North Carolina has a compelling apprenticeship story — one that Governor Josh Stein is motivated to scale quickly statewide. The state is home to Surry-Yadkin Works (SYW), a nationally recognized regional model that supports more than 300 students annually, connects them to over 200 employer partners, and runs on sustainable local funding. It has a variety of pathways that span higher ed and work-based learning and a network of advanced manufacturing consortia that have quietly produced strong outcomes for years. And it just earned the distinction of being rated the #1 state for workforce development by Site Selection Magazine.

North Carolina has a clear expansion mandate and a seat in the Apprenticeship America cohort of the federally funded Future Ready Apprenticeship Center – key ingredients in building the infrastructure to take regional wins and scale them statewide.

What North Carolina Has Built

The numbers tell a story of barriers that old public policies created as well as what is possible when bipartisan political will supports a real solution. North Carolina has the 9th largest public school enrollment in the country — 1.5 million students — but only an estimated 375 are currently in registered apprenticeships. That gap is the result of a structural challenge that the state is now directly addressing with political will and system-building support to match.

The ingredients for scale are genuinely there. 

• Every school district has a CTE director, and every high school offers at least one CTE pathway. 
• The state’s Career and College Promise dual enrollment system gives students a clear mechanism to earn transferable college credits. 
• An underutilized 2017 law — the Youth Apprenticeship Tuition Waiver — provides state-funded instruction for students who transition from a youth apprenticeship into a registered apprenticeship program within 120 days of graduation. 

North Caroline already has smart, targeted policies that lowers the cost barrier for both students and employers. These policies include a higher ed tuition waiver for youth apprentices and committing WIOA set-aside funds to expand support for youth apprenticeship through workforce boards. The opportunity now is to make sure every community college and employer in the state knows it exists and uses it.

Governor Stein has set an ambitious target: double registered apprenticeships and add 50,000 employers offering work-based learning statewide. His Executive Order 11 established the Governor’s Council on Workforce and Apprenticeships, dedicated 6% of Title I funds to apprenticeship support, and tasked the Office of State Human Resources with expanding state training programs to include apprenticeships. The policy infrastructure is being built at the top. The work ahead is extending it to every county.

The Path to Scale

The North Carolina Business Committee for Education (NCBCE) is leading this effort, bringing together a coalition that spans the Governor’s Office, the NC Community College System, ApprenticeshipNC, the NC Department of Commerce, and a growing network of industry and community partners — including Caterpillar, UNC Healthcare, Machine Specialties Inc., and the Carolina Electrical Training Institute. SYW is part of the coalition too, and intentionally so: one of NCBCE’s core strategies is to help other communities build SYW-style systems, using the regional model as a replicable template.

The state’s priority industries — advanced manufacturing, healthcare, skilled trades, and local and state government — all have real momentum and real employer demand. Healthcare is an emerging growth area, responding to workforce shortages across the state. Government-sector apprenticeships represent an underutilized pathway that, if built out, could serve as a stable foundation for youth in both urban and rural communities.

North Carolina’s rural focus is particularly important. The state has the second-largest rural population in the country, and without meaningful career opportunities, rural counties are seeing outmigration of young adults. Growing and retaining local talent through apprenticeship isn’t just a workforce strategy — it’s a community development strategy. The coalition is also committed to reaching the 14% of public school students with diagnosed disabilities, building partnerships with Vocational Rehabilitation to ensure apprenticeship is available to all of North Carolina’s young adults.

“We are pleased to join Apprenticeship America and continue leading the way in building a strong, future-ready workforce,” said Governor Josh Stein. “We are proud to be the #1 state for workforce development, and we’re going to keep pushing. By better aligning career and technical education with apprenticeships, we are creating more pathways for young people to gain real-world skills and step into good-paying, in-demand jobs. This investment will help us give young people more career options for their future and meet the needs of our state’s growing economy.”

“North Carolina has the employer relationships, the CTE infrastructure, and the political commitment to build something transformative,” said Ryan Gensler, Executive Vice President at CareerWise. “The Apprenticeship America cohort gives the state the system-design support to connect all of those assets into a pathway that any student, in any county, can access. That’s the goal — and North Carolina has what it takes to get there.”

What’s Next

As part of the Apprenticeship America cohort, North Carolina will focus on building the coordination infrastructure that allows strong regional models to spread, using SYW as a blueprint for communities ready to build their own initiatives. The state will also work to close the awareness gap on the Youth Apprenticeship Tuition Waiver, strengthen data systems so outcomes can be tracked and championed, and expand wraparound supports — transportation stipends, tool assistance, coaching — that help young people stay in programs once they start.

A Student Advisory Council, developed through NC Career Launch, will ensure that apprentice voices directly shape how the system evolves. That kind of feedback loop — from the young people in the programs to the policymakers building them — is how good pilots become great systems.

North Carolina is already leading. Now it’s scaling.

Learn more about the Future Ready Apprenticeship Center and the Apprenticeship America cohort in our press release.