Southern Utah University

The Inflation Reduction Act (Aug 2022) has created an innovative opportunity for higher education to intersect with business. It established tax incentives for employers who hire and provide on-the-job training (OJT) for registered apprentices, who numbered nearly 680,000 in 2024 and are on track to surpass those numbers in 2025. Moreover, registered apprentices must complete at least 144 hours of Related Technical Instruction (RTI) annually in addition to their OJT. RTI is training that can be delivered online and asynchronously. Hence, offering courses designed to meet apprentice training needs within their industry is a natural match for professional education units at universities that hope to provide credit to adult and online audiences. Designing and delivering skills-based training for Professional, Continuing and Online offices or PCO units is business as usual. PCO units are expanding nationwide as higher education institutions see the need to broaden their target audience and improve on-ramps into degree programs.

The Department of Labor has made developing and offering a registered apprenticeship easy. Whether the higher education institution wants to be an intermediary, sponsor, or just provide RTI, their website can guide you through the process. Notably, since employers wish the significant tax incentives established by IRA, they are eager to find registered apprenticeships for their existing employees or to hire potential registered apprentices and get them into an apprenticeship program to qualify. Qualified employers must offer a competitive living wage, provide for employee safety and ensure a growth plan with wage increases for developing employees. For those employers, the tax incentives and contributions of engaged, developing talent are an obvious win. For the workforce, it’s a formula for excellent employment, personal growth and a high-wage career; for colleges and universities, registered apprenticeship RTI programs create new on-ramps into courses, a willing and motivated audience from the workforce and business partners who are engaged in building curriculum collaboratively. Most businesses employing registered apprentices are happy to inform curriculum development, pay for the program's cost and often enroll a number of employees at once, providing a ready roster of students and their tuition dollars. Many states even offer tuition support for registered apprenticeships.

I get it if you think this is too good to be true. After all, how often does an opportunity emerge that benefits companies, institutions and employees and improves the entire economic ecosystem? What’s the downside? For institutions already in the habit of examining workforce needs and responding with flexible, accessible programming, this opportunity is low-hanging fruit. Institutions with strong connections to their local industry partners are many steps ahead and if they are already building collaboratively, it’s a sure win. Unfortunately, there are a lot of institutions of higher education that haven’t built the engine for this type of work yet. While the movement is powerful and can be found nationwide, institutions entrenched in traditional curriculum development processes without the agility to work at the speed of industry will miss it entirely. The time for developing registered apprenticeship content is NOW.

As we move into a future beyond the enrollment cliff, colleges and universities will need to explore new avenues for recruitment and connect more deeply than ever with industry trends and emerging training demands. Traditional academic speed just isn’t fast enough. This is one example of shifts pushing higher education toward industry alignment and responsiveness. Over the past several decades, a focus on skills over degrees, gaps in workplace readiness for college graduates, emerging alternative learning models (competency-based, experiential and online are a few), pressure for accountability and ROI, policy shifts and the connection between institutions and their local economic ecosystems have all challenged higher education to evolve. Forward-facing institutions are already prepared to respond and RTI for registered apprenticeships will be a win-win for those institutions and their communities.