From Where I Stand — Always two, there are, no more, no less. A master and an apprentice
—Yoda, Star Wars: Episode I
This fall, the ILCA and the College of Lake
County are piloting an ambitious apprenticeship program for landscape employers. This has been the result of a long journey from concept to reality. We now stand on the threshold of creating a lasting program that marries education and work experience while providing ILCA members the types of skilled and dedicated employees companies need to build businesses around. This has been the result of listening to our members for decades remark about the labor shortages in our industry and how motivated, young employees were needles in a haystack. The term “apprentice” struggled, for decades, to gain a foothold in American culture. The word apprentice seems reserved for the middles ages, labor unions, or the bad guys in Star Wars. The concept of apprenticeship goes back almost a millennia. In fact, it can be traced back to the 1100s when trades struggled to create a labor pipeline. I am sure you could go back to the minutes of the London Leather Tanners Association in 1400 and read complaints about “kids today” and a labor shortage in their industries. Conceptually, apprentices were a way for professions to control who entered the trades and also cultivate subsequent generations of workers. Apprentices in Europe typically had a path. The guild shops were controlled by Master Craftsmen. Workers underneath them were journeymen who hopefully would work their way up the ladder and take over the business. Finally, young men would become apprentices and they would train under the tutelage of the Master Craftsmen. There is no real universal, global standard for apprentices. Some countries use carrots and some use sticks. England, for example, creates incentives for employers to use apprentices and reduces regulations and employment burdens. Other countries, like Germany, try and pluck poorly performing students out very young and put them on a path to support the trades. They are much more out in the open about certain students struggling in a typical college environment without a safety net of skills to fall back on. The United States has about 500,000 apprentices, nationwide. We are a country of 330 million people. To contrast that, Australia has 475,000 with a population of 23 million people. Apprenticeships have become increasingly popular over the past 15 years. Most of the trades have indicated severe shortages of interested employees. Construction and manufacturing have seen the worst slides as most of the US economy and jobs market leans towards servicebased and medical professions. In the 1960’s, only a little more than half of US adults had a high school degree. That number is now 93%. In the past, those without high school degrees were ripe for vocational training. Now, those same young people consider college or jobs with higher pay and less physical requirements. It is clear that there is now a market for part-time students that exists between those with a high school degree and those without an Associates or Bachelor’s degree. In fact, 46% of US adults falls into that gap. The concept of the ILCA/CLC apprenticeship program didn’t begin
at CLC. The initial conversations were had between Scott Grams, President at the time Tom Lupfer, and representatives of Triton College. We sketched out the earn-as-you-learn program that would result in a student getting a certificate from a community college in a series of informal meetings. The problem is that in order for an apprenticeship program to work, you need a strong batch of willing employers. I went back and did a “suitability analysis” for four programs with strong hort degrees - Joliet Junior College, the College of DuPage, the College of Lake County, and Triton College. I then overlaid the ILCA membership onto these districts and found that the most amount of ILCA members were in or adjacent to Lake County. Unfortunately, Triton has the least amount of ILCA members in the community. That meant that if this program could not be successful in Lake County, it would not be successful somewhere else. ILCA met with Rory Klick of the College of Lake County and she was immediately receptive. Rory has been working in horticulture for a long time. She understands students, she understands employers, and she has evolved her program to say relevant with a changing industry. She has produced hundreds of program graduates who fill top positions in the Illinois landscape industry. We also felt a swell of support from the College, as a whole. Apprenticeships are a fantastic niche for community colleges as they attempt to work the margins between high schools and 4-year colleges. They also have the burden and benefit of recruiting in one targeted area and understand the needs of their communities. They create lasting relationships with high schools and employers and are much more nimble than universities. I serve on the College of DuPage steering committee and they are fearless. They are constantly tweaking the educational content and creating new career pathways that mirror industry need. An earn-as-you-learn apprenticeship program is relatively simple. Employers identify an apprentice and that apprentice works for the employer for at least 32 hours per week. In the evening, they break early from work, get cleaned up and get their game face on for a long night of schooling. They take college-level coursework on their path to a certificate program from one of the top horticulture programs in Illinois. In addition, they meet other apprentices in the program and build a professional network. They are paid at least $13 an hour. Apprentices are not interns. They are full-time employees that a company is making an investment in. They also work every day. They don’t receive an education in a bubble, but immediately understand how education clicks into practical job skills. Employers can identify apprentices in a few ways. They can either be a shooting star employee that they want to have enter the program. They can be someone known to the company, perhaps a child, friend, or spouse of a current employee. Finally, they can be someone that CLC has recruited or a current student and then will be interviewed and hired by the employer. There are multiple pathways for apprentices whether in landscape design, construction and maintenance, arboriculture, or plant production. Apprentices will take six classes and their employment counts as a practicum. The cost for the entire program is only $3600. That is 18 credit hours for $3600! As a comparison, when I was earning my Master’s Degree from Northwestern in 2002, a 3-credit hour course was $5,000 by itself. The $3600 fee also includes books and is billed in four
A Guild of Master Craftsmen
The Landscape Contractor August 2020
5
