The Apprenticeship Series: Why and How you should create a Software Engineering Apprenticeship Program
A collection of resources for those looking to start a software engineering apprenticeship
TLDR;
Software Engineering Apprenticeships are as cost effective as other Early-in-Career pipelines such as internships and new graduate hiring. They give companies access to technically strong, professionally mature, diverse and overlooked engineering talent. I will be publishing a series of articles sharing insights and learnings from our time leading Twilio’s Hatch Engineering Apprenticeship Program. Visit my profile and subscribe.
Introduction
My name is Kevin Berry and for the last 2+ years, I led Twilio’s Hatch Software Engineering Apprenticeship Program. With Hatch, we hired and trained Early-in-Career (EIC) self-taught and bootcamp graduate software engineers, with many from communities underrepresented in tech.
Hatch was a concrete program actively working to improve the lack of diversity in tech. My time with Hatch was a merging of three passions — software engineering, education and economic empowerment.
Hatch was both challenging and rewarding. I worked with an incredible team, and was able to support many engineers in the start of their engineering careers. But we did not lead Hatch without mistakes — we made many. We used them to learn, and continuously improved.
I hope that the learnings from this experience will help others build and expand apprenticeship programs to create more paths for non-CS degree engineers into tech. Not only because it is right, just, and needed from an inclusion perspective, but also because it is a cost effective talent pipeline.
Based on our experience at Twilio, apprenticeships can deliver highly motivated, technically strong, growth-minded, and quick-learning engineers with a variety of experiences and perspectives.
With high rates of conversion (95%) and retention (90% still with Twilio after 2 years), our program was as cost-effective as hiring directly from universities. While tech apprenticeships are still viewed as niche, I believe this series of articles will demonstrate why (and how) they should be a third pipeline (alongside internships and new graduate hiring) in a successful EIC talent strategy.
A series of articles about software engineering apprenticeships
This article is an introduction to a series of articles I plan to write in support of creating and growing more engineering apprentices in the tech industry.
This article will cover:
What are software engineering apprenticeships?
Software apprenticeships are paid on-the-job training and working opportunities. They involve guidance, mentorship and dedicated trainings.
Apprenticeships are typically 6 months to 1 year long, with full time roles upon successful completion. The apprentices work on actual, valuable projects for the company (under the guidance of their manager/mentor).
At the end of the apprenticeship, the engineer is converted if they have demonstrated they can do the job of a level 1 software engineer (the same level as new college graduates and converted interns). At Twilio, we converted 95% of apprentices to L1 software engineers.
Who are these articles for?
Whether you’re a software engineer, an HR professional, an engineering leader, or a company leader, if you’re interested in learning how to create, build, or scale an EIC or apprenticeship program, this series will give you helpful tools and information to follow through.
Why write these articles?
Plain and simple, I hope to provide concrete data, stories, learnings, guides, templates and information to make it easier for others to create more apprenticeship programs. We as an industry need to expand these opportunities.
Software engineering apprenticeships are still largely absent from companies that have the resources and infrastructure to support them, and they represent a sizable missed talent opportunity. Apprenticeships give the company great talent while providing apprentices with life changing career opportunities.
I think Hatch is one of the best examples of us really putting our money where our mouth is when it comes to diversity and inclusion. It feels like it really does a lot for us, the community, and the people we hire. It’s a win-win-win.
- Hatch Mentor
Who are the apprentices?
Apprentices are those from “non-traditionally trained” (which the name itself perpetuates the status quo…) software engineering backgrounds. This includes:
- Self Taught
- Coding Bootcamps (95% were from this group)
- Associates degrees & non-4 year computer science degrees
Apprentices may or may not have a college degree — this is not a requirement. They also have a foundation in coding (so not those with no coding experience). They have never worked professionally on a team as a software engineer, with no prior professional experience writing code, doing code reviews, practicing agile sprint methods, or testing.
Apprentices have frequently spent years building unique professional skills outside of an engineering role, giving them valuable skills such as communication, empathy, problem solving, project planning, analytics, etc (what we call ‘core skills’).
For example, at Twilio, we had a former US military intelligence analyst / linguist who joined as an apprentice in our Security Org, and within three years, became a highly impactful senior software engineer.
While Hatch was open to all applicants, we made a specific effort to do outreach into communities underrepresented in tech. We implemented new practices in interviewing to try and reduce the unconscious biases that exist in engineering hiring.
With so many structural inequities today, the Hatch Program was a concrete opportunity to give those from underrepresented groups a starting point into a rewarding and well paid career. With Twilio, 70% of all apprentices identified as women or non-binary, and we had higher than average representation from other communities such as the Latinx community.
Why are software engineering apprenticeships important?
Apprenticeships are an intersection of many important opportunities.
Reason #1: The tech industry needs more talent — It cannot hire enough engineers. Yet there is a largely overlooked group of qualified, non-CS degree engineers that are not given opportunities.
Many established companies do not hire bootcamp graduate or self taught engineers without any experience, instead only focusing on interns and new college graduates. This leaves a large number of smart, talented, motivated, growth-oriented and technically trained engineers without opportunity. There is way more supply than demand. For example, Hatch would average 50 qualified candidates per 1 role open. With a 95% conversion rate, and strict requirements to get conversion, we clearly had a talent rich pipeline.
