The first theme that I would like to talk about, which is gaining quite a bit of traction in the US, is apprenticeships.
Now apprenticeships has been top of mind for, regulators, you know, education sector thought leaders, and more recently, even the political circle. And so this is a segment that's really gaining traction as an alternative pathway to the higher education sector.
As we think about developing apprenticeships in the US, there are a few lessons that we can learn from our European counterparts. For example, the UK launched the apprenticeship levy in twenty seventeen, and it had some unintended consequences.
The apprenticeship levy was meant to promote all levels of her apprenticeships from some of the lower level vocational trade focused apprenticeships to some of the higher levels, which is more bachelor and master focus apprenticeships.
However, after the apprenticeship levy, what they saw was a huge spike in growth of higher level apprenticeships that were more focused on bachelor year one, full bachelor programs, and master programs.
And the reason for that was that the apprenticeship levy required most of the employers of a certain scale and above to put aside a small proportion of their wage expenses for apprenticeships.
And a lot of the large scale employers saw this as an opportunity to train their employees, improve their retention and satisfaction amongst employees, and hence enroll them in programs that would help them with their career growth.
In the US, there has been a big question around adult learners undertaking post secondary programs at a huge expense incurring large student debts and also federal deficits. If we could launch similar programs in the US, it could help bring the employers within the fold, limiting the amount of expenditure that students make for their learning and also the student loans that the federal government has to provide for traditional higher education programs, hence benefiting all stakeholders, the employers, students, and the public sector.
