Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- The Utah State Board of Education has introduced a program to address teacher shortages in the state.
- The initiative offers a pathway for aspiring educators to enter the profession without needing a bachelor's degree.
- Participants gain classroom experience and financial support, aiming to improve teacher retention and qualifications.
SALT LAKE CITY — For two years, the Utah State Board of Education has been looking for a way to address the teacher shortage in the state. Now, its leaders think they have a solution: an apprenticeship program.
Utah ranks low for teacher vacancies compared to other states. "Pretty comfortably, our retention rates are well above 80% and continuing to improve," said Christina Guevara, an apprenticeship educational specialist with the state board of education.
But a December 2023 report from the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute said 13% of Utah teachers were underqualified in the 2022-23 school year, with rates ranging from 32.7% in Tintic School District to 6.7% in Iron County School District.
The board's program gets at that, too. "What we're hoping to do is really to ensure that that retention is not just teachers across the board but also qualified teachers," Guevara said.
Enter the Utah Registered Apprenticeship Program for Teachers.
2 phases to success
The "groundbreaking" initiative harnesses a competency-based pathway for aspiring educators to get their start in the teaching profession without a bachelor's degree.
Structured into two phases, the program includes a pre-apprenticeship phase. It is described as ideal for individuals interested in pursuing a career in education but who have no formal post-secondary education.
For this phase, the state board of education is able to compensate education up to $4,000 a year, for up to two years, for the person to earn the first two years of general education coursework.
The second phase, or apprenticeship phase, is geared toward individuals who have their first two years completed and who want to become licensed teachers. It allows participants to receive support through degree completion and preparation to achieve a professional educator license.
This phase comes with more career benefits, including a competitive, hourly wage that "increases as they demonstrate more and more competency," Guevara said. It also provides up to $10,000 to cover college expenses, a year for up to three years.
Additionally, the program is supported by school districts and charter schools across the state, as well as higher education institutions.
The University of Utah, Weber State University and Salt Lake Community College are acting as the initial instruction providers for the program, but Guevara said seven other universities are showing interest in joining.
The program has also secured employment partnerships with the Ogden School District, Itineris Early College High School, Alpine School District and Spectrum Academy, with 15 other districts interested.
"We're hoping to actually help people target and elevate those who, maybe, for whatever barriers exist, haven't been able to access the higher education or afford to go to school," Guevara said. "More and more universities are coming on board to really make sure that our apprentices, our pre-apprenticeships have access (to the program) no matter where they live within the state of Utah."
Getting teachers fully prepared
That aspect — more potential educators having access to the resources to become educators — is another point of the program that appeals to the state board.
"We have some of the programs who are fully committed to going 100% virtual and allowing those ... who don't live very close to one of those colleges or universities (to participate). We want to make sure that we can give the opportunity to anyone across the state. We want to meet them where they're at," Guevara said.
Guevara and the board are also optimistic that the program will boost retention by giving prospective educators a better taste of what the career is actually like. She said that in typical student-teacher scenarios, students only have about eight weeks of on-the-job training.
"Some of the comments that have come through from teachers who leave some of those, maybe, high-needs areas, or even leave the teaching profession altogether, is because they've expressed that their first full year of being a licensed teacher was nothing like the student teaching experience — in that the student teaching experience, for as long as it currently is, did not fully prepare them to move into a full teaching position," Guevara said.
Through this apprenticeship program where participants work directly with educators in a school setting, they will have the chance to gather years of teaching experience before taking the reigns of their own.
Upon completion of the apprenticeship program, participants will earn a professional educator license in any teaching area, including elementary, secondary or special education.
"Someone who completes the apprenticeship program could start off as a first-year teacher, fully licensed, with their bachelor's degree and also with up to three years of classroom experience," Guevara said. "At this point in time, there's not one teacher in the state of Utah who can say that. We're really looking forward to the day that those apprentices who complete the program can enter the workforce knowing that they've had the opportunity to work with a class from beginning to end of the school year."
