Engaging Employers to Register Apprenticeship Programs: Outcomes from the American Apprenticeship Initiative Employer Engagement Demonstration

To expand registered apprenticeships in the U.S., more employers need to develop new apprenticeships, hire more apprentices in existing apprenticeship programs, or both. As part of the evaluation of the American Apprenticeship Initiative, Abt led an evaluation to test the effectiveness of a consultative sales approach to recruiting employers to develop and register apprenticeships. The randomized controlled trial evaluation detected a statistically significant impact of the recruitment approach on adoption of such programs by employers. Twelve percent of employers that were recruited by one grantee using the approach registered apprenticeship programs while no employers in the control group registered any apprenticeship programs.

The consultative sales approach has five-phases:

• researching and prospecting employers
• preparing to contact and speak with an employer
• making an initial sales call
• following-up with the employer
• closing the deal with a written commitment from the employer.

The consultative sales approach can address the primary constraint limiting apprenticeship expansion in the United States: the number of apprenticeship slots employers offer.

The Department of Labor funded the initiative.