Record Number of Wisconsinites Taking Trade Apprenticeships
Demand for workers in industries such as manufacturing and health care still exceeds the number of workers entering.
UW Health emergency room nurse Mariah Clark gestures at a line of hospital scrubs pinned up outside the City-County Building in Madison on Sept. 2, 2021. The empty hospital uniforms are mean to represent unfilled positions because of a statewide nursing shortage. The 50 scrubs each represent 200 positions. A state workforce development report projects Wisconsin will need 10,000 nurses by the end of the decade. Shamane Mills/WPR
Participation in Wisconsin apprenticeships is at a record high, according to a new report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
In 2024, 17,509 people participated in the state Department of Workforce Development’s Registered Apprenticeship Program, up from 9,872 people in 2013. The program offers apprenticeships in about 200 occupations.
Participation was also up for the state’s youth apprenticeship program, designed to give high schoolers one or two years’ coursework and paid work experience, similar to the adult program. In the 2025 fiscal year, the number of high schoolers involved was 11,357, more than double the count of 5,104 in 2019.
“We are seeing increasing participation,” said Joe Peterangelo, research director at the Wisconsin Policy Forum. “But given the demand, there are still opportunities to expand what we have across the state and across different industries.”
The rise in apprentices is good news for industries reporting a shortage of workers, such as construction, manufacturing and health care, the report noted.
But youth enrolled in apprenticeship programs for other fields, such as agriculture, could benefit from more adult apprenticeship options, Peterangelo said.
“We found there are actually not a lot of connections being made from youth apprenticeships to registered apprenticeships that would then provide pathways for those youth into careers,” Peterangelo said. “So there may be opportunities to improve, to strengthen those connections.”
The report authors analyzed state and federal labor data and interviewed more than a dozen “workforce development leaders” to understand apprenticeship participation trends.
The report was funded by Madison’s Ascendium Education Group and the company Gilbane and is part of an initiative run by Milwaukee’s workforce development nonprofit WRTP|BIG STEP.
The authors found the organization’s state-certified “pre-apprenticeship” programs could be expanded to better prepare people across the state to enter the state’s apprenticeship program. Pre-apprenticeship programs help people get their prerequisites.
“We found those programs only exist in a few places in Wisconsin, mainly in Milwaukee and Dane counties,” Peterangelo said. “(That’s) despite there being demand from throughout the state.”
Based on their analysis of federal data, report authors found Wisconsin ranked 11th nationwide in the number of active apprentices the state has per 1,000 residents.
“We were the first state in the country to have a registered apprenticeship program and law that protects workers and employers,” Peterangelo said. “And that became a model for other states and the federal government.”
Demographically, report authors noted female and Black apprentices continue to be underrepresented in state programs. Meanwhile, the share of Hispanic apprentices has doubled from 4 percent in 2013 to 8 percent in 2024.
“As the state is becoming more diverse, and as we do have these continued demands for workers and a lot of occupations … there may be opportunities to try to continue to attract workers that are underrepresented currently,” Peterangelo said.
Next, Peterangelo and his team are studying ways to expand existing pre-apprenticeship programs to include different industries and support people across the state.
Report: A record number of Wisconsinites are taking apprenticeships in trades was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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