 Thanks so much for this opportunity and and and you know it's I so I earned my certificate in massage therapy after completing a master's degree in molecular biology and when I went through some of confirmation for my prior role a Senator looked at me and said really Diane massage therapy And I said yes because in my job as a professor I needed to have a second job in the evening to help pay the bills while my husband was in graduate school and This was a phenomenal way for me to do that So I think I'm one of those people that thinks all work is to be valued and all work is valuable So I really appreciate being invited to kick off this event This is a really important conversation about how to enlist the help of higher education in our efforts to expand Apprenticeship and as you heard you know today's topic marries my two loves higher education and apprenticeship Before I start talking about this partnership though I first want to thank people in this room So there's a flyer that I put on chairs and if we ran out before we got to your chair. I apologize We can send you a flyer So I really want to thank everybody in this room for your contribution to making national apprenticeship week just an unbelievable success We've come a long way in raising the profile of apprenticeship and Generating interest in this earn and learn option and indeed it was a topic of conversation at my Thanksgiving table and I did not have to explain to people what an apprenticeship was This is now a word that's part of our vernacular and people have embraced it and accepted it So that's great So according to the stats that we collected during American apprenticeship week There were more than a hundred and five thousand attendees at a thousand events that took place in all fifty states There were fifty eight point three million social media impressions and that included four thousand Twitter and Instagram posts and Perhaps most importantly there were a hundred and fourteen proclamations by forty three governors thirty four mayors three Senators and numerous industry and labor organizations and that's the sign that we have arrived That's the sign that says apprenticeship is being embraced as a valid and credible pathway to career preparation Now I'm older than most people in this room But seeing that growth seeing those numbers tells me this isn't just a fad What we have on our hands is a movement Maybe we get our logothry to write a song about it and those of you younger than me won't understand that joke But when you have this much of a groundswell when you have this sort of a grassroots effort This is a movement and we need to capture the moment and keep the momentum going So thank you all for the work that you did to expand American Apprenticeship Week to participate in American Apprenticeship Week And to raise awareness across the country of this valuable opportunity But back to the topic of the day, you know, I think all of us in this room are in agreement that higher education can and must Play an important role in the expansion of apprenticeship Not only can colleges and universities provide job-aligned, related technical instruction But these institutions can also help us prepare a cadre of mentors and trainers Who may be expert in their field and now need to learn how to convey that expertise to the next generation So I see a role not just in preparing apprentices, but in preparing trainers and mentors We've seen numerous examples of colleges joining forces with industry to advance apprenticeship And this includes the colleges and universities that participated in the American apprenticeship initiative I'm very familiar with many of those institutions I had the chance to work with them over the last two years and they've presented a number of different models that are effective So in some cases we've seen colleges and universities take the lead to organize groups of small employers Recognizing that a small employer may not be able to sponsor an independent program But when you bring several employers together, they have that critical mass now they can approach a program They can fill a classroom. They can fill a job experience and by working together They can make sure that apprentices experience a greater range of skills and instruments and equipment by working together And if it were not the college bringing those companies together, they may otherwise have not found each other In other cases we've seen colleges and universities Serving as a direct contractor almost to large companies So I think we're all familiar of the Zurich example with Harper College You know they worked one-on-one with Zurich to develop a program that met the unique needs of a large enough of a company That was large enough to populate an entire cohort of students. There are other examples like that But I think Harper College really did a great job and it serves as a model In other instances, we've seen that apprenticeships have actually resulted in enough college credit That the person completes an associate's degree while at the same time they complete their apprenticeship And I think this is a wonderful opportunity and yet in other instances We've seen colleges figure out how to award credit for not just the classroom learning But the on-the-job training and we hope this is something that more colleges will do and that we can come up with some National I hate to use the word standards and guidelines because I think that's too formal But the gist of what I'm trying to say is I hope we can come up with Methodologies that are embraced at large to figure out how to give especially the adult learner credit for what they already know And learn even if they learned it on the job and not sitting in a classroom So each of these variations on the theme is important and as we go to take apprenticeship to scale I think each one of them will play a role and each one of them will need to be developed So I think the point is to give everyone more options And and although it is true that right now the burning glass survey showed us that employers Almost default to the credential. I think part of our job is not just to feed that and fuel that I think part of our job is to say to employers stop. Wait a minute College isn't the only proxy for career preparation and while it becomes one important pathway to career readiness It's not the only pathway. So we're really trying to work with employers to say when you post a job opening How about posting that the required