Reason #2: The tech industry struggles to both hire and retain engineers from underrepresented communities. Twilio’s apprenticeship gave opportunities to technically talented and diverse engineers.
It is widely known that more diverse teams lead to deeper discussions, better products, and more revenue (HBR: Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter).
However, most companies that have invested in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have not seen significant gains — No matter how much companies intentionally hire diverse employees, they struggle to retain them. I personally have seen a lot of coworkers leave companies due to lack of opportunity to advance.
While apprenticeships are not a magical diversity fix, and are focused around EIC talent (and not leadership), they do play an important role in creating more opportunities for underrepresented engineers. As said previously, 70% of Twilio’s Apprentices identified as women and we had representation from other communities underrepresented in tech as well.
At Twilio, apprentices also averaged 5 years of professional experience, meaning they joined the company with higher professional maturity than other EIC programs and brought different and valuable professional perspectives and skills to their teams.
And when it comes to retaining engineers, an apprenticeship program can be one part of a larger strategy to do so. I will explain below.
Reason #3: The tech industry has faster turnover than other industries, with most engineers changing companies every 2 years. Apprentices at Twilio had higher rates of retention than other EIC pipelines, and significantly higher retention rates than industry averages. The program also contributed to an environment that supported retention amongst the overall Twilio Engineering organization.
Hatch had a higher than average retention rate, in which ~90+% of the apprentices were still with the company after 2 years.
Additionally, the program had an impact on the Twilio engineering community around it, which supported other areas that lead to higher retention.
Examples of impact on the Twilio Engineering Community
- Hatch promoted a culture of mentorship, openness and support. Mentors and managers reported a high sense of meaning in their work, which is an important part of keeping employees engaged. Research has found that when employees find their work to be meaningful, their performance improves by 33 percent, they are 75 percent more committed to their organization, and are 49 percent less likely to leave (McKinsey: Making work meaningful from the C-suite to the frontline).
- Mentor roles empowered experienced engineers to give back, teach, and develop leadership skills. We saw many mentors use their success as mentors to support their case for promotion. Career advancement opportunities support retention (HBR: 6 Strategies to Boost Retention Through the Great Resignation).
- Hatch training materials were reused with different target audiences, so trainings developed for apprentices were used to train other EIC engineers. Hatch leaders also supported general engineering onboarding, so their technical education expertise was used to train every new Twilio engineer. Better employee onboarding leads to higher employee retention (HBR: To Retain New Hires, Spend More Time Onboarding Them).
What are some software engineering apprenticeship topics for future articles?
Here is a list of potential articles to write about. If you are interested in one specifically, please say so in the comments! If you have any recommended topics, also drop something in the comments!
- The economics of apprenticeships: How they represent a cost-effective pipeline, even with hiring dedicated support
- The third pipeline: Why an apprenticeship program is a valuable addition to any early-in-career hiring strategy — and why it shouldn’t be viewed as a niche social program
- Are you going to be a talent consumer? Or a talent producer?
- Why apprenticeships/tech bootcamps are not a magical diversity quick fix
- Getting buy-in for an apprenticeship program — De-risking, starting small, piloting a program
- The ripple effects of an apprenticeship: How an apprenticeship program helps the company, the mentors, managers, and all involved
- Twilio’s Hatch Program: What were some of our biggest challenges and failures?
- Insights into how we built and grew Twilio’s Hatch Apprenticeship Program
Supporting Apprentices
- Imposter syndrome: How to effectively support early-in-career engineers in working through it
- How and why you should build community within an apprenticeship program
- The role of rubrics and evaluations: How to give clear guidance and expectations to help reduce engineer performance anxiety
- Bidirectional feedback: Surveys, qualitative feedback, and gratitude
Program Structure
- How to scope early-in-career work: Strong guidance for managers and tech leads to ensure the success of your new talent
- The Apprenticeship Group Project: Why it’s important, how we structured ours
- The role of a language deep-dive
- The Support Crew: How we structured apprentice support for continued growth
- Predictors of early-in-career engineers’ success
- The value of cohorts: Starting engineers together, providing a shared community space
Onboarding
- How a well-designed engineering onboarding program can save you money
- The true cost of limited engineering onboarding programs
Early-in-Career Education
- Developing engineering education tracks for companies with non-standardized languages and technologies
- Templates for designing engineering education workshops
- What are engineering “Learning Strategies” and why are they important?
- Early-in-career engineering training topics and training best practices
- How to enable teams, mentors, and managers to effectively develop talent
Sourcing & Interviewing
- How to source great non-traditional engineering talent
- How Software Engineering Apprentices differ from CS degree early-in-career engineers — Less theory, more professional experience, and more diverse representation
- How to effectively interview and evaluate early-in-career candidates
About the Author
I am a former non-profit director turned software engineer turned engineering manager. I have worked at many Bay Area tech companies as both a software engineer and engineering manager. Feel free to connect with me on Linkedin.
- At Reddit, I was a technical lead for an engineering team focused on reducing online harassment, and founded Reddit’s Engineering Mentorship Program
- In 2016, I participated in in Code for America’s Software Engineering Fellowship
- In 2013, I attended a Dev Bootcamp where I switched from a career in non-profit education to software engineering
Stay tuned and be sure to visit my profile and subscribe for more information on these topics and more.
Please reach out if you are interested in building or growing a software apprenticeship. And please feel free to suggest topics and ask questions — I’m here to share what I’ve learned!
