About Us
At Apprentice Learning, Experience Ignites Purpose
Our Mission:
Apprentice Learning provides real-world work experiences for middle-grade youth. In direct partnership with schools and employers, we leverage career exploration to teach skills, ignite purpose, and nurture dreams.
Meet the Apprentices
Our Background:
Our aim is to launch dreams and plans for our city’s youth that lead to success in high school, college and career.
When work experience happens at the right time in a young person’s life: passions emerge, opportunities arise, and newfound purpose propels students forward. We partner with businesses to build relationships that welcome all of Boston’s students to workplaces where they can begin to imagine a productive and satisfying future.
Founded in 2012 to improve Boston’s high school graduates rates, Apprentice Learning partners with Boston public schools to support the transition from middle school by expanding students’ skills, social networks, and creating more opportunities to thrive.
Apprentice Learning’s career exploration programs are part of the regular school day at our five partner schools so that when a student leaves eighth grade, they are eligible to enter the workforce fully equipped for success in a summer job.
Over 80 area business partners volunteer to host both one-day workplace explorations or six two-hour, weekly apprenticeships where a young person comes to the workplace and completes assigned tasks or participates in hands-on workshops that highlight the skills and purpose of the business.
Our Vision:
We envision an equitable world in which young people are able to use real-world work experiences as catalysts to create their own futures.
Our Values:
These values guide our decision-making and our programming.
● Possibility: We believe in Illuminating options and augmenting opportunities for all—expanding the universe of choices for all of our youth and adult partners.
● Authenticity: We strive to use an equity lens and to see, attend to, and share the stories of AL with each other and stakeholders.
● Connection: We invest in creating intentional relationships with our partnerships, and collaborations - we know these are essential to realizing our vision.