A very short history of some very long strides With commentary by Lonnie Emard IT’S BEEN LESS than 40 years since the concept of Registered Apprenticeships was first entered into Arkansas law, and just over a decade since apprenticeships beyond the trades began actually taking shape in the state. And yet today Arkansas ranks second […]
Milestones: Arkansas Embraces Apprenticeships Read More »
115 years of workforce in progress  FOR MORE THAN a century, apprenticeships have helped U.S. workers build careers and live fulfilling lives. For this special issue of the Apprenticely newsletter, we commissioned ChatGPT to produce a timeline showing how the concept of Registered Apprenticeships (RA) grew from a trade-focused training method into a broadly
Apprenticeships in America: A Timeline Read More »
On an innovation campus, apprenticeships and internships are just some of the benefits  Stephen Addison IN THE FALL semester of 2026, the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) will open an innovation campus. What is an innovation campus? It’s a shared environment in which students and faculty collaborate on projects and work opportunities with industrial
When Academia Met Industry Read More »
The Director’s Chair IN LATE 2018 WHEN the nonprofit now known as Apprenticely was formed as the Arkansas Center for Data Sciences (ACDS), most people thought that apprenticeships were a quaint remnant of the Industrial Revolution, if not Europe’s Middle Ages, relevant now mostly to the trades and construction. Eight years later, apprenticeships are fully
When We Succeed, You Succeed Read More »
MEET CLAIRE OLIVERAge: 30Hometown: Jacksonville, FL/Bentonville, ARApprenticeship: Rocket Software, NextGen Academy MY BACK STORYI say that my hometown is split right down the middle between Jacksonville, Florida, and Bentonville, Arkansas—but I was born in Philadelphia. When I was growing up, we moved pretty frequently: Philadelphia; Dusseldorf, Germany; Jacksonville; Northwest Arkansas. My dad was a sales
Apprenticeship Spotlight Read More »
By the numbers: U.S. apprenticeships expanded by 77 percent in the past decade…Separating signal from noise in A.I….Unscripted peril—a video game in which A.I. does the talking. Check it all out right here. Ready or Not? Here Apprenticeships Come – National Association of Scholars Want to improve AI? Look for the helpful data hidden
A FEW MONTHS ago, people in the apprenticeship space in Arkansas received calls from a reporter for National Public Radio. She wanted to know more about the fact that the State of Arkansas had been selected by the U.S. Department of Labor to administer a major national fund for apprenticeships in manufacturing. After a lot
Q & A: Andrea Hsu, Labor and Workplace Correspondent, NPR Read More »
MEET SHELBY WRIGHTAge: 30Hometown: Fort Worth, TexasApprenticeship: Medical Assistant, Best Start Pediatrics MY BACK STORY My family is actually from Albuquerque, New Mexico, but we moved to Weatherford, Texas, when I was 4, going on 5. My family’s kind of what we call a patchwork family. My parents got divorced and remarried, so I have
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Is tech-enabled gambling just that—or is it reshaping work, risk, and decision-making in America?  Editor’s note: Wondering if there were an angle on the explosive growth of online betting suitable for this newsletter, we dispatched our intrepid contributing-editor-in-training, ChatGPT, to investigate. Here, with considerable human input, is his report: _______________________________ SOME SAY THAT if
March Madness and the Prediction Economy Read More »
The Director’s Chair FIRST OF ALL, be sure to read this month’s Q & A with National Public Radio correspondent Andrea Hsu, the reporter who came to Little Rock earlier this year and ended up producing two NPR pieces on apprenticeships and Arkansas’ prominent role in helping make this alternative hiring strategy the national success
Congrats, Arkansas Read More »