Apprenticeships Offer Valuable Opportunity for Students

As summer quickly approaches, the 2014 high school graduating class is faced with a difficult question, what next?  With rising college tuition costs it is becoming more and more difficult for graduates to pay for college.  Many of today’s college bound students will graduate with some form of student debt and no guarantee of employment once they do receive their diploma.

There is an alternative route – apprenticeships.  Apprenticeship 2000 is one such program.  Established in 1995 by Blum, Inc. and its partner companies, the program offers high school students free college and a paycheck.  Blum graduates receive an Associates degree in Manufacturing Technology from Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) and earn while they learn.

Each year, 27 students from local high schools are recruited by the partner companies that make up the Apprenticeship 2000 program.  Of these students, 2-4 will train in the Blum Apprenticeship Center which is part of Blum’s corporate facility in Stanley, NC.  Blum, Inc. invests over $150,000 per apprentice to create skilled manufacturing technicians in a program that splits time on the floor and in the classroom.  Students will complete 8,000 hours of on the job training under the guidance of a skilled mentor.   Additionally, students spend 1,600 hours at CPCC in classes related to the trade they have selected. The program takes four years to complete and each graduate is guaranteed minimum salary of $34,000 per year and no school loans to pay back.  “We offer students the opportunity to work for the company that has taught and supported them” Andreas Thurner, manager of the Apprenticeship Program at Blum, Inc. adds.  “The success of the program speaks for itself.  We have an approximate 70% retention rate of graduates after five years.”

This August Blum, Inc. will welcome its 19^th new class of apprentices; students who have embraced a different path to obtaining their goals and one that offers a viable alternative to an expensive college degree.

For more information about Apprenticeship 2000, visit the Web site www.apprenciteship2000.com

Thank you to AWFS Education Committee member Brian Joyce for this guest blog post