Apprentice Nation How the "Earn and Learn" Alternative to Higher Education Will Create a Stronger and Fairer America

College isn’t for everyone. It’s time to challenge the status quo and embrace the potential of apprenticeships: a more inclusive, affordable, and sustainable pathway to economic opportunity.

For decades, college has been the only respectable way to access the world of work, despite paralyzing tuition and a dire lack of practical skills that has left 40 percent of college graduates underemployed, unfulfilled, and struggling to repay student loan debt.

Fortunately, college is not America’s only option. In Apprentice Nation, education and workforce expert Ryan Craig explores how a modern apprenticeship system will allow students and job seekers to jumpstart their careers by learning while they earn — ultimately leading to greater economic opportunity, workforce diversity, and geographic mobility.

Readers will learn: 

• The history behind America’s outdated college system, from the inception of the Ivy League to the recent student debt crises and admissions scandals
• Why apprenticeships are such an effective pathway to career opportunity
• Why America lags so far behind other countries when it comes to apprenticeship opportunities and what we can do to catch up
• Where students and job seekers can go to land an apprenticeship 

With an easy-to-reference directory of US apprenticeship programs by industry and geography, Craig’s Apprentice Nation is an accessible blueprint for a country where young Americans of all backgrounds can launch careers in tech, healthcare, finance, and more—without losing four critical, career-building years and tens of thousands to college tuition and student loans. With just a few common-sense changes to  education and workforce development, an apprentice nation will place the American Dream within reach—for everyone.

Ryan Craig is a managing director at Achieve Partners, an investment firm engineering the future of learning and earning. He is the author of A New U: Faster + Cheaper Alternatives to College, named in the Wall Street Journal as one the Books of the Year for 2018. He is also the author of College Disrupted: The Great Unbundling of Higher Education. Ryan’s writing appears regularly in the Gap Letter, Forbes, and Inside Higher Education. He is a cofounder of Apprenticeships for America, a national nonprofit dedicated to scaling apprenticeships across the U.S. economy. Previously, Ryan led the Education & Training sector at Warburg Pincus. His prior experience in online education was at Columbia University. From 2004 to 2010, Ryan founded and built Wellspring, a national network of boarding schools and summer camps for overweight and obese children, adolescents, and young adults. He began his career at McKinsey & Co. Ryan received bachelor’s degrees summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University, and his law degree from the Yale Law School. He lives in Pacific Palisades, CA, with his wife, three boys, and goldendoodle.