Ohio’s manufacturing sector is one of the largest and most sophisticated in the country — and recent growth in advanced manufacturing investment is accelerating demand for skilled talent across the state.  As manufacturing continues to expand, Ohio is proactively building the nation’s most aligned talent infrastructure to support long-term economic growth and ensure employers have access to a strong, sustainable workforce pipeline of technicians, operators and advanced manufacturing talent statewide. 

That’s exactly what Ohio is doing. And its selection for the Apprenticeship America cohort of the federally funded Future Ready Apprenticeship Center is the next chapter of a strategy that’s already well underway.

An Employer-Led Model Built for Scale

What distinguishes Ohio’s approach is who’s at the center of it. The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association — representing more than 1,400 manufacturers across the state — is playing a lead role in the Apprenticeship America work. It’s an industry-led effort, which means employer engagement isn’t something the system has to recruit for; it’s built into the structure from the start.

Ohio has 20 state-endorsed Industry Sector Partnerships that design manufacturing training programs in direct response to real workforce demand. These aren’t advisory bodies — they’re operational structures that connect employers, educators, and workforce agencies around shared hiring and training goals. The state also uses a Manufacturing Competency Model developed with input from more than 50 manufacturers, ensuring that the skills students learn reflect what employers actually need on the production floor, not what was relevant a decade ago.

With major manufacturing investments and a statewide commitment to expanding experiential learning, Ohio is building the infrastructure needed to connect more students to high-quality careers. And $7 million has gone specifically toward Career Pathway Support Networks across Ohio’s seven JobsOhio regions, building the local infrastructure to connect schools, employers, and colleges into functioning ecosystems rather than isolated programs.

Bringing It into High Schools

Ohio’s WorkAdvance model has a strong track record for adult learners — combining paid employment with technical instruction through postsecondary partners. Beginning in fall 2026, the state has invested $3.2 million to pilota high school version of WorkAdvance, extending that earn-and-learn model to students who are still in school and ready to begin building career credentials before they graduate. The initial pilot is expected to reach 150 to 300 students, with the goal of codifying the model — called Technician Fast Track — and scaling it statewide.

The PortfoliOH platform is giving the system a data backbone it previously lacked: a digital tool that tracks student participation in career exploration, work-based learning, and credential attainment across the full continuum. That kind of longitudinal visibility is what turns pilot programs into pipelines — allowing Ohio to see where students enter, where they succeed, and where they need more support.

Postsecondary alignment is also a priority. Ohio is developing formal statewide articulation agreements that ensure apprentices receive academic credit for their on-the-job learning and have clear pathways to college degrees — making the case that manufacturing apprenticeship and higher education aren’t competing choices.

“Ohio is honored to be selected, and we’re ready to get to work,” said Ryan Augsburger, President of the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association. “Through the OMA and our Industry Sector Partnerships, we’ve already built a strong employer-led foundation. The Future Ready Apprenticeship Center will help us move faster, connect students to careers sooner, and strengthen the manufacturing talent pipeline.”

“Ohio is doing something that’s genuinely rare: putting manufacturers in the lead and building the education system around what they actually need,” said Ryan Gensler, Executive Vice President at CareerWise. “With major manufacturing investments and a strong statewide support for experiential learning, the demand and the investment are both there. The Apprenticeship America cohort will help Ohio build the youth pathway infrastructure to match that necessary scale.”

What’s Next

As part of the Apprenticeship America cohort, Ohio will formalize and expand the WorkAdvance high school model, develop the statewide articulation agreements that connect apprenticeship to college credit, and build out the data integration that allows outcomes to be tracked across education, workforce, and employer systems. The goal is a statewide youth apprenticeship infrastructure anchored in advanced manufacturing — robotics, industrial maintenance, precision machining, production — that gives Ohio’s next generation a clear, well-supported path from the classroom to a career that pays well and grows over time.

Ohio’s manufacturers need talent. Ohio’s students need pathways. The Apprenticeship America cohort is where those two things meet.

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