Executive Summary
San Antonio faces a critical economic and educational challenge: how to ensure that every young person has access to a viable career path, regardless of whether they attend college. With more than 90% of Texas students attending public schools and fewer than 50% of San Antonio high school graduates completing a college degree, registered apprenticeships and career-connected learning must play a bigger role in workforce development.
In the 2024–25 school year, CAST Schools set a bold goal: ensure that any graduate not planning to attend college would be made aware of registered apprenticeship opportunities. This white paper outlines how CAST Schools, in partnership with local and national organizations, began building a regional model of pre apprenticeships & registered apprenticeships connected to the K12 system—and what we’ve learned so far.
I. The Challenge: Broadening Post-Graduation Pathways
Too often, students who don’t attend college after high school fall into a vacuum of unclear options, missed opportunities, or low-wage jobs. At the same time, San Antonio is investing in a growing apprenticeship ecosystem—through programs like the City’s Registered Apprentices Ready to Work initiative—but the connection between K–12 education and these workforce pipelines remains underdeveloped.
CAST Schools responded with a focused goal: Ensure that all students not pursuing college are aware of existing registered apprenticeship opportunities and grow the ecosystem with new pre-apprenticeships.
II. Our Strategy: Building the Bridge
To meet this challenge, we worked with three core partners:
● Catalyze Challenge, a national funder of career-connected learning, provided seed funding and positioned CAST within a national network of innovative practitioners.
● Ready to Work Apprenticeships, the City of San Antonio’s workforce Apprenticeship Building America Grant, partnered with us to help ensure students could seamlessly transition into its programs.
● Employer Partners such as Toyotetsu and the SAVE Clinic, provided on-the-ground support in launching real-world pre-apprenticeships aligned to industry demand.
Importantly, we also chose to lead by example—signing on as an Apprenticeship Ready to Work Employer ourselves. We hired two apprentices directly from our CAST alumni network, piloting the kind of experience we want more San Antonio employers to adopt.
III. Lessons from Becoming an Apprenticeship Employer
What worked:
● Our alumni network responded enthusiastically; job postings generated a high level of interest.
● The pilot helped CAST build internal systems and credibility as a talent-employer bridge.
Challenges:
● Few candidates met apprentice program requirements (e.g., cannot hire full-time students).
● Low general awareness of what apprenticeships are—and how they differ from internships or jobs.
● Administrative and credentialing processes moved slowly; finalizing program details took months.
● Tracking coursework progress proved difficult for the employer.
● The one-year program length was overly ambitious given the delayed start.
If we could do it again, we’d:
● Start with a two-year commitment, with Year 2 focused on long-term placement.
● Include a durable skills curriculum covering financial literacy, professional travel, and workplace norms.
● Assign mentors separate from direct supervisors.
● Build a relationship with the training provider to maintain momentum and track progress.
● Use an onboarding survey to tailor each apprentice’s professional development.
Cautions:
● For a small organization, hosting apprentices requires significant time and capacity.
● It remains to be seen whether the experience will directly result in higher-wage jobs for participants.
IV. Insights from Building Pre-Apprenticeships
While the direct registered apprenticeships were one part of the initiative, we also collaborated with employer partners to design pre-apprenticeship experiences that could help prepare students who were not yet apprenticeship-ready.
We’re still collecting data, but here’s what we’ve learned so far:
What we learned about working with apprentices:
● Young people who do not pursue college have other considerations, often including finances or family. Ideally, there would be some wrap-around support, including around child care, as well as some flexibility for young parents, built into the program.
What we learned about working with partners:
● The employers best equipped to create a pre-apprenticeship were those hiring apprentices and with experience hiring high school interns.
● Employers appreciated CAST’s role in sourcing participants; however, there is more we can do to ensure that high school students are prepared for the workforce.
● Employers welcome additional support for onboarding and supporting young people who are new to the workforce; this is especially true for smaller employers.
What we’re learning about growing awareness:
● Both students and families need better messaging and guidance on what registered apprenticeships are—and what they can lead to.
● There’s a cultural narrative around college as the primary path to success; changing that requires sustained communication and success stories.
● Teachers and counselors need professional development to confidently guide students into alternative pathways like apprenticeships.
● There is a strong interest from students, and it may exceed the amount of pre-apprenticeships and registered apprenticeships available in the marketplace.
V. Recommendations for the Ecosystem
Based on our experiences, CAST Schools offers the following recommendations to employers, educators, and policymakers,:
For Employers:
● Connect with existing Ready To Work participants or registered apprenticeship providers as a resource for tools, lessons learned, and troubleshooting a new program.
● Identify a training provider that closely aligns with your training needs; the City can help with this matching process.
● Build registered apprenticeships into an overall talent strategy for areas of critical need.
● A pre-apprenticeship is a straightforward way to build a pipeline of high quality applicants for an existing registered apprenticeship program.
● Assign mentors, not just managers.
● Identify additional resources, such as but not limited to child care, financial education, to provide to employees with limited work experience, or a partner who can provide those resources.
For Educators:
● Start exposure early—middle school is not too soon.
● Include apprenticeships in postsecondary advising just like you would with college.
● Explore where your curriculum would allow for pre-apprenticeships that feed into existing, successful registered apprenticeship programs.
● Invest in staff training to navigate this new landscape.
For Policymakers:
● Move from seat time requirements to competency-based metrics, continue to encourage high school students to obtain work experience and credentials and certifications valued by regional employers.
● Make registered apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship data public and accessible.
●Allow K–12 students to participate in pre apprenticeship and registered apprenticeship preparation while still enrolled in school.
VI.Conclusion: A Citywide Opportunity
San Antonio has the right ingredients for a national model of youth apprenticeship: a strong community college system, committed employers, a growing municipal investment, and innovative public schools. But we need greater coordination, better awareness, and stronger systems to make these pathways real for every young person.
CAST Schools is committed to being a bridge—between students and employers, between education and work, and between intention and impact.