New Discussion Paper Examines Link Between Postsecondary Education and Apprenticeship Pathways in the United States

Using large-scale online job postings and worker profile data, a recent discussion paper from the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank challenges the common assumption that apprenticeship is a substitute for a college degree. The paper finds that nearly half of apprentices have already attended some college before starting and roughly 40% of those who begin with no recorded prior education go on to earn a bachelor’s degree or higher afterward. However, pathways diverge sharply by field. Skilled-trades apprentices typically enter from outside the field, with low pre-apprenticeship occupation and education match rates, and use the apprenticeship as an entry point into a new career. Whereas white-collar apprentices, those in business, management, science, and the arts, usually arrive already embedded in that occupation and use the apprenticeship to deepen or “stack” credentials within a career already underway. The paper also found that white-collar apprenticeships have grown to rival or exceed skilled-trades apprenticeships in volume since 2019 and about 74% of apprenticeship postings are unregistered and thus invisible to standard federal tracking systems.