Indicator: 41 - YOUTH APPRENTICESHIPS/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 September 2004, Maine
had 742 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 80 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 Sources 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.
