“Sign up for our free monthly newsletter Beyond High School to get the latest news about college and career paths for Colorado’s high school grads. Treyvon Greenwood thought he would go into the trades after graduation. A senior at Aurora’s Smoky Hill High School, he was interested in becoming a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning technician. His trajectory changed when his English teacher heard Greenwood talk about his passion for tutoring other students. The teacher told his school counselor, who suggested Greenwood try a teaching apprenticeship instead. At first he was reluctant, but Greenwood has grown to love splitting his time between his classes at Smoky Hill High and apprenticing in a fifth grade classroom at nearby Sunrise Elementary School. The 18-year-old works much like a student teacher would and earns more than $18 an hour . Fifth grade students at Sunrise Elementary School work with Treyvon Greenwood, a first-year Future Educator Pathway apprentice, on Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. “I help them with their writing, and I just feel like they trust me,” Greenwood said of the fifth graders. “I think they know that if ‘I’m struggling with something, I can come straight to Mr. Trey.’” Greenwood’s experience is what state and business leaders had in mind when they launched the CareerWise Colorado youth apprenticeship program in 2016 . But it’s also rare: Only 1,200 students statewide have taken part in CareerWise programs, according to its founder, who had envisioned 20,000 students participating in its first decade. The organization also takes credit for about 2,000 more apprentices who have participated in programs originally started by or inspired by CareerWise. Even including those students, that means CareerWise fell short by about 16,800 apprentices. There are myriad reasons why : Some businesses have found they’re not well-equipped to work with teenagers and left the program. School officials across the state say they’ve struggled to convince families of the value of apprenticeships, which require students to commit to two to three years of balancing school and work. Apprenticeships also compete for students with an increasing variety of other educational options, from college preparation to internships to less time-intensive career education programs. Noel Ginsburg, a Colorado businessperson who founded CareerWise, described his original goals for program participation as “well-intentioned and ill-informed.” Ten years in, CareerWise offers an important case study in the challenges of offering robust on-the-job training for high school students, an idea that has widespread bipartisan support and increasing investment from the public and private sectors but can be difficult to execute on a large scale. First-year Future Educator Pathway apprentice Amyah Santiago hangs up words inspired by "The Gift of Words" by Peter Reynolds at Sunrise Elementary School. The book was part of a read-aloud project and activity for the school in December. Youth apprenticeships viewed as an idea that could create its “own natural momentum” Backed by $9.5 million from JP Morgan Chase and Bloomberg Philanthropies , Ginsburg envisioned students being trained in such fields as healthcare, banking, finance, and the trades. (Bloomberg Philanthropies is a supporter of Chalkbeat.) Juniors and seniors would earn their high school diploma and job training, plus valuable industry certifications or time spent working toward a two-year college degree. A post-graduation year would be spent getting more work experience and could include college enrollment. CareerWise would help build a trained workforce in Colorado while offering some students a cheaper alternative to a two- or four-year degree. Others, like Greenwood, might spark an interest in a different-than-expected career path that still requires a college degree. The idea for CareerWise came from Switzerland. There, youth apprenticeships are embedded in the culture. About two out of every three young people participate, and businesses line up to recruit those students into nearly 250 different occupations. Ginsburg visited Switzerland in 2015 to see this model in action. At the time, he headed Intertech Plastics, a Denver-based plastics manufacturer he founded, and he was struggling to hire skilled mid-level workers. Ginsburg was so impressed with what he saw that he led a delegation of 50 Colorado business and civic leaders, including then-Gov. John Hickenlooper, to Switzerland the following year. The globe-trot laid the groundwork for the creation of CareerWise. Youth apprenticeships weren’t new in the United States; Wisconsin’s pioneering program was established in 1991 . But by the end of the trip, Hickenlooper said he was convinced that Colorado could take the lead, mainly because of Ginsburg’s dedication and vision. “If we do this properly, in three years there should be as deep a foundation and rooting of this that it will have its own natural momentum,” Hickenlooper said in a video documenting the trip . Ginsburg didn’t want CareerWise Colorado, the nonprofit he eventually created, to run the programs. Instead he wanted to connect schools and employers with the know-how to prop up two- to three-year apprenticeship programs and ensure they received crucial but difficult-to-earn federal recognition for program quality. Students in four school districts — Denver Public Schools, Cherry Creek School District, Jeffco Public Schools, and Mesa County Valley School District 51 — began apprenticing in 2017. Today, only three of the four districts are still involved with CareerWise, and their success rate varies. District 51 continues to offer youth apprenticeship programs through a partnership with its local chamber but without CareerWise’s support in the last two years. About 65 apprentices have completed Jeffco’s program. Denver has had 272 students complete apprenticeships but is reworking its agreement with CareerWise. Cherry Creek offers some of the most robust CareerWise options, including in information technology, advanced manufacturing, hospitality, and teaching. Graham Thatcher worked in Cherry Creek School District's SalesForce apprentice program. After learning on the job for almost three years, she was hired full time in 2025. Thatcher works on her computer on Dec. 16, 2025 at Cherry Creek School District's Instructional Support Facility in Aurora, Colorado. But getting students interested in apprenticeships is hard, even for a district as successful as Cherry Creek, school counselors said. “I do think that parents sometimes have reservations, just because they’ve grown up in this: They should go to college,” said Cady Hobbs, a counseling coordinator at Grandview High School. Some apprenticeships can lead to college, as it has for Greenwood, who plans to attend Metropolitan State University of Denver and participate