Apprenticeship 2.0

Reach University

What if the future of college isn't a campus—but the workplace? What if your job wasn't something you did instead of earning a degree, but where you earned it? Apprenticeship 2.0 explores the people, programs, and ideas challenging how America learns, works, and prepares for the future. Hosted by Reach University President and co-founder, Joe E. Ross, and Provost and Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Anastasia Wickham, the show brings together the educators, employers, policymakers, workforce leaders, apprentices, and innovators on the front lines of the apprenticeship movement. We look beyond the buzzwords to ask what's actually working—and what needs to change. How do you build an apprenticeship that can scale? Can work count toward a college degree? Who should pay for it? What can policymakers do to expand access? And as AI transforms the workplace, could apprenticeship offer a new way to prepare people for jobs that don't yet exist? Twice a month, Apprenticeship 2.0 brings you candid conversations about the policies, experiments, successes, failures, and emerging ideas shaping the future of work-based learning. If you're building the next generation of workforce programs, rethinking higher education, shaping public policy—or just trying to understand where work and learning are headed—this is the conversation you need to be part of. Apprenticeship 2.0 is produced by Reach University.

  1. 5d ago

    Inside ICAD 2026: What It Takes to Scale Apprenticeship Degrees

    What does it take to turn Apprenticeship Degrees from promising ideas into sustainable pathways that support working adults earn credentials of value, advance their careers, and meet employers' needs? In this episode, hosts Joe E. Ross and Dr. Anastasia Wickham sit back down with Matt McKenney, President and CEO of Job Forward, and Dr. Holly Smith, Executive Director and VP of Apprenticeship Degree Design at Reach University's National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree. Recorded in the wake of Reach's annual International Convening for the Apprenticeship Degree (ICAD), the conversation explores what it will take to build Apprenticeship Degree programs that can scale and endure. The guests discuss why lasting programs require more than enthusiastic champions: They need strong partnerships among employers, colleges, workforce organizations, and policymakers. They also explore how to make learning on the job count toward a degree, prepare workers for an AI-driven economy, and design pathways that people can realistically afford to complete. In this episode: Why the hardest part of building an Apprenticeship Degree is aligning employers, colleges, and workforce systems How to create programs that can survive leadership changes and evolve with partners' needs Why employers should help define the skills workers need—and how those skills can be taught and assessed on the job How Apprenticeship Degrees can incorporate AI literacy and prepare workers for changing jobs What intermediaries can do to coordinate partners without adding unnecessary complexity Why affordability and access depend on designing pathways that people can actually complete More resources: Learn more about ICAD: https://www.ncad.org/convening Subscribe to the Apprenticeship 2.0 newsletter for new episodes, guest insights, and additional resources: https://reachpodcast.substack.com/ Music by PaulYudin from Pixabay.

  2. Oct 13

    Can the Liberal Arts Save Higher Ed in the Age of AI?

    What happens to higher education when the skills universities have traditionally taught—numeracy, literacy, and analysis—can increasingly be performed by machines? In this episode, Joe E. Ross talks with Ben Wildavsky, senior advisor to the Harvard Project on Workforce and author of the forthcoming Know How: The Global Rise of Hands-On Higher Education, and Pano Kanelos, founding partner of The Athos Group, former president of St. John's College and senior fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.  They explore an increasingly important question for higher education: How can colleges prepare people for work without losing sight of the broader purpose of education? Ben makes the case for a "both/and" approach—combining broad, durable skills with targeted career skills and the social capital students need to navigate the workplace. Pano argues that AI may fundamentally change what universities are for, shifting their focus away from skills that machines can increasingly perform and toward questions of meaning, purpose, judgment, and what it means to be human. In this episode: Why higher education could become smaller, shorter, and more focused Whether college degrees are actually losing their value—or whether the evidence tells a different story Why a liberal arts education could become more important, not less, in an AI-driven economy How apprenticeship and work-embedded learning can bring theory and practice together More resources:  The new core curriculum at the University of Texas at Austin: https://catalog.utexas.edu/general-information/academic-policies-and-procedures/core-curriculum/ More about Ben and his forthcoming book: https://pw.hks.harvard.edu/post/ben-wildavsky-team-profile Music by PaulYudin from Pixabay.

  3. Sep 29

    Apprenticeship Degrees Are Gaining Ground. What Will It Take to Scale?

    A few years ago, the idea of combining a college degree with a paid apprenticeship was still unfamiliar—and, in some corners of higher education and government, viewed as something that didn't even exist in the United States. Today, Apprenticeship Degrees are gaining recognition and adoption across states, employers, higher education, and government. So what comes next? In this episode, the two co-founders of Apprenticeship Degrees (and the technology that drives them) come back together for an intimate and honest discussion exploring the state of the field, the challenges at hand, and what comes next. Host Joe E. Ross is joined by Reach University co-founder Dr. Mallory Dwinal-Palish, now president of Craft Education, to talk about the ways the Apprenticeship Degree field has evolved—and what still stands in the way of taking it to scale. They challenge some conventional assumptions about what's holding Apprenticeship Degrees back. Are accreditors really the obstacle? Does expanding apprenticeship require entirely new curricula? And why might the biggest opportunities lie instead in the less glamorous work of controlling costs, braiding public funding, redesigning systems, and giving academic credit for work? Mallory also makes the case that many of the field's biggest constraints are solvable—but only if higher education and workforce leaders rethink how they approach funding, mentorship, data, and employer partnerships. Check out the CAEP playbook Building and Scaling Teacher Apprenticeships: https://www.crafteducation.com/webinars-downloads/building-scaling-teacher-apprenticeships This is a second part of an ongoing conversation on the podcast. Be sure to check out our previous conversation with Mallory here: https://reach.edu/blog/apprenticeship-2.0-the-origin-future-of-u.s.-apprenticeship-degrees-in-higher-education Music by PaulYudin from Pixabay.