credential is either an apprenticeship or a degree? So I think our job is not just to fall into the trap of the status quo But to challenge the status quo and to show employers and parents and students and guidance counselors that there is another way And you know, I certainly you know at a personal level I mean, you know my graduate degree was really important to my career and to my future But you know, there was a book many years ago everything I needed to learn I learned in kindergarten or something like that Well, I've oftentimes said to people, you know, everything I really needed to learn to be successful in life I learned as a nursing assistant because I learned how to be in service to others. I learned about the power of humility I learned how to juggle emergencies. I learned that you had to show up on time You can't be two minutes late for your job as a nursing assistant I learned that when it snows you have to work a double because the next you know ship can't get there I was working in labor and delivery when the plane hit the 14th Street Bridge here in DC And I remember being with patients In that setting wondering where their spouses were because I worked in Columbia, Maryland and many people are here in DC So, you know, that was not just a job that allowed me to pay for college Although it did I had to take a little bit of a loan But you know, but it wasn't just about a means to an end It was an end in and of itself and I learned valuable lessons in that role that I would not have learned otherwise And so I don't think I should so I don't think of my apprenticeship as just what enabled me to get a college degree I think of it as being another part of my pathway that was relevant and important and I want more people to have it and in fact of my own two children My oldest took a traditional pathway and has a master's degree and my youngest did an apprenticeship So my youngest is in the marine service in the marine services industry After one year of college he came home and said I hate this and it was a little challenging because I was the assistant secretary for post-secondary ed at the time, right? So so so this is when our children hold up the mirror So he comes to my office and he says I hate college. I'm quitting and you know, so I have my middle-class parent moment of What and then he said mom Do you not remember you did an apprenticeship? My grandfather did an apprenticeship His father did an apprenticeship my brother your brother-in-law my uncle did an apprenticeship He said mom apprenticeship is in our blood and that's what I want to do And you know we learn a lot from our children and it really was the opportunity to hold up the mirror and say You know what apprenticeship is important for all of our children and I will tell you this It was harder for my son to find an apprenticeship than it was for him to get into a good college And in fact he had to create his own apprenticeship He had to go out and market himself to an employer and say will you do this with me? So I think you know These are important opportunities for all individuals Now as our has as has been pointed out, you know classroom learning is a really critical part of Apprenticeship so we need to have the classroom learning whether it takes place on a college campus or at the job site or in some Other environment, but I think one of the things we have to really resist is the temptation to let classroom learning Overtake on the job learning right what makes apprenticeship different is that the apprentice has a job and It is the on-the-job training piece that is so unique and that fulfills the need that many students and learners have So I think you know it's important to not let classroom learning overtake the on-the-job experience But I think another thing that universities and colleges need to remember is that in the case of apprenticeship It is the business that is going to bear the majority of the cost and so as Universities and colleges compete for partnerships through apprenticeship Amenities are going to be far less important and so you're going to have to learn how to compete on Substance on cost on Efficiencies and I think learning how to do that in the context of apprenticeship will also serve your efforts to serve the general population of students and so What I really want colleges and universities to embrace is not just how incredibly important They are to this effort and how much we need them to join forces to succeed But I want colleges and universities to see this not just as a teaching moment, but as a learning moment Yeah, the elephant in the room is that apprenticeship is growing in part because there is a lack of confidence that the college credential is a good proxy for career readiness and So I think this is an opportunity to first of all show What how incredible this credential is and everything that goes into earning it But I also think colleges and universities have an incredible opportunity here to learn and to listen Employers have important things to say and they may come at these issues from a different perspective Maybe not from a research perspective. Maybe their experience is more practical But I hope as universities and businesses come together to advance apprenticeship That we all look at this as an opportunity to learn and grow because I think all students Whether they're enrolled in an apprenticeship or not need to have career preparation And I think that the general population and all of the curriculum Can improve and be a better service to students as a result of what institutions are going to learn by partnering with companies So we're all in this together as I oftentimes say I love my two children equally, but differently And in this case, I mean higher education and apprenticeship I think they both have incredible opportunities to offer And I really hope that we can see the two come together not for one to overtake the other But to reinforce the idea that we can have parallel pathways to the top and that the person who completes a rigorous Apprenticeship as just as likely to be in line for the CEO role as is the case in Germany and Switzerland as somebody who completes a Grad an undergraduate or graduate degree. So we're all in this together. I'm glad we can we can we can count on your partnership I'm glad that colleges and universities are stepping up to the opportunity and I just think we have an incredible Opportunity ahead of us. So thanks so much and thanks for having this event