I gave a talk at Abstractions in Pittsburgh, PA making the case for apprenticeships in the tech industry.

From the Abstractions website:

"Abstractions is a new conference that brings together everyone involved in modern software development — designers, developers, DevOps, and community leaders — to teach, learn, and connect."

My talk summary:

Our culture’s workforce defaults to internships, which have a reputation for being short-term, involving lots of coffee runs, and are usually limited to college students. With the changes in both the tech and college industries -- more people without CS degrees pursuing careers in tech -- what if we brought back the apprenticeship model? In this talk, we will examine what apprenticeships have historically been, why we shifted to the internship model, and what we can gain by adding apprenticeships back into our normal work environments -- especially in our industry. I will share both historical research and present-day case studies. You will leave equipped with the base knowledge you need to implement apprenticeships at your own company, and you will know how to get the most value out of an apprenticeship as either a company or an apprentice.