When most people hear the word “apprenticeship,” they envision the model that Europe has used for hundreds of years – young adults choosing to make horseshoes on an anvil rather than enrolling in higher education – substituting on the job learning for formal education. This Game of Thrones-like image is a completely outdated view on apprenticeship that holds back its development. The modern, American incarnation of apprenticeship, which is experiencing a renaissance in a world of severe labor shortages in skilled trades, differs in three crucial ways from the stereotype.

Earlier this week, President Trump announced his intention to expand apprenticeship programs as the cornerstone of his labor policy.¹ He clearly sees apprenticeship as a skills gap solution – and not just a way to hire an assistant in front of a national audience.

The ASU GSV Summit always acts as a great set of meteorological instruments used to measure trends across the edtech sector. It gauges hot and cold like a thermometer and which direction the wind is blowing like an anemometer. This year’s conference showed that the tectonic plates of edtech have shifted…seismically.