program. After spending months building and fine-tuning custom apprenticeships for myself and others, I recognized that there had to be a better way.
That better way became Apprentix: a fractional sponsor service that does the heavy lifting of building, registering, and running your program for you. This guide walks through every step, whether you do it yourself or hand it to us.
Decide this first, because it determines whether you need the other eleven steps at all. Every registered apprenticeship program has a sponsor, the entity that owns the program standards and answers to the Department of Labor. You can be that sponsor, or you can join a registered program that a fractional sponsor already holds.
If you join through a sponsor of record, steps 1 through 11 below still happen. They just mostly happen to you rather than by you. The rest of this guide covers the build-your-own route, with notes on what Apprentix handles when we're the sponsor.
Building your own program realistically runs to months: drafting standards, agency review, and back-and-forth, and you need approval before you can register a single apprentice. The DOL has committed to making a registration determination within 30 days of your final signed submission, but getting to that final submission is where the time goes.
Joining an existing program is faster. Apprentix runs monthly cohorts of five companies, starting the first business day of each month, first come first served. Two weeks later the program is registered, training plans are customized, your team is onboarded, and your apprentices hold their certificates. If a bid deadline can't wait, a 3-Day Expedite is available as a one-time add-on fee.
Look for the positions in your company that are in high demand - whether you need to fill them immediately or in the near future. Those are the positions that you'd want to consider turning into apprenticeships first.
This will help you get the most bang out of your buck upfront. Instead of hiring FOR these positions, build them instead. Sure, you're paying some training and educating costs upfront, but it's much more cost-effective than hiring the "perfect fit."
Define the terms.
How long do you want the apprenticeship to last? Do you want the program to be competency-based or time-based? Competency-based apprenticeships work like this: once employees show they're proficient in a skill, they can move on to the next step toward completion. Time-based apprenticeships are self-explanatory, and hybrid apprenticeships combine the two. Your program standards can be written for any of the three, and as your sponsor, Apprentix drafts them with you.
You can also define what type of certificate you want to provide at the end of training. It could come from a formal institution (e.g., the American Marketing Association), or if your apprenticeship is federally registered, the US Department of Labor also issues certificates. At the end of the day, certificates only matter if they're necessary for your industry. It's up to you to decide if you want to incorporate them into your apprenticeship.
Two different jobs hide under this heading, and it pays to separate them. The program sponsor is the entity registered with the Department of Labor as owning the program, per the decision in the section above: you, or a fractional sponsor of record like Apprentix. Then there's the day-to-day administrator: the person inside your company who oversees apprentices' progress. You likely already have someone in charge of administration, so this isn't much different. Name that person now, because every step from here runs through them.
The program needs the basics about your company on file: legal entity, locations, and the occupations you're building apprenticeships for. If you operate multiple companies or locations, the same apprenticeship can be stamped out for each one rather than built from scratch. When Apprentix is your sponsor, this is part of onboarding, and it's most of what your first cohort week looks like.
If a skills-based job description sounds oversimplified…well, it is. It's basically a non-shitty job description if I'm being blunt. A skills-based job description means that the job is not arbitrarily based on a college degree that isn't necessary for the position.
Don't get me wrong, if your industry has a minimum education requirement like a high school diploma, GED, or a particular degree related to the field - that's valid. But I challenge you to think about if your entry-level position really requires a four-year degree.
Writing one from a blank page is harder than it sounds, because you're listing the actual skills the work requires rather than credentials. As your sponsor, Apprentix builds the skills-based job description for each apprenticed role, and it doubles as the backbone of the training plan. It also helps you reach candidates you'd otherwise miss: a veteran whose military skillset doesn't translate neatly into corporate job-ad language can match on skills directly, which widens your candidate pool with people who can actually do the work.
You get to decide when apprentices will take classes -- either before, after, or during their shift. You also get to determine what costs you'd pick up versus the apprentices, if/how much they'll be paid while they're in class, and what the classes will actually be.
This is the related technical instruction part of your program, and it works with any learning provider: community college courses, online platforms like Coursera or LinkedIn Learning, industry associations, even plain ol' YouTube. One thing we're clear about: Apprentix doesn't build learning management systems.
There are thousands of them already. As your sponsor, we assemble the courses you choose into the training plan, so the classroom side lines up with the standards your program is registered under.
The on-the-job plan (the work process schedule, in DOL language) lays out the skills an apprentice learns by doing the work, under the supervision of your experienced people. As your sponsor, Apprentix drafts the on-the-job learning program for the occupation, and you customize it to how your company actually works. Start from the draft or start from scratch. The point is you shouldn't have to invent the structure yourself.
