The landscape of teacher preparation is evolving, and Breakthrough Collaborative is at the forefront of innovating pathways into the profession. As of November 2021, “K-12 Teacher” has been designated as an occupation eligible for registered apprenticeship programs by the U.S. Department of Labor. The growth of teacher registered apprenticeship programs has created exciting and more affordable new certification pathways for aspiring teachers and a real opportunity to address persistent teacher shortages.
In just three years time, the teacher registered apprenticeship model has spread from 1 to 48 states plus the District of Columbia and over 4,000 current enrollees across the country will be eligible to enter into the teaching profession via completion of this innovative training model. To meet this moment, Breakthrough, in collaboration with our partners at the National Center for Grow Your Own, is developing a pre-apprenticeship in teaching model—rooted in our nationally recognized Summer Teaching Fellowship—to serve as a critical pathway into registered teacher apprenticeship programs and the teaching profession.
What is a Registered Apprenticeship?
A registered teacher apprenticeship program is an employer-driven, high-quality career pathway where individuals gain paid work experience, receive progressive wage increases, engage in formal classroom instruction, and earn a portable, nationally recognized credential. These programs are vetted and approved by the U.S. Department of Labor or a State Apprenticeship Agency, ensuring rigor and alignment with workforce needs. In the K-12 Teacher context, a registered teacher apprentice works full-time in a classroom position, earning a competitive wage, while simultaneously working towards their bachelor’s degree or post-baccalaureate licensure.
The teacher apprentice works under the guidance of a mentor teacher, progressing towards proficiency in a set of on-the-job competencies, gradually taking on more instructional responsibility as they progress through the program. With the registration of the K-12 Teacher occupation, the same U.S. Department of Labor funding that has historically funded trade vocations can now be braided into teacher pathway initiatives.
Pre-apprenticeships serve as structured workplace education and training opportunities, introducing participants to the competencies, skills, and expectations of a registered apprenticeship program and a pre-apprentice’s chosen career. In Breakthrough’s case, our Teaching Fellowship would serve as this critical entry point into a teacher registered apprentice program, offering:
Paid nine-week intensive summer program:
- Two weeks of pre-service training
- Six weeks of hands-on classroom experience working with students
- One week of evaluation and wrap-up
100+ hours of teaching and leadership training, including one-on-one coaching from an Instructional Coach
75+ hours of lead classroom teaching experience with small class sizes
Building a Sustainable, Homegrown Teacher Pipeline
The pre-apprenticeship in teaching model that we are building will leverage Breakthrough’s existing Teaching Fellowship, which recruits over 1,000 undergraduates annually to engage in a high-support, hands-on experience teaching middle school students over the summer. Our goal is to achieve formal recognition by apprenticeship agencies of our Teaching Fellowship as a pre-apprenticeship pathway, thereby allowing our Breakthrough affiliate site partners across the country to offer high-quality on-ramps into teacher registered apprenticeship programs.
Under our pre-apprenticeship model, eligible high school students, undergraduate students, and community college students will participate in the Breakthrough Teaching Fellowship as pre-apprentices, gaining valuable early clinical experience that will prepare them not only for entry into a teacher registered apprenticeship program, but for the critical responsibilities of the teaching role. The Teaching Fellowship pre-apprenticeship experience enables aspiring educators to determine if they want to pursue a career in teaching after college and will prepare them to enter a teacher registered apprenticeship program that leads to full certification.
Simultaneously, partnering school districts will work with our local Breakthrough affiliate sites to help to train, mentor, and recruit a pipeline of future educators who will have completed Breakthrough’s Teacher Fellowship experience. Following their summer pre-apprenticeship experience, participants will then have the option for facilitated entry into a paid teacher registered apprenticeship program, which results in either a Bachelor’s degree or a post-Baccalaureate credential, along with full teacher certification.
Why This Matters: Addressing Barriers to the Profession
The United States is facing a critical teacher shortage, exacerbated by significant barriers to entry into the profession. For many potential teacher candidates, the traditional route to teacher certification is often financially and logistically prohibitive, requiring years of unpaid training.
Scaling the Model for National Impact
Breakthrough is actively seeking funding for a multi-site pilot to build an articulated pathway from our Teaching Fellowship into local teacher registered apprenticeship programs. Achieving designation as a pre-apprenticeship program would make Breakthrough one of the first providers in the country to establish this model, setting a national precedent for closer integration between early clinical experiences and teacher registered apprenticeships.
By creating a coherent, well-supported pathway from pre-apprenticeship to registered apprenticeship to full certification, we have the opportunity to reshape and reimagine teacher preparation—making it more accessible, sustainable, and effective in preparing the next generation of passionate, highly skilled educators.