Apprentice Nation

How the "Earn and Learn" Alternative to Higher Education Will Create a Stronger and Fairer America

Author Ryan Craig
Look inside
Hardcover
$29.95 US
6.31"W x 9.25"H x 1.25"D  
On sale Nov 07, 2023 | 384 Pages | 9781637743881
College isn’t for everyone. It’s time to challenge the status quo and embrace the potential of apprenticeships in tech, healthcare, finance, and more—which can provide a sustainable pathway to economic opportunity.

For decades, college has been the only respectable way to access the world of work, despite paralyzing tuition and a dire lack of practical  
skills that has left 40 percent of college graduates underemployed, unfulfilled, and struggling to repay student loan debt.

Education and workforce expert Ryan Craig explores how a modern apprenticeship system will allow students and job seekers to jump-start their careers by learning while they earn—ultimately leading to greater workforce diversity and geographic mobility.

With a deep dive into the history behind America’s outdated college system, Craig reveals:
  • The origins of the student debt crises and admissions scandals
  • Why apprenticeships are an effective pathway to career opportunity
  • What America can do to catch up with other nations making apprenticeship opportunities broadly available
  • Where students and job seekers can go to land an apprenticeship

Featuring a directory of US apprenticeship programs by industry and location, Apprentice Nation is an accessible blueprint for a country where young Americans of all backgrounds can launch careers in a variety of in-demand fields. With just a few common sense changes to education and workforce development, anapprentice nation will put the American Dream within reach—for everyone.
Ryan Craig is a managing director atAchieve Partners. Ryan’s commentary onwhere the puck is going in education and theworkforce regularly appears in the biweekly Gap Letter, Forbes, and Inside Higher Education.He is the author of A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College, which describes the crit-ical importance of last-mile training and the emergence of boot camps, income share pro-grams, and staffing and apprenticeship models as preferred pathways to good first digital jobs,and was named in the Wall Street Journal as onethe Books of the Year for 2018. Ryan’s first bookwas College Disrupted: The Great Unbundling of Higher Education, which profiles the comingshift toward competency-based education andhiring. Ryan is a cofounder of Apprenticeshipsfor America, a national nonprofit dedicated toscaling apprenticeships across the US economy.Previously, Ryan led the education and trainingsector at Warburg Pincus. His prior experiencein higher education was at Columbia University.He began his career at McKinsey & Co. Ryanreceived a bachelor’s degree summa cum laudeand Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University, andhis law degree from the Yale Law School.

About

College isn’t for everyone. It’s time to challenge the status quo and embrace the potential of apprenticeships in tech, healthcare, finance, and more—which can provide a sustainable pathway to economic opportunity.

For decades, college has been the only respectable way to access the world of work, despite paralyzing tuition and a dire lack of practical  
skills that has left 40 percent of college graduates underemployed, unfulfilled, and struggling to repay student loan debt.

Education and workforce expert Ryan Craig explores how a modern apprenticeship system will allow students and job seekers to jump-start their careers by learning while they earn—ultimately leading to greater workforce diversity and geographic mobility.

With a deep dive into the history behind America’s outdated college system, Craig reveals:
  • The origins of the student debt crises and admissions scandals
  • Why apprenticeships are an effective pathway to career opportunity
  • What America can do to catch up with other nations making apprenticeship opportunities broadly available
  • Where students and job seekers can go to land an apprenticeship

Featuring a directory of US apprenticeship programs by industry and location, Apprentice Nation is an accessible blueprint for a country where young Americans of all backgrounds can launch careers in a variety of in-demand fields. With just a few common sense changes to education and workforce development, anapprentice nation will put the American Dream within reach—for everyone.

Author

Ryan Craig is a managing director atAchieve Partners. Ryan’s commentary onwhere the puck is going in education and theworkforce regularly appears in the biweekly Gap Letter, Forbes, and Inside Higher Education.He is the author of A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College, which describes the crit-ical importance of last-mile training and the emergence of boot camps, income share pro-grams, and staffing and apprenticeship models as preferred pathways to good first digital jobs,and was named in the Wall Street Journal as onethe Books of the Year for 2018. Ryan’s first bookwas College Disrupted: The Great Unbundling of Higher Education, which profiles the comingshift toward competency-based education andhiring. Ryan is a cofounder of Apprenticeshipsfor America, a national nonprofit dedicated toscaling apprenticeships across the US economy.Previously, Ryan led the education and trainingsector at Warburg Pincus. His prior experiencein higher education was at Columbia University.He began his career at McKinsey & Co. Ryanreceived a bachelor’s degree summa cum laudeand Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University, andhis law degree from the Yale Law School.

Books for Native American Heritage Month

In celebration of Native American Heritage Month this November, Penguin Random House Education is highlighting books that detail the history of Native Americans, and stories that explore Native American culture and experiences. Browse our collections here: Native American Creators Native American History & Culture

Read more

2024 Middle and High School Collections

The Penguin Random House Education Middle School and High School Digital Collections feature outstanding fiction and nonfiction from the children’s, adult, DK, and Grupo Editorial divisions, as well as publishers distributed by Penguin Random House. Peruse online or download these valuable resources to discover great books in specific topic areas such as: English Language Arts,

Read more

PRH Education High School Collections

All reading communities should contain protected time for the sake of reading. Independent reading practices emphasize the process of making meaning through reading, not an end product. The school culture (teachers, administration, etc.) should affirm this daily practice time as inherently important instructional time for all readers. (NCTE, 2019)   The Penguin Random House High

Read more

PRH Education Translanguaging Collections

Translanguaging is a communicative practice of bilinguals and multilinguals, that is, it is a practice whereby bilinguals and multilinguals use their entire linguistic repertoire to communicate and make meaning (García, 2009; García, Ibarra Johnson, & Seltzer, 2017)   It is through that lens that we have partnered with teacher educators and bilingual education experts, Drs.

Read more