What's a wage schedule, you ask? Whether it's an annual salary or hourly wage, a wage schedule shows apprentices what they'll be bumped up to once they complete specific competencies or full courses.
Seeing a wage schedule upfront helps motivate apprentices, and it shows that you're being transparent. Once they make you more money, they get paid more, it's very simple.
Add as many wage bumps as you like (and I encourage you to do so). As your sponsor, Apprentix tracks each apprentice's training hours and monitors their wage increases, so when someone hits the next step, your administrator and payroll get the heads up.
Your apprentices are likely going to need someone to talk to who is not their boss – someone who they can communicate their challenges without feeling like a burden or without fear of losing their job. That's why we added a supportive services option.
Mentorship is near and dear to my heart. I've been privileged to build up a massive mentoring organization that's helped thousands of low-income youth go to college on scholarships over the past 15 years. I know what it takes to run a high-quality mentorship program, and I've taken those principles and put them into the service so you can benefit from them too.
In addition to mentoring, Apprentix provides optional support services – things commonly needed for apprentices not to have life get in the way of their success. We also have free resources for you to use as well. Again, these are optional – but they're great assurances for higher graduation rates for your apprentices.
In some cases, potential employees may have previous experience (from either a classroom or job) that is required for your open position. As an employer, you have the choice whether to allow them to apply that experience as a credit to your apprenticeship program or not. If you do, the evidence (certificates, transcripts, documented competencies) goes into the apprentice's file, and as your sponsor we make sure the credit is documented the way the DOL expects.
In the recruiting process, you can advertise whether you'll accept previous experience and if it will apply to your program, which can help you get even better candidates.
If you run a small business, you may be the administrator, mentor, and trainer all at once. That works. In a larger company, spread the roles: an administrator who owns the program day to day, mentors for the supportive side, and the journeyworkers who deliver the on-the-job training. Everyone on that list gets onboarded to the program before your first apprentice starts, which is exactly what the cohort's second week is for when Apprentix runs it.
The running cost is mostly wages, and they're lower than a qualified hire from day one: apprentices start at a set percentage of the journeyworker rate, typically 40 to 60 percent, and step up on the wage schedule you built in step 7. Add the classroom instruction (commonly around 144 hours a year) and mentor time, and that's the real cost picture.
Against that, there's funding. Many states pay employers of registered apprentices through tax credits and grants, commonly $2,000 to $7,500 per apprentice per year depending on the state, and some go higher. Workforce boards and state apprenticeship offices also run grant programs that offset setup and training costs. And if you're a contractor on Inflation Reduction Act projects, registered apprentice hours are what let the project owner claim the full enhanced tax credit, which makes crews that carry apprentices more valuable in bids. Specifics vary by state and occupation, so check your state's apprenticeship agency before you budget.
So how do you know if you should register your apprenticeship? It comes down to funding. Registration is what makes your program eligible for the state tax credits and grant funding above, commonly $2,000 to $7,500 per apprentice per year, and it's what makes your apprentices count for IRA compliance on clean energy projects. An unregistered program gets you none of that.
Here's what registration actually involves. Your program registers with the Department of Labor's Office of Apprenticeship or, in states that operate one, your State Apprenticeship Agency. The registration package is your standards of apprenticeship: the work process schedule from step 6, the related technical instruction from step 5 (commonly at least 144 hours a year), the journeyworker-to-apprentice ratio, and the wage progression from step 7. Time-based programs need at least 2,000 hours of on-the-job learning. The DOL's online Standards Builder tool generates the package from your answers, and each apprentice is then registered with an apprenticeship agreement on ETA Form 671 or through the DOL's RAPIDS system.
The catch? Compliance reporting, for as long as the program runs. That's the part employers underestimate, and it's the part a fractional sponsor exists for. As your sponsor of record, Apprentix prepares the standards, files the registration, registers each apprentice, and carries the reporting, and if you're ever audited, the records are already in order.
There you have it – the eleven steps to build your apprenticeship program.
Book a call if you'd rather have the whole thing done for you in a two-week cohort.
Yes. Any employer can create an apprenticeship program, and you don't need anyone's permission to run one informally. To make it a registered apprenticeship (the kind that qualifies for state funding, DOL certificates, and IRA compliance), the program needs approved standards and registration through the DOL or your state agency, either as your own sponsor or through a sponsor of record.
No, registration is optional. But the benefits employers actually want (state tax credits and grants, nationally recognized certificates, and apprentices who count toward IRA requirements on clean energy projects) only attach to registered programs, which is why most employers who are serious about apprenticeship register.
Check out "How to Employ an Apprentice: A Step-by-Step Guide".
Check out "How to Design Effective Apprenticeship Programs".
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