Youth Apprenticeship + Developing the Next Gen of Makers

Introduction

Adam: Becca, we had Amy from CESA 6 on a WiLLcast. How'd it go?

Becca: It was great. She's lovely. I work directly with Amy quite a bit. She really helped get our CESA 6 youth apprenticeship program off the ground.

I'm really lucky. Listeners will get a taste of it, but she's just really passionate about her job. She really cares about the students. She really wants it to be a mutually beneficial relationship for the students and the businesses, so she makes that whole part of coordinating it really easy.

I was really excited when she was open and willing to come on the show to talk about it a little more. It was really great to have her here in the studio so other people can hear about that too.

Adam: Yeah, it's cool to find a good local partner that's aligned on the mission. We're in the manufacturing world and the trades world, but they're really running their program across a lot of different disciplines. It was cool to hear about some of the other types of roles where they're placing students.

Becca: Definitely. I don't know if they had youth apprenticeship — I think they called it school-to-work — when I was in high school.

Adam: It was school-to-work when I was in school too.

Becca: When I was in high school, the majority of it was the CNA program, which I had some friends who did, or it was kids who would milk cows in the morning and get credit for it.

Adam: We are in dairy country.

Becca: Which there's nothing wrong with, but it is really cool to see that it's branched out a lot. I had a cousin who did a marketing youth apprenticeship and she was helping with social media at a local small business.

I think it's exciting to see the opportunities some of these students are getting. And I didn't know this, but they tie it back to the coursework and things they're also taking for their classes.

I think the program is really beneficial, and I think it aligns super well with what we believe in here too.

Adam: Yeah. They're finding routes for kids who ultimately want to go on to a four-year track, kids who maybe want to start working right away but also go to tech school part-time, and students who really want to start working right away.

It's nice to have those options for students rather than just pushing them in one direction.

Becca: Totally. A lot of the students we'll see come through the door here most likely aren't necessarily on a four-year track — and maybe they are. For students who are on that track, it also helps them potentially save a lot of wasted time and figure out what they do and don't like.

I guess that's true for all kids.

Adam: Absolutely.

Becca: I think it's just a really great opportunity, and you're getting credit for it. I think everyone should be doing it.

As a business, we weren't nervous, but we always wanted to make sure we were ready for a program like that. It took us a few years.

How long have we been doing this?

Adam: First full lap around the sun.

Becca: Yep. This is our first full academic year. We're currently in the process of trying to recruit some new YAs for next year.

We have Gavin, who we mentioned a few times in the podcast, who is from Campbellsport. He's completing his senior year right now.

This summer our new youth apprentice would start, and they basically work through the summer to learn on the shop floor. Then we integrate them into the engineering team or other areas of the business based on their skill set and interests.

We're entering our second year. Honestly, now that we're in it, it's like, wow, it's actually easier than I anticipated as a business.

Adam: Yeah. At the end of the day, they're another employee. As far as the grading portions, reviews and things like that, they make it super simple. They understand that they want this to be a benefit to both the business and the student, and they're really mindful of that.

It's neat to see the WiLLcast role in all of this too. I remember when we did one of our first WiLLcasts with Paul from Integrity Saw.

Becca: Yeah, Paul Re.

Adam: He had mentioned this and talked about a lot of the success they'd had. It's neat to see how that community networking and development, and the podcasting, and how that network is coming together not only to provide good opportunities and employment, but also to share some of the successes.

It's cool to see it come full circle. It's kind of a win-win for a lot of people, which we're always after.

Becca: Absolutely.

Adam: All right. Enjoy this WiLLcast with Amy from CESA 6.

What Is CESA 6?

Adam: So, CESA 6 — what does CESA stand for?

Amy: Oh, don't ask me that one. It's like Cooperative Educational Service Agency, something like that.

Essentially, it means we're a big group that provides educational services to schools and school districts — elementary school all the way up through high school.

Adam: And the six is this region?

Amy: Yeah. There are actually 12 CESAs in the state of Wisconsin. It's broken into territories, kind of like workforce development regions.

Adam: What's the overall mission, if you had to put it in your own terms?

Amy: I didn't know there were going to be such hard questions right off the bat.

The mission for CESA 6, or CESA in general, is really to provide quality educational services and help schools where they need help.

If they need assistance finding teachers, training math teachers or literacy teachers, youth apprenticeship and career services, career exploration — there are lots of different services available.

We also have training for people who want to become substitute teachers or teachers who already have a bachelor's degree. It's really about helping schools with the services they need.

Adam: I saw on the website that you're a nonprofit. If you had to define your customer base, for lack of a better term, it's primarily school districts and schools?

Amy: Yes, for the most part.

Our CEO, Ted Neitzke, is very ambitious. He works with businesses too. We're huge into Gallup, so he does a lot of training and promotion of Gallup with law enforcement agencies and other organizations.

He also has a podcast called Smart Thinking.

Adam: Really? We'll have to get him on.

Amy: He would love that.

He's out there working with anybody who will listen and anywhere that can fall under our mission and how we can help.

Connecting Schools, Students & Employers

Adam: So the CESA network connects schools, students and employers, and you guys are managing those relationships.

We've worked together more on the trades, engineering and technical paths for students. But you mentioned healthcare. What other industries or professions are part of youth apprenticeship?

Amy: Every single thing you could possibly think of.

There are actually 83 different career areas for youth apprenticeship.

Adam: Is that like a state code? Does the state have different types of positions?

Amy: It falls under career pathways. You have manufacturing, construction, healthcare and so on, and then different units underneath each one of those.

For manufacturing, for example, we have things like assembly, production and welding.

The youth apprenticeship program runs through the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. The state looks at advisory committees of employers and asks: Where are the needs? Where are employers hiring? Where do we need to find students to help with employment pipelines?

Then they build different youth apprenticeship programs around those needs.

A couple of years ago, they released several more programs. There was an education program for early childhood education and school-age education. They also added government agency administrative professional positions, law enforcement and fire.

They'll continue expanding the programs based on needs.

Growing Interest Beyond the Trades

Adam: I assume you've seen a lot of interest in trades, manufacturing and technical fields.

Amy: Absolutely.

I'm finishing my fifth year in this position. When I started, I saw huge demand from students in manufacturing, construction and the trades.

Over the five years I've been doing this, it's expanded into the business world and even more into healthcare and other areas too.

Adam: We've seen over the last few years that high school students can be very job-ready.

A lot of the courses they're taking in high school — whether it's SolidWorks, Mastercam or some of the other things they may also see at tech school — mean they're coming out of high school really well-rounded.

Do you ever feel like you're competing with technical colleges or four-year schools? There seems to be a trend where more students want to start working and earning a living, and they already have skills.

How do you view the other education partners?

Amy: That's one of the coolest things about youth apprenticeship. There is support and there are partnerships with the colleges.

It's not a one-size-fits-all kind of thing.

Adam: Meet the student where they are.

Amy: Absolutely.

Colleges will even give electives for students who do youth apprenticeship.

Previously, I worked with a lot of parochial schools in Milwaukee along with schools like Campbellsport High School and some schools in Washington County.

Many of those parochial schools are very college-focused. Their mission is to send students to four-year colleges.

Part of what we've worked on with those students and schools is helping them understand that youth apprenticeship isn't just for students looking to go straight into the workforce.

It absolutely can be a great path for those students. But it can also be for students interested in a registered apprenticeship, a technical college or a four-year college.

No matter what your path is, youth apprenticeship can help you.

Creating More Paths After High School

Adam: When I was in high school, I ended up going to college, but there was so much pressure at that time to go down that path.

That was, what, 20 years ago?

Amy: I'm not throwing you under the bus like that.

Adam: Twenty-two years ago.

There were probably a lot of kids who ended up going to college who may have been better served by technical school or going directly from high school into the workforce.

Now there seems to be more balance, which is great.

We do a lot of factory tours with other manufacturers in the Midwest. You look at how many really talented, gifted and smart people are going to retire over the next five to 10 years. There can be this big 20-year gap in factories, on construction sites, in engineering and across technical fields.

But it seems like that has shifted.

I've talked to some local high schools where maybe 70% or 80% of students used to go on to get a four-year degree, and they've seen big drops in that in recent years.

I'm sure some of it is economic and people adjusting to the cost of education. But there are also a lot of opportunities for kids who are hands-on, technical and want to start contributing and working right away.

It's good to hear that it's not one or the other. You're also not thought of as much of a failure, for lack of a better term, if you don't go on to a four-year school.

Amy: Absolutely. I'm in the same boat. I graduated from high school 20-some years ago too, and 100% it was, "You're four-year bound, and that's where you should be."

That's great for some people. It's not great for others, and that's okay.

Opportunities Beyond the Production Floor

Adam: You mentioned healthcare and technical skills. What about office professionals or people who maybe aren't on the shop floor, but could be in operations or sales? Do you have students in that category?

Amy: Yes.

Right now we have a student working for a local employer, Kondex, who's doing more on the safety side. He works between the manufacturing floor and HR.

When I hear about what he's doing with that combination, I think it's such a cool opportunity. He can work in the manufacturing environment without necessarily being on the hands-on production side.

We also have a student working for a lawyer and doing some paralegal-type work.

Becca: You get to see everything.

Amy: Everything you could possibly imagine.

Finding Out What You Don't Want to Do

Becca: I know what I thought I was going to do my junior year of high school, and it was not this.

I thought I was going to be a physical therapist. I had a class that required me to do a job shadow. I did it, and it was a really great experience, but within an eight-hour job shadow, I think at hour four I was like, "Get me out of here."

How often do you see that with these students?

That's still a great experience. Do you see kids who think they could do something for two years and then realize, "Just kidding, I don't think this is for me"?

Amy: Absolutely.

Students have the opportunity to do youth apprenticeship junior and senior year. We have students all the time who start something junior year and realize it's not quite their thing.

Maybe they start in healthcare and decide it isn't for them. They can try something different senior year.

Or they may simply have a couple of different interests, so they get an opportunity to try one thing for a year and another thing the next year.

It's amazing to see where they end up.

I just heard a cool story yesterday about a student who did an electrical youth apprenticeship his junior year. He ended up working at a golf course doing maintenance work.

His brother told me yesterday that he's graduating from the golf course management program at UW–Madison and just got a job working for a high-end golf course a couple of hours north of here.

Was that ever on his radar originally? Probably not. It was just a job he found, and it turned into, "Wow, this is really cool. Golf course management. Here I am."

Adam: Golf's getting popular again.

Amy: Golf is getting popular again.

How CESA 6 Matches Students with Employers

Adam: What does the process look like?

You connect with employers and understand their facilities and teams. Once you know the employer, do you identify certain students who might be a good fit for one employer versus another?

Amy: There are about 14 of us who work for CESA 6 within the youth apprenticeship consortium, and we all have slightly different ways of working with students.

For the most part, you're meeting your new group of students and getting to know them. You're sitting down with them and having conversations.

You're also working very closely with school counselors. They may have background or information about a student that can help identify what's going to be a good fit.

Then we're figuring out who would be a really great student for WiLL, for example, or who would fit well with the culture of a different employer.

Sometimes we're connecting a student individually with an employer. We also have broader resources available, like a job-posting portal where students can search different positions.

Sometimes it's very individualized and sometimes it's more general. It depends on the student and what we know about them.

And we always have parents who are happily involved and want to have their buy-in too.

Adam: They hopefully know their kids as well as anybody.

Amy: Exactly.

Some employers will bring parents in for meetings and tours too, just to make sure they're comfortable with it and know that it's a safe environment where their child is going to be working.

It can really be a big group effort, and we appreciate and understand that it needs to be that way.

Why Youth Apprenticeship Stands Out on a Resume

Adam: We've seen a few students work part-time at Wisconsin Lighting Lab, but even on other resumes we're getting, there are more and more students who haven't worked here but have gone through the youth apprenticeship program.

We had a really fantastic hire at the end of last school year who was a YA through WLA at a different manufacturer. They didn't have an open position at the time, so we were lucky enough that Sam came here.

Everyone has been really happy with him and the work he's putting out.

A lot of that is obviously a testament to his work ethic, but it's also the fact that he already had hands-on experience in a major manufacturing facility.

You step onto the job with a different mindset on day one. They understand some of the basics of being there and what that entails.

Now, when we see youth apprenticeship on a resume, it's actually a good signal.

Amy: Absolutely.

Adam: It's really changed our perspective over the last few years. You guys are doing great work.

Amy: Thank you. I'm so happy to hear that.

As the coordinator, I'm talking to these students and telling them what all the old people say: "It's going to look really good on your resume."

Do they believe me? They better listen to me now.

It does look really good on resumes, college applications and scholarship applications because it demonstrates work ethic.

They also have an added level of requirements and evaluations they have to complete for youth apprenticeship.

Youth Apprenticeship Requirements

Becca: Can you share more about that for people who aren't familiar?

The students are getting paid, but there is a level of requirements that comes with the program. It looks like coursework, and they get credit for being here.

Amy: Absolutely.

The Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development gives us a list of requirements students need to meet to earn their youth apprenticeship certification at the end of the year.

Students need to work a minimum of 450 hours over the course of the year.

We encourage them to start over the summer because they can really get immersed in the culture and the company and have the opportunity to see more. Some of those summer hours can count toward the requirement.

They're also required to take one high school credit or three college-level credits of concurrent related coursework.

We encourage them to have some experience beforehand through classes so they have an idea of what it means to weld, work in healthcare or whatever area they're entering.

Then they need to be taking related classes during that year so they can use what they're learning in the classroom as an extension of what they're doing in the workforce.

I hear really cool stories from students who say, "I learned this in my class, and now I'm working at a bank and I learned this in finance class, and suddenly it makes sense."

They can put everything together. It's a really cool full-circle moment.

We also ask employers to complete evaluations. Those evaluations are based on a list of competencies from the state.

Again, there's an advisory board of employers that develops the skills students should be able to demonstrate to successfully complete the program.

Amy's Path to CESA 6

Adam: What's your favorite thing about your job?

Amy: I have a very distinct moment from my first month on the job.

For a little background, never in my life did I think that when I was in college getting my degree in communications with a minor in journalism and mass communications that I would work in education.

Adam: Where'd you go to school?

Amy: UW–Milwaukee.

Adam: Oh, cool.

Amy: I fell into education totally by accident.

I applied for one of those jobs when you're fresh out of college where it paid a lot of money but I didn't really know what it was.

It turned out to be college recruiting.

I recruited for 10 years for Moraine Park Technical College. Then I worked for a few years at a high school as a college and career adviser, and eventually fell into my role with the CESA 6 Youth Apprenticeship Consortium through all of those different connections.

I've worked many times with students who didn't know what they wanted to do, or who were guided with the best of intentions toward a path that wasn't quite right for them.

They'd come back saying, "I went to a four-year college. I tried it. It wasn't for me. It wasn't the right career."

The Moment That Defined the Job

Amy: During my first month as a youth apprenticeship coordinator, I went to visit a manufacturing employer.

I had a student who was working there as a senior doing CNC work.

He said, "This is what I want to do. And I know that now because I got to work for this employer. I can tell my parents with 100% certainty that this is what I want to do."

He was offered a registered apprenticeship with that company after his youth apprenticeship ended.

It was this moment where I thought, how cool is it that this high school senior knows CNC is for him?

He could say, "I'm going into manufacturing. I can tell my parents, thank you for guiding me and helping me look at four-year colleges, but it's not for me. I know from the last year and a half of experience that it's not for me."

Now he has a career path with a really great job he loves.

He can learn from people with 30-plus years of experience who are eventually going to retire, and then move into a registered apprenticeship with the same employer.

At the same time, the employer has already spent a year and a half working with him and getting to know him.

