We Believe in Apprenticeships. So Why Don’t We Recommend Them?

One number from a new national report on the skilled trades has stuck with me all week, and it says a lot about high school career guidance. According to The 74’s coverage of the report, 95% of school counselors surveyed see trade school as valuable. Only 28% say they often recommend apprenticeships.

Ninety-five percent believe in it. Twenty-eight percent often say it out loud to a student.

Here’s the thing. That gap isn’t really about counselors. It’s about what our whole system has been built to recommend for a very long time. And it’s fixable.

What’s happening

The report is The State of America’s Skilled Trades, released by the Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades, a coalition led by Ford whose members include Google, Carhartt and Black & Decker. The research behind it was done by the Burning Glass Institute and Jobs for the Future. Patrick O’Donnell wrote it up for The 74 on October 8, and Marshall Benveniste summarized the findings for ConstructConnect News on October 6.

A few numbers from those two write-ups:

• The country needs about 1.7 million additional skilled trades workers each year, and formal training through schools or registered apprenticeships fills only 55% of that need (The 74).
• Only 11% of skilled trades workers are under 25, while 24% are 55 or older (The 74; ConstructConnect).
• Of every 100 people who start an apprenticeship, 48 complete it and 29 are working in a trade within five years. The report points to program quality, mentorship, supportive services and direct employer connections as things that improve persistence (ConstructConnect).
• An Ad Council Research Institute survey for Ford found 95% of school counselors see trade school as valuable, about half recommend it, and only 28% often recommend apprenticeships (The 74; ConstructConnect).
• A University of Chicago survey commissioned by Harbor Freight Tools for Schools found 81% of parents of high schoolers think more high school trades courses would better prepare students (The 74).

And yes, AI came up. Ford CEO Jim Farley argued that automation still needs people who can run, program and maintain the systems, and he put it this way:

Most of these jobs will be both using AI and also protected from it.

Jim Farley, Ford, via The 74, October 8, 2026

Stanley Black & Decker CEO Chris Nelson said a company survey found almost 90% of construction trades workers expect to use AI in their work.

The same week, Getting Smart ran a piece I keep coming back to. From Compliance to Contribution: What Happens When Students Do Work That Matters is written by Nikki Stancampiano of the PAST Foundation in Columbus, Ohio, and Reem Al-Adhami, a recent Hilliard Davidson High School graduate who went through the foundation’s eight-week Power Up Your Potential work-based learning program. Their argument: the biggest effect of real work wasn’t career exposure. It was identity, agency and belonging. Reem’s team built 3D-printed fidget toys for younger students with sensory needs, and it mattered because someone actually used them. Reem is now starting aerospace engineering at Ohio State.

Kids aren’t inherently lazy. They have passion. They have creativity.

Reem Al-Adhami, Getting Smart, October 6, 2026

High school career guidance only recommends what the system can see

Let me be fair before I push. This report comes from an industry coalition that needs workers, so of course it wants more students in the trades. That doesn’t make the numbers wrong, but it’s worth knowing who is asking. And there is a real, historical worry on the other side: for decades, “vocational” was where some students were sent rather than a path they chose. Nobody should want to go back to that.

I’m also not blaming counselors. If anything, I’d ask: how many students is each counselor responsible for in your building? How much of their day goes to schedules, testing and crisis support? What does your school actually measure and celebrate in May? College acceptances get the bulletin board. Does a signed apprenticeship agreement?

Here’s what I think the 95-to-28 gap is really telling us. Belief is not the same as a pathway. A counselor can believe in apprenticeships and still not recommend one if they don’t know a local employer who runs one, if the program doesn’t fit the bell schedule, or if nobody in the building has seen a student come out the other side. You recommend what you can see.

And students can only choose the paths someone puts in front of them.

This is why I keep coming back to the same idea I wrote about back in 2013 in Millennials and the Job Market: what a young person can show matters more than what a piece of paper says. An apprenticeship, an internship, a real project for a real client…. those are things a student can show. That was true then. It’s more true now that AI can write the paper resume for you.

