{"id":23771,"date":"2015-07-07T12:04:10","date_gmt":"2015-07-07T16:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=23771"},"modified":"2015-07-07T12:04:10","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T16:04:10","slug":"tampa-bay-counties-partner-with-germany-for-student-apprentice-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2015\/07\/07\/tampa-bay-counties-partner-with-germany-for-student-apprentice-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Counties Partner with Germany for Student Apprentice Program"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"State<\/a>

M.S. Butler \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

State Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam is briefed on AMskills.<\/p><\/div>\n

Not every high school student wants to or even needs to go to college, but graduating students without a college degree may have a hard time gaining entry or experience at companies hiring for high paying, high skilled jobs. A local program is trying to bring that experience to graduating students.<\/p>\n

Seven years in the making, AMskills was designed to be a German style apprenticeship program where tenth grade students apply to get in, just like applying for a job, and train on the job while earning good money. After graduation, they have experience and sometimes a job waiting for them.<\/p>\n

“We’re always looking for a skilled workforce,” Juergen Borsh, general consul for Germany, \u00a0said. \u00a0“This is one of the big obstacles when a decision is being made in a German company- where do we want to go and invest?”<\/p>\n

Borsch said German businesses in the US want to expand their operations but they can’t find enough workers who have the skills they need.<\/p>\n

“I have learned here in Florida, I have been here for two years now, that many companies say we would love to expand,” Borsch said, “We could expand– we need the people, and I hear this in so\u00a0 many different fields.”<\/p>\n