  4. Sep 3 ·  Bonus

    ICAD 2026: Insights From Oxford – Part Two

    In this episode of Apprenticeship 2.0, guest host Dr. Anastasia Wickham, Provost and Chief Academic Officer at Reach University, leads interviews with leaders at the 2026 convening of the International Center for the Apprenticeship Degree at the University of Oxford. Guests include Taikein Cooper, President and CEO of the Richmond Ed Fund; Dr. Graeme Atherton, Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor for Regional Engagement at the University of West London, Vice Principal of Ruskin College, Oxford, and the Director of the World Access to Higher Education Network (WAHEN); Dr. Gavin Lind, CEO of the Australian Mining and Automative Skills Alliance; Josh Davies, Founder and CEO of The Non-Prophets; Iyioluwa Adesan, Founder of Apprentis; and Samantha Dickey, Assistant Commissioner for Postsecondary Policy at the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development. Music by Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay.

  5. Aug 24 ·  Bonus

    ICAD 2026: Insights From Oxford – Part One

    In this episode of Apprenticeship 2.0, guest host Dr. Anastasia Wickham, Provost and Chief Academic Officer at Reach University, leads interviews with leaders at the 2026 convening of the International Center for the Apprenticeship Degree at the University of Oxford. Guests include Scott Cheney, CEO of Credential Engine; Colleen Connolly, Freelance Journalist and Contributor to Work Shift; Dr. Lisa McIntyre-Hite, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN); and Claire Viall, Vice President of Public Policy, Postsecondary Education, and Finance, at Strada Education Foundation. Music by Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay.

  6. Aug 17

    Building on an Innovative Workforce Strategy in Rural Colorado

    In this episode, Joe chats with Mark Gregory, CTE Coordinator at Colorado River BOCES, and Jeff Barratt, President and CEO of Associated General Contractors of Colorado. Together, they discuss rural workforce development in western Colorado, workforce challenges in rural communities and apprenticeship as a local talent strategy, skilled trades career pathways, employer-led apprenticeship and training partnerships, how the Opportunity Now grant has helped to bolster career opportunities in rural Colorado, Project SCALE and construction talent pipeline development, apprenticeship pathway expansion in Colorado, and much more. Music by Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay.

  7. Aug 3

    ICAD 2026 Preview: Moving the Apprenticeship Degree Forward Through Partnership

    In this episode, Joe chats with Dr. Holly Smith, Executive Director and Vice President of Apprenticeship Degree Design at the National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree, and Matthew McKenney, President and CEO of JobForward. Together, they discuss the partnership between NCAD and JobForward, why the partnership makes sense and why now is the right time for it, reflections from the International Convening for the Apprenticeship Degree (ICAD) 2025 and what to look forward to at ICAD 2026, how listeners can work with NCAD and JobForward in the future, and much more. Read Inside Higher Ed's "The Apprenticeship Wish List" at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-innovation/alternative-credentials/2026/06/29/apprenticeship-wish-list.  Music by Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay.

    ICAD 2026 Preview: Moving the Apprenticeship Degree Forward Through Partnership

  8. Jul 20

    Crafting an Innovative and Expansive Workforce Strategy in Colorado

    In this episode, Joe chats with Eve Lieberman, Executive Director of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, and Andrew Sutliff, Apprentice at CoorsTek. Together, they discuss the role of economic development initiatives in strengthening Colorado's workforce; Colorado's Opportunity Now initiative and investment in apprenticeships, higher education, and skills-based learning; innovative workforce initiatives that connect learners with in-demand careers; expanding apprenticeship opportunities across urban and rural communities; Andrew's experience earning while learning in advanced manufacturing; the future of apprenticeship and work-based pathways to high-demand careers in Colorado; and much more. Music by Evgeny Bardyuzha from Pixabay.

    Crafting an Innovative and Expansive Workforce Strategy in Colorado
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About

What if the future of college isn't a campus—but the workplace? What if your job wasn't something you did instead of earning a degree, but where you earned it? Apprenticeship 2.0 explores the people, programs, and ideas challenging how America learns, works, and prepares for the future. Hosted by Reach University President and co-founder, Joe E. Ross, and Provost and Chief Academic Officer, Dr. Anastasia Wickham, the show brings together the educators, employers, policymakers, workforce leaders, apprentices, and innovators on the front lines of the apprenticeship movement. We look beyond the buzzwords to ask what's actually working—and what needs to change. How do you build an apprenticeship that can scale? Can work count toward a college degree? Who should pay for it? What can policymakers do to expand access? And as AI transforms the workplace, could apprenticeship offer a new way to prepare people for jobs that don't yet exist? Twice a month, Apprenticeship 2.0 brings you candid conversations about the policies, experiments, successes, failures, and emerging ideas shaping the future of work-based learning. If you're building the next generation of workforce programs, rethinking higher education, shaping public policy—or just trying to understand where work and learning are headed—this is the conversation you need to be part of. Apprenticeship 2.0 is produced by Reach University.

Information

  • Creator
    Reach University
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    94
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2023
  • Show Website
    Apprenticeship 2.0

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