Case Study: Denver Public Schools CareerConnect Apprenticeship Program

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Type: Case Study

Topics: College- Career- and Life-Readiness, Curriculum & Assessment

November 01, 2020

Apprenticeship Denver

The Denver Public Schools CareerConnect (DPSCC) Apprenticeship Program is designed as an immersive three-year experience in which students work for a company while attending school, gaining hands-on experience as an employee of that company.

While maintaining the support structures of their high school, apprentices take both high school and college classes during the week while getting paid to work for one of the district’s participating business partners.

As apprentices progress each year of their three-year apprenticeship experience, they take on more hours at their work site and more classes on their selected college campus.

This is one of the programs that you could call a ‘nobrainer.’ When our kids take two CareerConnect classes, they are 40% more likely to graduation on time. Susanna Cordova, Superintendent, Denver Public Schools

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Youth Apprenticeships
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Quick District Stats

Location: Denver, CO
Superintendent: Susana Cordova
District Enrollment: 93,815

Youth apprenticeship has the opportunity to absolutely transform career-connected learning in Colorado. We started out with six occupations. Now we have 19 different apprentice-able occupations in the CareerWise Suite. In Switzerland, our model is based on the Swiss apprenticeship model, which has 230. So, really, the skill is the limit in terms of opportunities students can train for in their youth apprenticeship space.

Meaghan Sullivan
Chief Program Officer, CareerWise Colorado

Youth apprenticeship has the opportunity to absolutely transform career-connected learning in Colorado. We started out with six occupations. Now we have 19 different apprentice-able occupations in the CareerWise Suite. In Switzerland, our model is based on the Swiss apprenticeship model, which has 230. So, really, the skill is the limit in terms of opportunities students can train for in their youth apprenticeship space.

Bernard McCune
Executive Director for Career and College Success, Denver Public Schools

Case Study: Denver Public Schools CareerConnect Apprenticeship Program

The Denver Public Schools CareerConnect (DPSCC) Apprenticeship Program is designed as an immersive three-year experience in which students work for a company while attending school, gaining hands-on experience as an employee of that company.

Quick District Stats

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