Indicator: 40 - Youth in Apprenticeship/Internships
Why This is Important
In Maine, internships and apprenticeship programs prepare youth
to enter the workforce with significant skills and at greater-than-entry-level
pay and job status. Program finishers have strong advantages in
securing living-wage employment and advancement over their less-skilled
counterparts seeking entry-level employment. Apprenticeship finishers
often enjoy the security and benefits afforded by union membership
as well. Such programs help to strengthen economic development efforts
throughout the state, especially in high demand, high growth industries
such as metal manufacturing, biotechnology and information services.
Where We Stand
Maine is in a particularly good position to meet the mutual needs
of employees and employers in a fast-evolving market that requires
ever more specialized workers. Maine youth have access to a continuum
of career and technical education starting in high school through
its applied technology centers, proceeding through the Maine Technical
College System, and ending in a formal sense in the University of
Maine System and other post-secondary institutions. All providers
in this continuum offer internships, although such activities are
seldom uniform or inclusive of all students. In fact, none of these
institutions compile data related to the scope of internship experiences.
Apprenticeships, however, are well accounted for in Maine. As of
December 2000, Maine had 1,132 registered apprentices (age range:
18-60). Maine Department of Labor data does not account for age
demographics, so the percentage of registered apprentices that would
be considered youths (ages 18-21) is unknown. However, Maine has
a Pre-Apprenticeship Program for youths 16 to 20 years old that
had 139 participants. Maine Career Advantage, housed at the Center
for Career Development at Southern Maine Technical College, facilitates
a fast-response, flexible, yet demanding internship/apprenticeship
partnership among businesses, the technical colleges and students,
and served 312 participants at this level. While not as rigorous
or formal as apprenticeships, Maine secondary schools offer Cooperative
Education Programs to over 700 students statewide, with some "co-op"
placements resulting in internships.
Data Source and Context
The data source for this indicator is the Maine Department of Education.
Enrollment data for apprenticeships, especially the participation
of Maine's youth in the Pre-Apprenticeship Program and Maine Career
Advantage, is well counted. Participation in "internships"
is much more difficult to reckon; as educators in every discipline
grow into facilitative instruction (vs. "chalk-and-talk"
lecturing), the use of internships and other work-based learning
activities has served to blur the distinction between work experiences
and school experiences. So too have the opportunities provided to
middle school and high school students through participation in
Tech Prep courses, Jobs for Maine's Graduates programs, and previously
mentioned programs, all of which comprise Maine's School-To-Work
system serving all K-16 students. Therefore, the very term "internship"
has lost much of its distinction in Maine by design (see "The
Maine State Plan for Vocational-Technical Education, PY 2001-2005").
Maine has the means to help prepare youth for apprentice- and post-intern-level
employment in a variety of ways. Maine's Learning Results,
the state's new framework for K-12 education, mandates that all
students learn and apply career preparation principles and activities
throughout their public school experience. The institutionalization
of career preparation in the curriculum should, in time, bolster
the public's view of technical careers-and further support for internships
and apprenticeships.
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