Building Wisconsin jobs requires reimagining higher ed

As a mom, I remember sitting in the eighth-grade parents’ “Introduction to High School” presentation in our district. As Wisconsin’s former lieutenant governor, I remember the part about higher education options students could choose at the end of high school: university or traditional college, technical college or apprenticeship.

I was impressed. Not only had our school included technical college as a higher ed option, but apprenticeships, too. I felt our state government administration’s hard work evangelizing for recruits to the trades was finally paying off. But this week, which marks National Apprenticeship Week, reminds me that the job isn’t done yet.