About
Their Apprenticeship Academy partnership, based on Build UP’s innovative schools, delivers workforce development through a pathways model that is anchored in the rehabilitation and ownership of blighted, urban neighborhoods and houses into like-new, owner-occupied homes. This enables asset accumulation, wealth building, and long-term stabilization, all while solving critical labor shortages in high-demand industries.
Build UP is the nation’s first and only workforce development high school model to provide low-income youth career-ready skills through paid apprenticeships with industry-aligned postsecondary coursework, leading them to become educated, credentialed, and empowered civic leaders, professionals, homeowners and landlords.
Education through housing and community revitalization: engages at-risk youth in ways that lead to greater school retention and completion; delivers and cements high-quality academic content knowledge while developing industry-valued skills and character traits; and rebuilds a neighborhood through conspicuous beautification and intangible senses of pride and security.
Academy students earn a high school diploma and an associate’s degree while addressing pervasive social issues and renovating blighted properties in their neighborhoods, which they eventually own. Classroom and work-based learning (WBL) happen side-by-side, making academic content both engaging and applicable. This interdisciplinary learning is optimal for youth for whom traditional school is not an option due to boredom, confusion, or frustration. While WBL situates instruction in authentic experiences, apprentices advance in both course work and hands-on application only after demonstrating core content and skill competencies. This competency-based approach meets youth at their level of understanding and promotes them only after that understanding is attained, maintaining program integrity and ensuring that high expectations are met as these skilled youth enter the workforce.