This isn’t trades versus college

Notice what happened to Reem. Work-based learning didn’t push her away from college. It pointed her toward aerospace engineering. That’s the part the “college for all” versus “trades for some” argument misses. Real work for a real audience helps students figure out who they are, and then they choose. Some will choose an electrical apprenticeship. Some will choose a four-year degree. Some will do both.

I wrote in 2016 that school work needs to be meaningful. The Getting Smart piece is a good reminder of what that looks like from the student side: when the work matters to someone else, students stop doing school and start doing work.

It also lines up with something I argue in Human Still Required. AI didn’t break school — it exposed it. If AI is changing entry-level office work, and the trades leaders in this report are saying their jobs will use AI and still need skilled people, then our guidance systems can’t keep pointing students down one well-worn road and calling it preparation. Preparing students for their future, not our past, means putting every real option on the table and giving students the experiences to choose between them.

I wrote last week about why schools shouldn’t wait on AI and entry-level jobs. This report adds the other half: even where the jobs clearly exist, our pipelines and our conversations with students aren’t matching them up yet.

What schools can do this week

• Ask the 95/28 question in your own building. At your next counseling or leadership meeting, ask: how many students did we actively connect to an apprenticeship or paid work-based learning last year? Write the number down.
• Build a short list of local apprenticeship contacts. Not a brochure rack. Names. One employer, one union training center, one community college contact. Give counselors people to call.
• Celebrate every path the same way. If you hold a college signing day, add apprenticeships and work-based learning placements to it. What we celebrate is what we recommend.
• Give students one real problem this semester. Borrow the Getting Smart advice: a real problem, a real audience beyond the classroom, adults acting as advisors rather than only evaluators. You don’t need an eight-week program to start.
• Talk to parents early. Parents of high schoolers in the University of Chicago survey were open to more trades courses. Bring families into the career conversation in ninth grade, not senior spring.

Frequently asked questions

Why don’t more school counselors recommend apprenticeships?

According to the national skilled trades report covered by The 74, nearly all counselors surveyed value trade school, but only 28% often recommend apprenticeships. The survey shows the gap, not the reasons. Common questions worth asking locally are whether counselors have direct employer contacts, the time to build them, and schedules that make apprenticeships workable for students.

Are apprenticeships a good option for high school students?

They can be one of several strong options. Registered and youth apprenticeships combine paid work with training, and the report notes that mentorship, supportive services and direct employer connections help people stay and finish. The best fit depends on the student, which is why exposure to real work matters before they choose.

Will AI replace skilled trades jobs?

Industry leaders quoted in The 74 expect AI to change these jobs, not remove the need for people. Ford’s Jim Farley said most of these jobs will both use AI and be protected from it, and Stanley Black & Decker reported almost 90% of construction trades workers surveyed expect to use AI. That is a prediction from employers, so it’s worth watching how it plays out.

The conversation is the pathway

For a lot of students, the most important career moment in high school is one conversation with one adult who says, “Have you thought about this?” Right now, the data says we believe in more options than we’re naming. That’s a leadership problem, and leadership problems can be solved.

If your school or district is working on how career guidance, work-based learning and AI fit together, this is the work I do with school leaders every week. You can find me at JeffUtecht.com.

So here’s my question for you: in your school, who has the conversation with a student about an apprenticeship, and when does it happen?

Sources

• Despite Rise of AI, More Skilled Trades Training Needed, Industry Leaders Say — The 74, Patrick O’Donnell, October 8, 2026
• Alliance for America’s Skilled Trades Report Spotlights Workforce Challenges and Priorities — ConstructConnect News, Marshall Benveniste, October 6, 2026
• From Compliance to Contribution: What Happens When Students Do Work That Matters — Getting Smart, Nikki Stancampiano and Reem Al-Adhami, October 6, 2026