Why HR Leaders Should Lean into Registered Apprenticeships

What comes to mind when you think of Registered Apprenticeship?

You probably see a person in a hardhat or holding tools? Contractor, mason, electrician, or a welder are more than likely what you identify, which is expected.

Registered Apprenticeship (RA) is a structured workforce training program recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor that can create talent in technology, HR, accounting, finance, healthcare and many other industries. Apprentices earn while they learn, developing both technical and professional skills that align directly with your company’s needs, while receiving increasing wage progression throughout the apprenticeship. It is a growing workforce development and upskilling solution, anchored in skills and competency-based hiring.

For HR and business leaders facing rising recruiting costs & competition, rising turnover, employee retention and skills gaps, this model provides a practical solution. It is not a theory. It is tested, proven, and built to solve the most common workforce challenges HR teams talk about every day.

Addressing HR’s Biggest Pain Points

In HR and beyond, employers consistently point to three challenges:

  1. Difficulty sourcing job-ready candidates with skills necessary for the job
  2. Gaps in critical technical training, interpersonal skills, and skill development in incumbent workers
  3. Long requisition fill time and/or high turnover that disrupts operations

Apprenti helps employers solve these problems by adapting the time-tested apprenticeship model to meet current workforce demands in an innovative, creative way. As Dave Peticolas, VP of Software Engineering at Natera has previously said, “Apprenticeship is an idea that deserves to be a lot more widely known in the United States and used in a lot more different places.”

Why It Works

Registered Apprenticeships deliver measurable results:

  • Talent pipeline: Apprenticeships create a reliable flow of skilled workers who are aligned to your culture and your systems from the start. Apprentices are learning from your team and are integrated into your pipeline.
  • Retention: 89 percent of Apprenti graduates are retained by their employers, compared to the fact that roughly 70 percent of college graduates leave their first job within 2 years[1].
  • Cost savings: Companies see up to 30 percent savings on early career talent hiring and training compared to traditional hiring modalities.

This approach has proven success across industries such as healthcare, IT, manufacturing, and corporate business lines. Companies across the U.S. are rethinking how they build talent, and Apprenti is leading that shift.

The Strategic Workforce Solution for Businesses

  • Apprenticeships continue to grow as a workforce strategy
  • Retains skilled employees and addresses shortages
  • Fosters a culture of growth, engagement, and productivity
  • Provides structured training that builds long-term loyalty
  • Reduces reliance on costly recruitment cycles or short-term fixes like poaching or H-1B visas

As workforce strategies evolve, apprenticeships have emerged as a scalable and sustainable solution for organizations that want to hire smarter, reduce turnover, and create systems for growth.

Ready to Explore Apprenticeships?

Apprenti partners with U.S. based employers to build programs that fit business needs while lowering costs and improving retention. If you want to learn more, please contact Natalie Miller, Regional Director – West at nmiller@apprenticareers.org. Natalie will be presenting at the November 5th HR Lunch Bunch – to register and learn more click here.

Update For Qualified Retirement Plans

Special appreciation to Keith Mayfield with Plan It Financial for providing us with information on three significant items for qualified retirement plans:

1. FOR NEW PLANS–Significant Tax Credits to set up a 401k, 403b or SIMPLE. The government currently offers significant tax credits to offset some costs of setting up an organization retirement plan and offset costs of making employer contributions to the plan. See this link at the Planit401k.com blog for an example of a 50-person group who received $16,500 in tax credits to offset the cost of a plan AND $175,000 in tax credits to offset the cost of making $250,000 in employer contributions.

2. FOR CURRENT PLANS–Review current 401k plan. Common improvements are to:
a. Change to a 3(38) Investment Manager— ERISA puts financial and fiduciary liability on plan sponsors for ongoing investment selection and monitoring and requires them to do so at the level of a prudent investment specialist. ERISA allows this responsibility and liability to be shifted off the sponsor when they have their plan advisor accept the liability and responsibility as a section 3(38) Investment Manager. In Planit’s opinion, most plan sponsors will adopt this change to meaningfully limit their work and financial liability.
b. Employer Benefit: Organizations put time, effort and perhaps up to 6% of their entire corporate payroll as an employer contribution into the retirement plans. Yet many plans do not have a focus on making this investment a true Employer Benefit that assists with Recruit, Reward, Retain. Keep the following question top of mind when evaluating each decision with your retirement plan… “How can we improve this benefit to positively impact the perception of our company/organization to current and prospective employees”. The more that question is asked, the better your plan serves your participants and the better your plan returns value to your company/organization.
c. Review Plan Fees: Anything that reduces plan growth is equivalent to a plan fee. Sponsors are used to basic fees such as investment/advisor/TPA cost reducing plan growth, but items such as lower than optimal participant rates, contribution rates and investment usage reduce plan growth much more than normally measured “fees”.

3. FOR SIMPLE CONVERSIONS–Convert SIMPLE plans to more beneficial 401k plans. Following find three main reasons for the change:
Employer Benefit-–The purpose of an employee benefits is to improve a company’s ability to recruit, reward and retain. The features of a 401k provide a meaningful improvement in how employees and prospective employees perceive working at their employer over a SIMPLE plan. Items such as higher contribution limits, better investment guidance, and the employee engagement with retirement planning education provided by an advisor are highly ranked by employees when evaluating retirement plan value.
Contribution Limits–Increased employee contribution limits especially for owners/highly compensated employees. While a SIMPLE plan contribution maximum of $15,500/$19,000 is often enough for rank-and-file employees, this limits owners/high saving employees’ ability to fund enough to meet their goals. The 401k limits of $22,500/$30,000 allows owners/high saving individuals a 50% increase in retirement planning limits.
• The ability to have Roth contribution in a 401k (not allowed in SIMPLE plans) further increases owners/highly compensated individuals’ deferral power by approximately another 30%.
Employer Contributions and Vesting Schedules— SIMPLE plans require employer contributions, while employer contributions are optional with 401k plans. When making employer contributions, only the 401k allows vesting schedules which makes employees earn the right to keep those contributions over up to 6 years of tenure using a vesting schedule. This is both an employee retention tool as well as a tool to reclaim employer matching contributions from those shorter-term employees who do not really impact the business. Reclaiming “unvested” contributions typically results in a 10%-25% lower annual expense of employer contributions (which are normally 3% to 6% of total company payroll).
• Notice: Notice to close a SIMPLE must be given by November 2. To close a SIMPLE, notice has to be given by November 2. Though rules in 2024 allow mid-year changes from a SIMPLE to a 401k, mid-year changes have restrictive rules that limit some important normal 401k options available in a calendar year switch.
If you would like to learn more and ask questions Keith will be joining HR Answers on December 6th for HR Lunch Bunch and a discussion on 401k’s. Visit our website for more information.
For additional questions please feel free to reach out to Keith Mayfield at keith@planitfinancial.com or at www.planitfinancial.com or 888-654-4015 ext. 1.