Building Transatlantic Bridges Through Apprenticeship Excellence

Our transatlantic initiatives strengthen workforce development and educational partnerships between Germany and the United States by leveraging the proven German dual education system to address the critical skilled talent shortage facing both nations. Through two complementary programs, we facilitate meaningful exchanges between German and American training experts, educators, and institutions to create sustainable, high-quality apprenticeship programs.

Next Level Apprenticeships – Cluster Exchange of Transatlantic Training Partners brings together teams of American workforce development leaders from selected U.S. regions to experience Germany’s apprenticeship system through virtual workshops and five-day study trips. Participants visit German companies, vocational schools, and chambers of commerce, then return home ready to implement coordinated, region-specific apprenticeship strategies.

Partnerships for the Future: Vocational Schools Meet Community Colleges connects German vocational schools with U.S. community colleges through biannual networking meetings, bilateral partnership support from AHK USA-Chicago, and virtual workshops on apprentice exchange program development. This “exchange before the exchange” approach builds strong institutional partnerships before launching apprentice exchanges.

 

Together, these initiatives demonstrate that collaboration on workforce development creates lasting benefits for apprentices, companies, and communities on both sides of the Atlantic, strengthening German-American relations at the grassroots level while addressing the practical challenge of building a skilled workforce for the future.

 

 

The projects are supported by the

Transatlantic Program of the Federal Republic of Germany,

funded by the European Recovery Program (ERP)

of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE)