By Ramona Schindelheim for WorkingNation.
Broadcast version by Brett Peveto for Maryland News Connection reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Collaboration

From skilled trades to health care to information technology, these are just some in a wide range of industries facing a common challenge: they don’t have enough workers.

Employers are feeling the squeeze. A 2023 Manpower survey shows 75% of employers in the U.S. are facing difficulty finding skilled talent with an estimated 68 workers for every 100 open jobs in the United States.

Finding and training workers with specific skills is a priority and a growing number of businesses are turning to apprenticeships to provide hands-on training and build a future workforce. And they are partnering with community colleges as part of the solution.

Preparing for the Future Workforce Through Apprenticeships

Howard Community College (HCC), for one, is embracing the role. HCC, based in Columbia, Maryland, offers associate degrees and certifications, with more than 20,000 students a year.

“As the only higher education institution in Howard County, we will play a huge, monumental role in getting people skilled up quickly and to work,” says Daria Willis, Ph.D., president of Howard Community College.

To address the demand for a skilled workforce, it currently offers apprenticeship programs in ten occupations – with surgical technologist, IT support technician, plumber, child care professional, and construction manager among them.

More apprenticeships are in the pipeline and HCC plans to build a Workforce Development and Skilled Trades Center on campus to be completed by 2026 with backing from the community.

Willis explains: “As we do the design for this, we are trying to make sure that we have enough welding bays and automotive capacity. And we are really looking at solar and wind technology, all the up-and-coming things. The wave of the future is changing, and we want to be a part of that.”

For Willis, it’s part of a wider effort to realign career pathways to careers in a county that ranks as one of the most affluent in the country. “Most of our community members are highly educated. They send their kids to really good colleges, four-year schools that are snooty-wooty and all that good stuff, which is great.

“But there’s also an underlying group of people who don’t have that access. And even in those more snooty households, there are kids that just don’t want to go to the four-year school and they never really had an avenue in Howard county to do that,” she explains.

A Hunger for Skilled Trades Training

Until recent years, HCC’s focus had been on preparing students to transfer to a four-year college or university. In 2019, though, it changed the model to add apprenticeships. In the skilled trades, HVAC (heat, ventilation and air conditioning) apprenticeships were first offered, followed by electrical and plumbing apprenticeships.

According to HCC, there were roughly a dozen students to start and that number now tops one hundred.

“What it did for me was to really counter the argument that said in Howard County, we don’t do that. My predecessor used to say ‘we are a boutique college, we don’t do that. Our county, our students don’t do that.’ No, that’s not true. Our county does do that and there was actually a hunger for it,” says Minah Woo, vice president of Workforce Innovation and Strategic Partnerships at Howard Community College.

Beyond the need from employers to find skilled workers, apprenticeship programs can also open doors for students facing barriers to attend college and learn those skills because of tuition costs. Woo notes a rising poverty level in a county known for its wealth. “You need to have more than one pathway to success, one pathway to a career. We as a college need to provide them this other pathway,” adds Woo.

Breaking New Ground with IT Apprenticeships

HCC’s location – less than an hour from Washington, D.C. – is also providing some unique opportunities. There’s a demand for skilled workers at companies in Howard County working with government customers.

AT&T is among them. In 2020, it launched its first cohort of IT apprenticeships with Howard Community College, touting it as the first of its kind in the state of Maryland. “It’s just been the best decision we could have ever made,” says Brenda Anderson, associate director of Project Management at AT&T.

“By us creating this apprenticeship, we’re molding our own talent, we’re developing hopefully career-long employees by taking this risk on them. And we have gotten some superstars out of this.

“It is just a way to give back to the community in general, but to really help some of this younger workforce get developed because eventually the workforce is so saturated with older people that are going to retire,” explains Anderson.

She says the IT apprenticeship takes two years, on average, to complete with students taking between 18 and 24 credits and working roughly 20 hours a week while getting paid around $21 an hour to start.
They do not complete an associate degree but instead work toward industry-based certificates that include Security Plus certification.

Because the company works with government agencies that can include access to sensitive information, apprentices must obtain a high-level government security clearance before being hired full-time. The process, says Anderson, can take an average of 18 to 24 months. To date, Anderson says she’s hired 80 apprentices with 30 to 40 being hired full-time. The rest, she says, are waiting for their clearances and doing other work in the meantime.

Apprentices, are mainly hired into entry-level positions as hardware technicians, network engineers, and systems administrators and pegs the usual starting salary in the ballpark of the mid- $60,000 range, depending on specific roles.

Anderson now speaks with other employers about the benefits of apprenticeship programs. “I think a lot of industries and a lot of employers don’t realize that this could be an option for them,” she explains. “I know I’ve spoken at a lot of panels and in a lot of meetings and just kind of educating the employers on what’s involved.” She adds. “Is it a risk? Sure. But is it worth the risk? You betcha,” Anderson concludes.

Getting a Foot in the Door

One Howard Community College student who secured her full-time job through the apprentice program is Amrita Assim. The mother of two started attending HCC part-time after her family moved to Maryland. She had earned an associate degree in Business Administration in California, but says she had a hard time landing a job there and was looking for a new career. She started learning about cybersecurity and focused on networking.

“I started to hear about how much they want more women to be in this field so I started taking classes and enjoyed them,” Assim explains. When she received information about the IT apprenticeship program, she didn’t hesitate. “I thought: ‘Why not sign up?’ And I was chosen,” she adds.

She now works as a systems administrator, is working to grow her career, and wants to return to school to obtain a Bachelor’s Degree in cybersecurity.

“The apprentice program is such an easy way to get your foot into a workplace for students because, in general, it’s hard for students to find a job these days with all the experience they’re asking for kids to have just coming out of college. I think this is a great opportunity for anyone,” she adds.

Providing opportunity and breaking down barriers is what Howard Community College’s President Daria Willis is striving to deliver. “I used to attend a church in Texas called ‘the church without walls.’ I love that concept and when I think about community colleges, we need to be those institutions without walls, without barriers, to give access to everyone who wants it.”


Ramona Schindelheim wrote this article for WorkingNation.


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By Eduardo Miranda Strobel / Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi reporting for the Kent State NewsLab-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.

Protests at Ohio universities may look different this fall.

A new law is requiring higher education institutions to adopt and enforce policies addressing racial, religious and ethnic harassment. The universities must also publish guidelines on student protest restrictions, provide comprehensive training for staff and establish procedures for investigating complaints, allowing for anonymous submissions.

"I am never against the ability for students to use their First Amendment rights," said State Rep. Dontavius Jarrells (D-Columbus), a sponsor of House Bill 606. "My hope is through our bill is that we tamp down on the number incidences that lead to hateful acts on campuses, discrimination, harassment because of who they love, what they look like, with their religion or ethnic identity."

The Enact CAMPUS Act (Campus Accountability and Modernization to Protect University Students) originated from the campus protests that spread across the United States in the past year because of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. There were reports of antisemitism related to these protests.

The bipartisan legislation was passed in the House and Senate sessions in June as an amendment to Senate Bill 94, which covers a range of topics from administrative reforms to technology and court procedures. Governor Mike DeWine signed it into law in July.

Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University, Kent State University, Ohio University, Miami University, Oberlin College and Denison University had protests this past spring. Thirty-six arrests for alleged criminal trespassing were made at Ohio State, including students, a staff member and supporters unrelated to the institution. At Case Western Reserve, 20 protesters were detained and eventually released from police custody.

"I had a group of constituents reach out to me about trying to put together a bill to protect students on campus. Obviously, this was during a time of a lot of the encampments that was happening across our nation," Jarrells said. "There were other students who reached out as we were putting together the bill who also shared their own stories related to the rises in racial, religious or ethnic, ethnically charged acts of harassment."

With the legislation, colleges will also be tasked with tracking and reporting hate incidents annually and implementing grant programs to enhance student safety during campus events.

"We crafted a bill that I think really speaks to the diversity of realities that are on college campuses without sacrificing the ability for folks to use their First Amendment rights," Jarrells said.

Protesters urged universities to divest their finances from organizations related to Israel. In Ohio, the Revised Code Section 9.76 does not allow divestment by public universities to happen since those universities must maintain non-discriminatory commercial relations with certain jurisdictions if they wish to engage in contracts with state agencies.