That's my favorite part.

What Makes an Employer Attractive to Students?

Adam: What separates employers that students really want to work for from employers where maybe they like CNC machining but aren't as attracted to the company, culture or facility?

What are students attracted to beyond the job itself?

Amy: They're high school students, so it's got to be cool, right? What they make and what they do has to have some excitement to draw them in.

Adam: I think that applies beyond high school students.

Amy: Right.

But the biggest thing I've noticed is mentorship.

That's a big part of the youth apprenticeship program. Students are assigned a mentor, and that person is their go-to person.

It doesn't have to be the person they're with 100% of the time. They're going to work with different people within the company or on the floor, but they have somebody they can go to and ask questions.

Adam: That's Kevin.

Amy: Oh, Kevin. There we go.

Adam: We've had a youth apprentice here since last June. He does have a mentor, I promise.

Amy: And a great one at that.

Students can ask their mentor for guidance. Maybe they're really interested in seeing another part of the business they don't normally get exposed to.

That mentor can help make a connection with someone else for them to shadow.

That's kind of what happened with Gavin, right? He worked on the shop floor and now he's spending more time with engineering.

Gavin's Path at WiLL

Adam: Yep. He's doing more CAD work and design work now. He's kind of dabbling all over.

He started out in assembly — building lights, more or less.

We noticed pretty quickly that he's very technical and really reliable.

Then he started doing more technician work with the engineering team on the shop floor — prototyping, thermal testing and initial article builds of custom products.

He got into the lab and started working with the engineering team.

Over the last four or five weeks, he's been spending a few hours a week in the office with engineering and more or less running our 3D print farm.

Amy: How long has he been there? Has it been a full year?

Adam: June is when we met him. It was actually at the Campbellsport career fair, which is coming up again in about a month.

So in about nine months, he's gone from building things on the front lines of the shop, to prototyping with engineering, to running the 3D print farm.

The 3D print farm had been a collaborative effort spread across a bunch of people over the last few years. Now we have somebody who can really own it, make sure maintenance is kept up, and through that he's also learning how those parts are designed.

When he comes on full-time, then he gets to design the parts.

You can see what the progression looks like.

We have so many different things going on here that if somebody is hands-on, technical and also wants to learn software and design, there's likely going to be a spot for them.

We have three engineering teams and multiple production teams. For students coming through here, it pretty much covers every engineering and manufacturing discipline.

It's been great to see that full cycle.

Learning How to Build a Better Program

Becca: We've really learned a lot.

Now we can define the process and expectations and improve on it.

It's also been a huge compliment to the program. Not that we were skeptical, but it took us a few years of seeing students come across our desks before we were ready to commit to an actual youth apprenticeship.

It's been a really great learning curve for us.

I think we have a phenomenal student who is obviously a best-case scenario, but we've also learned a lot about ourselves as a company, recruitment and how we need to help fill those gaps for students.

Ultimately, it's to WiLL's benefit and the manufacturing community's benefit to develop this talent.

Adam: What are the expectations? What's the path?

What does it look like to go from the shop floor to a technician, to a designer, to an engineer?

What are the timelines? What skills are required?

The SolidWorks and Mastercam classes they're taking in Campbellsport are really good.

You're going to have students who can come out of high school and run a Haas CNC machine or start designing parts. That's really cool to see.

Amy: I appreciate hearing that because we have meetings with our team all summer and all year long asking: Are we doing the right thing? How do we mentor? How do we help employers? How do we help students?

It's cool to hear that what we're talking about is actually working and benefiting you.

It's also refreshing to hear that students are coming from these schools with those skills because it's really a testament to the awesome teachers they have too.

Investing in Technical Education

Adam: I don't know if the schools always know that. I'm sure you provide that feedback, but we should encourage them to continue investing in it.

I think Springs has a partnership with Moraine Park where they don't necessarily have their own tech ed department, but two miles down Highway 23 there's a really nice facility.

We've been talking about this for a long time, but it's good to see momentum in this area.

We're a manufacturing area. We're an engineering area. This is what people should be investing in.

