A practice that dates back centuries, apprenticeship is a workforce development model that has gained recent attention in the American higher education system. The researcher conducted a review of existing literature that included apprenticeships in higher education and other models of community college workforce development. Existing literature…

The 21st-century global economy has significantly changed the landscape of the American workplace. Apprenticeship training programs are gaining momentum as a postsecondary training approach to fill growing worker shortages for industry-specific needs and prepare workers for new or expanding industries (Fitzpayne & Pollack, 2018; Freyer et al.,…

Apprenticeship programs can be the one key solution to preparing young people and adults with the skills to earn a good income without acquiring high long-term student loan debt. A strong apprenticeship program is desirable because of its possible ability to reduce youth unemployment, improve the transformation from school to career by elevating…

This research seeks to define and understand the experience of adult learners in the Experiential Learning (EXL) Program at MTSU. It looks at how this EXL program prepares these students for the workforce. This has made the role of EXL programs imperative to help deal with the issue of graduates having the proper competency levels for employment.…

The Department of Defense's enduring mission is to provide combat-ready military forces needed to defend our nation, deter war, and protect the security of the United States (DoD, 2020). Effective military training and education are critical to our National Defense Strategy in that it provides a way to prepare our servicemembers with the ability…

This dissertation presents the results and outcomes of an effort to design educational tools and curriculum to improve student learning in introductory programming courses. The work was conducted at the University of California, Merced (UC Merced), situated in the Central Valley of California, and home to a diverse student population. The findings…

The nation's need for a diverse and competent Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce contributing to economic growth, global competitiveness, and innovation is a primary policy driver for broadening participation in STEM. Yet, social justice and ethics policies dating as far back as the civil rights movement and earlier…

The United States is currently experiencing a decline of skilled talent in the workforce, with healthcare occupations suffering the most due to a loss in workforce talent and the onset of an aging population. This talent shortage is attributed to a "skills gap." The current case study used qualitative methodology to examine the expansion…

Economists have long recognized the importance of human capital in economic growth. In this series of papers, I study how various institutions of human capital formation affected economic development in a variety of contexts prior to 1900. These include both formal institutions of human capital formation such as universities and informal…

Apprenticeship is an enduring form of knowledge transfer that combines work-based learning with classroom instruction. The educational model allows participants to earn while they learn through on-the-job and formalized training that often leads to a college credential (Prebil, 2019). Mounting college debt, combined with more American businesses…

Integration of multimedia resources in higher education curricula continues to be a concern for today's teachers, especially in identifying effective, efficient, and engaging resources that provide individualized instruction and meet a variety of learning needs. However, there was a gap in the literature regarding teachers' beliefs about…

This dissertation addresses the integration of an existing collaborative design pedagogy model, Learning by Collaborative Designing, to support students' learning in an online design platform in an undergraduate landscape design course. Five design teams (n = 15, 3 students per team) participated in this study during the spring 2017 semester.…

Registered apprenticeship (RA) programs have emerged in recent years in response to the nation's critical workforce needs. Since 2015, there has been a resurgence of federal and state investments to modernize and diversify the RA system to attract new entrants and new high-demand industries. This study uses human capital theory (HCT) as a lens for…

Little was known about how online Child Development Associate (CDA) credential recipients developed practical expertise in early childhood education (ECE) without the benefit of an apprenticeship. Learning the practice of teaching from a qualified "more knowledgeable other" (MKO) through an apprenticeship is a feature of teacher…

As the global need for unfilled cybersecurity positions is projected to reach nearly 3.5 million by 2021, cybercrime proliferates. Talent shortage in cybersecurity continues to reach widespread magnitudes and individuals are inadequately prepared to assume positions requiring significant responsibilities. The challenge of filling the cybersecurity…