in a program for Black educators. But that type of path might not be as easily understood by parents. Meanwhile, districts like Denver and Cherry Creek offer so many career-related opportunities, from career exploration classes to summer internships, that it creates competition with their own apprenticeship programs. “This landscape is a lot broader than I think anyone may have realized in 2016 or 2017,” said Theress Pidick, the Denver district’s youth career development director. CareerWise’s revolving door of businesses Another big hurdle to growing apprenticeships has been the revolving door of businesses that are willing and able to host and train a high schooler. Ginsburg said in an April roundtable event that getting and keeping businesses engaged has been one of the hardest challenges for CareerWise. “What we don’t have are the companies that see this as not just an imperative to do the right thing for their community but how important this is to their bottom line,” he said. CareerWise launched with about 45 employers . By the second year, about 25 returned. The number of employers has ebbed and flowed over the years, with 29 actively working with apprentices. The reasons why they’ve stopped participating vary. Some, like Mikron Denver, now run their own programs, separate from CareerWise. Eagle County Paramedic Services tried CareerWise for a year before realizing students needed to have certain certifications that could be only earned when they turned 18. Insurance also wouldn’t cover student ambulance drivers. “I think we really did go into it with the best intentions, but there’s no way to know everything it’s going to take,” said Katie Coakley, the organization’s marketing and communications specialist. John Halloran, a regional manager with construction business RA Nelson, said his Eagle County company loved having an apprentice. The student worked full time over the summer, but once the school year got underway it became difficult to balance schoolwork with the constantly evolving schedules of construction. “The hours and the pace didn’t really align,” Halloran said. “But I’d love to try it again and see if we can make it work.” Vinz Koller, vice president of the Center for Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning at Jobs for the Future, a nonprofit focused on expanding economic opportunities, agrees not enough businesses see the importance, unlike in Switzerland. “The chicken and egg challenge we have is until you have enough opportunities, it’s going to be very hard for the youth and for parents to feel like this is an option,” Koller said. Amyah Santiago, a first-year apprentice in the Future Educator Pathway, facilitates a lesson on inspiring words based on the book "The Gift of Words" by Peter Reynolds on Thursday, Dec. 18. 2026, at Sunrise Elementary School. Some places have made it work. In Eagle County, the dedication of a single employee — a former teacher who coordinates business participation through the local chamber of commerce — has made a difference. CareerWise Eagle County and the school district also shortened its program from three years to two so students aren’t choosing between college and an apprenticeship. Warren Barker, a manager of supply chain logistics at Vail Health Hospital, said he believes his company’s participation in CareerWise represents an investment in Eagle County. Vail Health has employed 27 apprentices to date, though not every student ends up staying. “The best thing I get to do in my job, by far, is seeing the caliber of students who go through the program,” he said. “And then being able to help get them focused into whatever is next for them, be it with Vail Health, hopefully, or anything else that they want to do.” CareerWise has changed its apprenticeship programs In response to the challenges it’s experienced — and in a bid to meet the current demand for more workforce training programs — CareerWise has pivoted. Instead of focusing just on 16- to 18-year-olds, CareerWise has started pre-apprenticeships that help younger students prepare for an apprenticeship. And it’s also helping grow post-high school apprenticeships for young adults up to age 24, similar to the Switzerland program, Ginsburg said. Andrew Sutliff hopes to someday get hired on permanently at CoorsTek, but feels his apprenticeship has taught him valuable skills that will transfer elsewhere. Sutliff works on a CNC machine on Dec. 4, 2025 at the factory in Golden, Colorado. One example is its partnership with CoorsTek, a manufacturing company in Golden that makes ceramic parts used in computers, tanks and armor, and wind turbines, among others. With the help of CareerWise and a $4.58 million state grant , the company is using its CoorsTek Academy , an in-house training program launched in 2021 as a regional training hub, to teach apprentices ages 18-24. The first cohort of five started last year to learn skills to become mid-level Computer Numerical Control, or CNC, operators. They will graduate able to troubleshoot complex issues, fix the machine when necessary, and program it, which will help them earn higher pay. Andrew Sutliff, a 19-year-old CoorsTek apprentice who graduated from Cherry Creek’s school district last year, said he’s learning a lot in a short time . “It feels like they’re cramming a lot that some people who have been here for four years don’t even begin to learn,” he said. Even if he doesn’t get hired by CoorsTek full time, Sutliff said it’s a good opportunity to make himself more valuable to other companies. CareerWise has also shifted from trying to grow a big program in Colorado to sprouting a host of smaller programs in other states. Ginsburg has helped prop up apprenticeship programs in New York and Elkhart County, Indiana . And more locations are likely. With a $12.5 million federal grant , CareerWise launched the Future Ready Apprenticeship Center in 2025. The center provides $200,000 grants to connect other states with the lessons learned here and elsewhere, including program design, policy expertise, and funding. First-year Future Educator Pathway apprentice Treyvon Greenwood hugs a student on their way back to class on Thursday, Dec. 18. 2025, at Sunrise Elementary School. In addition to government grants, CareerWise itself is receiving more philanthropic support than ever, including $7 million from MacKenzie Scott’s YieldGiving foundation in 2023. Even if he didn’t meet his original participation goals, Ginsburg still believes in the potential of widespread apprenticeship offerings for youth in Colorado. He believes the next decade won’t be just about tough lessons but opportunities to grow youth apprenticeships. However, his expectations about how fast the program can grow have changed. “We have a long way to go,” he said. Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org .
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