It's doubling down on our strengths and getting more young people into the industry.

Amy: Absolutely. Stop letting them leave.

Becca: There's so much talent right here and they just disappear.

I'm one of them. I left to go to college, and I came back — not necessarily willingly. It was kind of begrudgingly.

Adam: Now you own a farm.

Becca: No, no. A lot of chickens.

Adam: You may have overcorrected a little bit.

Becca: We might have overcorrected a lot.

But I think there's a lack of realization that in the Fond du Lac area — even Fond du Lac County alone — there are major employers and manufacturers.

And it isn't just the production floor or engineering. There's sales, accounting, marketing, tech, IT. There are all these opportunities.

Kids leave, or they can leave for a little bit, but they don't always think, "Hey, I can come back and have a really solid career in a cost-effective area to live and have a great place to raise a family," or whatever their priorities are.

They're missing that.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

Staying & Working in Wisconsin

Adam: When did you graduate from UWM?

Amy: I was on the six-year college path. I graduated in 2006.

Adam: I was four and a half. I graduated in 2007, so maybe we crossed paths.

Amy: You never know. Maybe one of those big lecture halls in English or something.

Adam: I was finance and econ, so I'm sure there were probably some overlap classes.

Amy: I need you to know those were my least favorite classes I ever took.

That's why I'm a communications student and didn't go full business. I could not do the econ.

Adam: Do you live in the area now?

Amy: I live in West Bend.

Adam: West Bend is a great city.

Amy: West Bend is awesome. I love it there. We live next door to my parents now.

Adam: There's a lot going on there too. Socially, it has a really cool downtown and restaurants, but also from a business perspective there's a ton of growth.

Amy: A ton of growth.

Adam: And you're 30 minutes from Milwaukee. It's pretty centrally located.

Amy: Exactly.

What's Next for CESA 6?

Adam: What's next for you guys? What does 2026 look like?

Amy: Continue to grow. Continue to help the school districts.

Adam: There are 12 people in your position?

Amy: I think there are about 14.

Adam: Fourteen. And that's just in CESA 6?

Amy: Yeah.

We're actually the largest youth apprenticeship consortium in the state of Wisconsin.

My boss, Tanya, was involved back in 1991 when youth apprenticeship started. She was one of the original youth apprenticeship people in the state.

Adam: The state started it?

Amy: Yep.

She's been around youth apprenticeship for a long time, and we continue to grow.

One of the big things, like I mentioned, has been working with parochial schools.

That's been a big part of our growth — helping those schools understand that youth apprenticeship, career exploration and these experiences aren't just for public schools.

Parochial schools are expanding to offer similar services now too, which I think is amazing.

The state really likes work-based learning. It's on school report cards, so they're big proponents of it.

We're helping schools continue to grow experiences for students, increase the number of employers we're working with, and increase the diversity of experiences students can have with those employers.

Expanding Opportunities at Private Schools

Adam: It seems like private schools in Wisconsin are growing pretty quickly.

Amy: Yes. It's amazing to me.

My experience has been primarily in the Milwaukee area. There's a school down there, St. Augustine Prep, and they just bought an old college campus.

Adam: Cardinal Stritch.

Amy: Yeah.

Adam: We did their football field.

Amy: Nice.

They're opening their north location. They already have about 2,000 students at their south location, and now they're opening another location on a college campus.

That's huge.

Adam: It's great that they can reuse that campus and reinvent it so it doesn't just sit vacant.

Whether they're private or public, they still have access to your services and state support?

Amy: Yes.

From my perspective, my kids go to a private school, so I'm a supporter of both public and private schools.

Working with private schools has been really cool because they're offering these experiences to students.

I think that's a huge part of the high school experience. Students need exposure to all the different areas we've talked about — four-year colleges, technical colleges, registered apprenticeships and employment.

Those opportunities need to be available so students can make informed decisions.

Keeping Technical Courses Available

Adam: One thing I've heard a couple of times — I was actually talking with my old shop teacher at WLA — is that they don't always have enough students for their CAD or SolidWorks classes.