"The administration at Case Western Reserve is very resolute in their stances on refusing to say divest from Israel or cut their ties with Israeli institutions," said Adam Saar, a Case student and founder of the university's Jewish Student Union.

He said he was dismayed by how the protesters conducted themselves on Case's campus.

"A lot of the rhetoric that was used that is antisemitic beyond just criticism of Israel," he said. "As an Israeli myself, I can be very critical of my government, but walking through campus and hearing calls for an intifada or for Israel to be wiped off the map is not a safe or positive environment to be in on campus."

Yaseen Shaikh, a May 2024 Kent State graduate and former president of Students for Justice in Palestine on Kent's campus, said Ohio officials overlook the cause of the student protests.

"It is truly horrendous that our elected officials that are supposed to represent us would rather harm our ability to protest it than to actually do something about ending the genocide," Shaikh said. "Rather than them looking at the cause of these protests and understanding that these universities are complicit in the genocide by working with security companies and contractors that are directly involved in this genocide, they instead choose to look at the effect, which is that students are outraged."

Shaikh said Students for Justice in Palestine held several campus protests at Kent State, and he followed accounts of protest activities at other campuses across the country.

"We need to be very careful as to what we qualify as harassment in this dialogue and in this discourse," he said. "When we see people advocating against genocide, against apartheid, for human rights, and are doing so in public, are doing so in a manner that, yes, it may make people uncomfortable, but uncomfortable is very different from being harassed."

Shaikh said the legislation restricts freedom of speech and protest, but Saar said it is helpful.

"I think the fact that the state is mandating that universities have a transparent way of dealing with these issues, of dealing with cases of harassment and discrimination, and are forced to tackle it, is a very positive thing," Saar said.

He hopes that everyone, including Jewish and Muslim students, will feel safe and supported in their campus communities going forward.


This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.


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A community college north of Sacramento is trying out an innovative way to lower costs for needy students with a new "Endow-a-Bed" program.

Sierra College received $80 million from the state to build a new dorm with 354 beds, where students will pay about $450 a month to live while they are in school.

Sonbol Aliabadi, executive director of the Sierra College Foundation, said donors have stepped up to offer free room and board for a few, very low-income students.

"We have a little over seven beds endowed," Aliabadi explained. "Hopefully, by the time that the dorms are ready, which will be the fall of 2026, we will have all 10 beds endowed already."

A recent report from the State Legislative Analyst found almost one-quarter of students surveyed at California community colleges reported being homeless at some point over the last twelve months.

Only full-time, very low-income students will qualify for the free room and meals at Sierra College. The school estimated it costs about $6,000 per year to offer the lodging, with meals at the school cafeteria at an additional cost.

Aliabadi noted donors are stepping up to keep the program running indefinitely.

"For a one-time investment of $250,000, at a rate of return of 3%, you generate about $7,500 a year," Aliabadi outlined. "That would cover both room and board for one student, in perpetuity."

Sierra College also got a grant to make four emergency beds available in the existing dorms. If a student suddenly becomes homeless, they can stay in the dorm for 30 days and work with the school to find permanent housing.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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California is facing a huge shortage of qualified health care workers, so the San Diego Community College District is stepping in to help recent grads afford professional testing and licensing.

The Ready2Work program reimburses health care students' fees as soon as they take the test or apply for the certification or license.

Laurie Coskey, vice chancellor for development and entrepreneurship for the San Diego Community College District, said they are responding to the needs of the marketplace.

"There is a big shortage in registered nurses, the radiology technicians, phlebotomy, information management assistants, dental assistants, vet techs," Coskey outlined. "They are in high demand."

The fees average about $500 and reimbursements range from $240 up to $1,200, mostly covered by foundations, private donors and some public funds. Health care students automatically qualify at San Diego City College, Mesa College, Miramar College and the College of Continuing Education.

Coskey noted many students struggle financially and have families to support, so without the reimbursement, they would have to work and save for up to six months after graduation to cover the fees.

"The sooner our students take their tests from finishing the program, the more likelihood is that they will pass the test and get right into work," Coskey emphasized. "Our students are very excited."

Hundreds have benefited so far, with about $385,000 expected to help about 1,000 additional graduates this school year.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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