Apparently November 17th-23rd is National Apprentice Week in the United States. How did we get to this place in our weird history as a country that we have a day, a week, a month for every little thing? OK sure, Black History and Pride aren’t little things, they are big things. But they are now in the same category as Apprenticeship? I don’t know, this seems a little suspect to me. It feels a little too influenced by the Greeting Card Industrial Complex. I love going to a good Pride parade, but I’m increasingly uncomfortable with how it has turned from a march/protest for civil rights into what feels to be a corporate float explosion. And the displays for Black History month at my kids’ school don’t inspire me so much as they make me want to ask teachers to post their curriculums on cork boards so that I can see for myself how students are actually learning about race and America as part of their instructional time.

But putting that rant to the side, I’m here to talk about Apprenticeships, not for a week-long celebration, but as a radically new (really old) approach to hiring. Because the way these things work right now is so played out and annoying and often degrading, biased, and soul-crushing. I see posts on LinkedIn from people that start like “I’ve been unemployed 3 months and applied to 500 jobs so far” or hiring managers saying things like “you’ve got all the qualifications and we really liked you, but we just found someone who was a better fit.” We all know this is some bullshit. And after you do get hired, how many people go through trial-by-fire as a way of onboarding and training? A Lot. There are some nonprofits that can actually hire and onboard and train really well. But they are the exceptions (and often they are the big and rich outliers).

I have a particular belief about doing work in nonprofit data & technology, which is that every single technical aspect of the work can be learned by anyone. From basic spreadsheet usage to advanced coding and database development. But most nonprofits (according to the National Council of Nonprofits, 97% of nonprofits have budgets of less than $5 million annually and 92% operate with less than $1 million a year) don’t need advanced technology support. They need what works for them at their size and capacity, and the flexibility and adaptability to grow and evolve their tech support as their circumstances and external variables change (external variables such as new technology developments and changing political administrations). So we are talking about some of the foundational parts of data & technology that are often more about process and critical thinking than they are about button-pushing. Anyone can learn to do the button-pushing if they want to. The hard part is getting the experience to know everything that is wrapped around the button pushing, the much more important stuff. So when you are recruiting from this vantage point, your job descriptions become a lot more about non-technical skills (critical thinking, problem-solving, mission-orientation, teamwork, relationship building, communication) and can even look at “fit” (a sort of vague and mysterious alignment between personalities, approaches, values, and some unknown mystical forces) earlier in the process.

If we were to disrupt this broken-ass system of hiring, we could look towards the Apprenticeship model. I’m most familiar with data & tech roles for nonprofits, so I’ll focus in on that. Let’s take a nonprofit that has gotten to the point where they want to develop the first technology role that their organization has ever had. Here is a suggestion for how nonprofits can use the Apprenticeship Model over the course of 3 years:

1. Year One: The organization commits to the plan to have a full-time role on staff at the end of the Year Two, building the budget needed for this as early as possible. In Year One, the organization is paired with two people - one is the senior, more experienced Mentor who will help develop the role for the org, serving in it at about 70% time while also teaching the Apprentice who is in the role at about 30% time.
2. Year Two: After a year of learning and actually doing the work, the Apprentice and the Mentor switch their time commitments, with the Apprentice now at 70% time in the role and the Mentor stepping back to about 30% time, still split between doing some of the implementation work themselves and also providing training to the Apprentice.
3. Year Three: The Apprentice now becomes a Full-Time employee hire with a W-2 at the organization, but at 90% time, leaving the Mentor 10% time to continue to be involved in the support of the work and the Apprentice.
4. And then the Mentor steps back fully.

In this time, the Apprentice has done most of their learning about how to be in the data & tech role while actually being in that role, and learning from a seasoned professional. They’ve had the opportunity to be part of the organization and contribute to the mission while learning and growing into the role. They’ve built relationships. They’ve gained confidence. And especially for organizations where there isn’t a manager who is also focused on the data & technology part of the work, the Apprentice has a support system to help them manage up in a role that is new and exciting for the organization. There are so many cool benefits of learning and working at the same time.

I don’t think that having a week dedicated to Apprenticeship is really that radical right now, but actually using the Apprenticeship model in nonprofit work is radical and disruptive. And I want more nonprofits to try it out!

What do you think about Apprenticeship? How do you feel about the traditional form of hiring that we’ve been doing? Where would YOU disrupt this system?