Hanna Patterson |
Over the past decade, the definition of “apprenticeship” has evolved dramatically. It doesn’t just mean “earning while you learn” anymore, but rather “earning, learning, and advancing.” No longer is it just about passing on hands-on skills from expert to novice in trades like construction and manufacturing; it’s now an important strategic tool for workforce transformation: a blend of education, on-the-job training, and long-term talent-development. It’s aimed at filling the most in-demand roles and future-proofing the workforce.
Yet here’s the problem facing HR leaders: How do you scale an apprenticeship program?
As successful as apprenticeship programs may have been in your industry and organization, there’s a good chance they’re still reserved mostly for small groups of employees tasked with specific goals (only half a dozen or so people gaining that real-world experience, industry-specific training, and a paycheck from day one). That means the real benefits to the organization are confined to that small group of individuals until the next class of apprentices emerges.
If apprenticeships are going to make a real impact in healthcare in particular, they need to scale.
In a recent webinar hosted by Guild, I spoke with Laura Dannels, chief talent officer at Wellstar Health System, and Lisa McIntyre-Hite, EVP & COO at the Competency-Based Education Network (CBEN), about how employers can move beyond small programs and embed apprenticeships into broader workforce strategies. Their conclusion: Apprenticeships can’t remain one-off solutions. They must become core components of how healthcare organizations operate, develop talent, and grow.
I picked their brains about what’s working and what other HR leaders can learn from their experience. Our conversation revealed five actionable insights for how you can design, optimize, and scale apprenticeships today.
1. Align apprenticeships to the most critical need.
Dannels has spent the past few years scaling apprenticeships at Wellstar, one of the Southeast’s largest healthcare systems. When faced with Georgia’s chronically low rankings for nursing and allied health workforce availability, she saw the limitations of conventional talent models. “Having to retilt that scale from buying talent to building talent is just more extreme in the South,” she said. “We’ve always done a lot in this space, but the urgency made us realize we had to scale much faster.”
“This isn’t just about education and upskilling with the hope of some benefit accruing later. This is about strategic workforce planning for us — and guaranteed placement for them.”
Laura Dannels,
Chief Talent Officer at Wellstar Health System
Her strategy is rooted in business alignment. She began by analyzing the system’s top 50 to 100 roles and identifying which were most mission-critical based on contract labor usage, vacancy length, and turnover. Then she worked backwards to build apprenticeship pathways tailored to those needs, starting with nursing and imaging, where workforce gaps can shut down entire operations. “If we don’t have imaging staff, we shut down and do not see patients,” she explained. “It’s a complete stop on our ability to grow.”
2. Infuse key tenets of apprenticeships into your talent development.
Unlike traditional tuition reimbursement models that rely on learners to find their way, Wellstar’s apprenticeships come with upfront funding, embedded support, and, most importantly, clear career pathways and outcomes.
“This isn’t just about education and upskilling with the hope of some benefit accruing later,” Dannels said. “This is about strategic workforce planning for us — and guaranteed placement for them.”
How it works in practice: Dannels implemented an “agile float pool” model, allowing apprentices to be redeployed across the system based on real-time demand. Apprentices are placed into three-year career tracks, with intentional movement at the 18-month mark to support continued growth and retention.
3. Eliminate barriers to participation.
Key to Wellstar’s success is the removal of barriers that historically keep nontraditional learners out. “If we want people in entry-level roles — executive assistants, food and nutrition, environmental services — to succeed in a clinical pathway, we have to remove the barriers,” Dannels said.
That includes eliminating out-of-pocket costs, providing access to childcare and Wi-Fi, and offering career coaches to help learners identify pathways that align with their interests and strengths.
This full-service approach resonated across the system. When Wellstar first launched its apprenticeship program, 3,000 employees — nearly 10% of its workforce — expressed interest.
4. Stack credentials — and compensation.
Lisa McIntyre-Hite of CBEN reinforced the importance of building apprenticeship models with stackable credentials and clear wage progression. “As the credential is stacking, so are the salary bumps,” she said. “That’s how you realize the promise for working adults who can’t afford to stop out of the workforce.”
Career pathways need to be designed to allow medical assistants, CNAs, and PCTs to incrementally build toward LPN or RN roles — without leaving the workforce.
“You have to have both of those things in place — credentials and pay — to make the model work,” she said.
5. Measure what matters.
One of the most powerful parts of Wellstar’s model in particular is the linkage of apprentice career pathways to business impact.
Dannels ties every pathway to ROI: contract labor costs, lost revenue from closed beds, and patient safety data. “I go in and say: We are spending this much in contract labor, this much in lost revenue. Here’s what it costs to build this. The ROI is simple.”
This data-forward strategy has helped garner support from across the organization and secure the sustained investment required to scale apprenticeship programs across the enterprise.
“Learning should focus on competency — the knowledge, the skills, the abilities — rather than how much time you spend sitting in a seat.”
Lisa McIntyre-Hite,
EVP & COO of Competency-Based Education Network
At a high level, Dannels and McIntyre-Hite believe scalable apprenticeships will be a core model for workforce development and planning moving forward – particularly in healthcare, where talent shortages are getting more dire. According to Lightcast data, in an average month across the past year, there were 187,083 new job postings for registered nurses alone, but only 117,265 were actually hired. Creating career pathways that blend online learning with hands-on experience creates a pipeline of talent for in-demand and hard-to-fill roles.
“Learning should focus on competency — the knowledge, the skills, the abilities — rather than how much time you spend sitting in a seat,” said McIntyre-Hite.
“Everything is either reskilling or reimagining,” Dannels added. “Traditional recruitment and retention aren’t enough anymore.”
