Claire Fiddian-Green: Why apprenticeships matter more in the age of AI

For decades, the promise we made to young people was simple: If you earn a high school or college degree, you will land an entry-level job that can kick-start your career.

Artificial intelligence is quietly rewriting that script. Many of the traditional entry-level roles that once served as on-ramps into careers are being automated, augmented or eliminated altogether.

The question now facing educators, employers and families is no longer whether work is changing, but how we prepare young people to thrive in a world where change is constant.

The new Indiana Career Apprenticeship Pathway, or INCAP, offers a compelling answer.

At its core, INCAP is founded on a truth the labor market is increasingly embracing: Learning and working no longer happen in neat, separate stages of life.

Instead of asking students to wait until after graduation to encounter “real” work, INCAP brings the workplace into the educational experience — intentionally, thoughtfully and with clear outcomes for students and employers.

This approach mirrors what employers in Switzerland have practiced for generations through their globally renowned Vocational and Professional Education and Training, or VPET system, which is rooted in robust apprenticeship programs for high school students spanning every industry.

As AI accelerates change, Swiss employers have not pulled back from high school apprenticeships — they have doubled down.

According to employers, the strength of VPET is that it allows workers to learn new technologies by using them in real work.

In an AI-driven economy, the most important skill is the ability to adapt as tools evolve. Apprenticeships are uniquely suited to that challenge because they are built on learning by doing rather than learning first and applying later.

That insight matters for Indiana. For high school students, the benefit of INCAP will be profound. INCAP apprentices are not just shadowing adults or completing busy-work tasks. They are preparing for a career through a deliberate combination of classroom instruction and paid, on-the-job learning.

While they are learning in the workplace, they are participating in AI-informed work processes and seeing firsthand how technology changes workflows, expectations and decision-making.

Students aren’t training for yesterday’s entry-level jobs; they are learning how to grow alongside the jobs of tomorrow — all while performing productive work tasks for their employer.

Employers benefit just as much.

Too often, businesses talk about a “skills gap” while relying on hiring models that assume talent will arrive fully formed.

INCAP flips that model. Employers define the competencies they need and participate directly in developing workplace education materials, including the combined workplace and classroom training plan.

This is especially important in the age of AI, when no static curriculum can keep pace with change. INCAP programs allow training to evolve as work evolves.

Finally, INCAP expands opportunity.

Not every student wants — or needs — to follow a traditional four-year college path immediately after high school. That should not limit their access to a meaningful, well-paying career.

By valuing workplace learning alongside academic learning, INCAP offers young people more options. Plus, INCAP is deliberately designed to enable apprentices to easily enroll in a four-year college program should they choose.

The future of work will demand continual learning. By connecting high school students directly to the workplace — and by empowering employers and educators to shape learning together — INCAP prepares young people not just for their first job, but for a lifetime of adapting, contributing and growing in an economy shaped by AI.

That’s not just good workforce policy; it’s good common sense. Learn more, and get involved, at IndianaCAP.org.•

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Fiddian-Green is president and CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation, whose mission is to advance the vitality of Indianapolis and the well-being of its people. Send comments to [email protected].

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