JFF CEO Maria Flynn recently participated in a Brookings Institution webinar about expanding and modernizing apprenticeship, with a focus on the value of apprenticeship for employers outside the trades.

The discussion was particularly timely, because Congress is on the cusp of updating the National Apprenticeship Act for the first time in more than 80 years, with lawmakers considering a legislative package that would provide an influx of funding to modernize apprenticeship and create new career opportunities for millions of Americans.

A member of a panel with three other champions of apprenticeship, Flynn noted that apprenticeship could be an especially effective vehicle for job training and career preparation at this time, when the COVID-19 pandemic has upended the job market and disrupted the postsecondary education system.

“I think apprenticeship and those really important pre-apprenticeship pathways . . . make a lot of sense both for the individual and the employer,” she said.