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'An awesome opportunity': Pilot apprenticeship program for teachers, child care workers set to launch

Tribune-Democrat - 12/24/2019

Dec. 24--The Learning Lamp will soon launch an apprenticeship program that is designed to allow some aspiring teachers to earn a college degree in education without incurring debt, the head of the Johnstown-based education and child care nonprofit said on Monday.

Six employees of The Learning Lamp will begin earning college credits online through the Pennsylvania Rural Early Childhood Education Apprenticeship Program when the pilot program is launched in January, said Leah Spangler, president and CEO of The Learning Lamp. Spangler called the program "a real game-changer in terms of making college possible for people it might not otherwise be possible for."

One of the six apprentices, Danielle Leibfreid, works with toddlers at The Learning Lamp's child care center in Johnstown. Her first job was in child care, she said on Monday, but after she had her own children, she went back to school to study cosmetology and spent some time working as a hairstylist.

"I just wasn't as fulfilled by that as much as I was by working with children," explained Leibfried, a resident of Johnstown'sRoxbury section who has now worked for The Learning Lamp for a little more than a year. "There's nothing that can bring more joy to your day than a child."

She called the chance to participate in the apprenticeship program "an awesome opportunity."

"Whenever I was asked about it," she recalled, "I didn't even hesitate in saying, yes, I was interested in it. It's awesome that The Learning Lamp even offers this opportunity where a lot of employers wouldn't. It's something that I'm very thankful to be able to advance myself."

The apprentices will take their first three courses in early childhood education toward their degrees online through Shippensburg University, with no tuition payments required. At the same time, they will be paired with master teachers at their work locations who will provide on-the-job training, helping them learn and apply their skills.

Tuition is funded through the state Office of Childhood Development and Early Learning, Spangler said. Program coordination is funded through a grant from the Pittsburgh-based Grable Foundation, as are expenses that apprentices may incur, such as laptops or travel costs.

Kristen Burns, associate director of the Grable Foundation, said in a press release that the program "offers early educators support for their own continued professional growth, access to valuable credentials, and the chance to complete required coursework online -- important in rural communities where attending regular classes at a university campus may not be feasible."

The pilot program is modeled on an apprenticeship program in Philadelphia that, in Spangler's words, "has been really, really successful in helping people working in early childhood (education) to build their skills, increase their wages and also stabilize the workforce."

"Child care has a pretty high turnover rate," she added, "and so this program has been extremely effective in helping people get to the next level and get the credentials they need to become a child care center director or become a teacher, which then leads to higher wages."

The three online college courses and the on-the-job training comprise the first step of the apprenticeship program, Spangler said. The six apprentices participating in the pilot program are expected to complete that step in the late fall of 2020. After that, they can progress toward an associate degree or a bachelor's degree, still with their tuition payments being covered, according to Spangler.

There are plans to roll the apprenticeship program out to other child care providers in western Pennsylvania in the second half of 2020, Spangler said, adding that "the goal is really to raise the skills and increase retention among child care programs across western Pennsylvania."

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