On Tuesday, September 19th, Reach University's President, Joe E. Ross, took to the Clinton Global Initiative's stage to announce a nationwide Commitment to Action.
In partnership with nearly 30 state associations, universities, and employers, Reach University committed to launching a new national center and campaign to to deliver 3 million apprenticeship degrees by 2035. This nationwide effort will ensure every on-the-job apprenticeship degree enrollment:
1. Offers a living wage to the learner from day 1 through graduation;
2. Is fully job-embedded, transforming the workplace into the university learning place;
3. And is affordable and offered to the degree-seeker with zero student loan debt.
Watch President Ross' full remarks below:
Highlights include:
"The apprenticeship degree is for the 50 million working adults who do not have a bachelor's degree, but say in survey after survey that they want one."
"And it's for countless communities across this country that are struggling to fill high demand jobs. That are vacant. We need teachers. We need nurses. We need people to work in advanced manufacturing. All told, there are 10 million high demand vacancies on one hand. And on the other hand, there are five times as many working adults who could fill those jobs."
"If only they had the right training and the right degree. So many people are forced to make a choice, a terrible choice, between the job they need right now. And the degree, the degree that could lead to their future. What if nobody had to make that choice? What if your job led to your degree and not the other way around?"
"That is what an apprenticeship degree does without student debt."
"So today, here at the Clinton Global Initiative, we're making this commitment, together with almost 30 partners, colleges, universities, government associations, and employers, to launch a new national center and campaign for the apprenticeship degrees in the United States, and to deliver over the next 12 years, 3 million apprenticeship degrees."
"Join us. Together with the Clinton Global Initiative, we can change higher education, we can turn jobs into degrees, and we can help millions of Americans to reach their full potential and the American dream."
Bipartisan partners sharing in this commitment to action include:
SHEEO (State Higher Education Executive Officers Association)
North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
UT-Knoxville's Grow Your Own Center
The City University of New York Health and Human Services
Become a partner. Launch your own apprenticeship degrees. Join us here.