A lot of the students who might take shop or SolidWorks are also the kids who are going to start working while they're in high school.

One of the downsides is that if kids start working right away, the students who could eventually go down a technical or engineering path may not have that exposure at school and don't necessarily know it exists.

Someone may start in a CNC position, but if they're not taking SolidWorks classes, they might not have that perspective.

Do you see more private schools getting tech ed classes?

Amy: Yeah.

Adam: I think that's a really good balance.

They're working in the shop, but when they're in school, they can also see what the engineering team is doing and what that pathway looks like.

It doesn't have to be one or the other.

Not everyone needs a four-year degree, but some people do. Some people need technical coursework.

It's about exposing them so they know what the other side looks like.

That's one thing Gavin mentioned too. When he was on the floor, even here at a relatively small company with a lot going on, it can still be somewhat isolating from what's happening in the rest of the company.

Once he started doing technician work and working with 3D printing, it really opened up his perspective.

It's good when high schools have these courses so students can learn the design side at school while seeing the production side when they're working.

Hopefully more private schools continue to do that.

Amy: That's what I've found with a couple of other schools too. They offer it and the teachers are there, but they don't always have enough students to fill the classes.

Unfortunately, that means they don't always get to run them.

I hope it continues to move forward.

Could WiLL Build Its Own CAD Program?

Adam: We've thrown out a very early-stage idea about whether someday we could have our own CAD class.

Amy: That would be awesome.

Adam: Students could work, but if they're willing to spend a couple of hours learning too, maybe there's something we can do.

Not that the engineering team is looking for more things to do.

Becca: I've got that whole building across the street laid out in my mind. It's going to be our makerspace.

Adam: Give her an inch, she's going to take a mile.

But it could give students both angles.

Youth Apprenticeship by the Numbers

Adam: How many students do you oversee personally?

Amy: About 140.

Some of us have more and some have fewer. It depends on our contract, but it averages about 140 to 150 students that we work with.

Adam: That's amazing. It's a full plate.

Amy: Yeah.

Statewide last year, I think there were a little over 11,000 students who did youth apprenticeship throughout Wisconsin.

Adam: You might not know this, so if I'm putting you on the spot, I'm sorry. Do other states have programs like this?

I know there are 12 CESAs in Wisconsin, but do other states have similar youth apprenticeship programs?

Amy: Similar. You'll find similarities, but they're not exactly the same.

Adam: Awesome. That's amazing.

Growing the Program at WiLL

Adam: Becca, anything else?

Becca: No. I think this is great. Thank you so much.

Amy: Thank you for having me. This was fun.

Adam: Do you have any questions for us?

Amy: How many students can you take?

Becca: Isn't that the debate?

Adam: That's an interesting question.

We're still trying to define what version 2.0 of this looks like — how many students can truly move from a shop position toward an engineering position and what that path looks like.

Maybe we shift our focus from somebody who might stay in the shop for five to seven years. Maybe if it's a student, they're there for two or three years and then continue progressing.

We'll have to get back to you on that.

But definitely a few.

We've had Gavin for the full school year, and we'd definitely like at least two more for next year.

Becca: We're looking to keep growing the program and see what the different iterations look like.

You talk about your pathways. We have to figure out our pathways here too.

We're excited. We really love the program and we want to grow it.

Adam: And there's a lot of buy-in.

Kevin and the guys on the floor — it has been really fun to see some of the people on the production floor step into those roles.

You mentioned the formal mentor, but there's informal mentorship too.

You get to see who really steps up to support somebody, who's coachable and who wants to be a coach.

It forces everybody to step up.

For the most part, especially on the production floor, we have a pretty flat hierarchy. We're not super bureaucratic.

Seeing people naturally take on those mentorship roles has been really fun.

It's been an unexpected benefit of the program that I've witnessed, and I'm not even on the production floor most days.

That's been really cool.

Amy: For sure.

Adam: Well, thanks again. Thanks for coming out. We appreciate it.

Amy: Thank you so much.