South Milwaukee High School’s Youth Apprenticeship Program is Growing – and making a big impact

Breanna Wade had a concerned eye on the five-year-old. After-school programs allow children to socialize, play games, exercise, and have a snack until their parents come and get them. This little boy didn’t have friends yet. When things didn’t go his way, he would have an outburst, throw toys, or even kick. 

In her job at the aftercare program at Milwaukee Yards, it would have been easy to focus on other children who were getting along and let one of the more experienced staff tackle his problems. But Wade, 18, has always known she wants to be a teacher, and focused on connecting with the boy.

“I’ve worked with him for three months now, and I’ve seen such a big change,” Wade said. 

“It was as simple as sitting down and getting to know him.”

Wade’s job at Milwaukee Yards isn’t your typical after school, pocket-money-type job for a high schooler. She’s a South Milwaukee High School Youth Apprentice who was placed there to gain experience and learn on her path to becoming a certified teacher.

The program is a great example of collaboration where everyone benefits. 

Wade, a South Milwaukee High School Youth Apprentice, benefits by earning credits toward graduation, earning a paycheck, and gaining experience in her chosen career field. Milwaukee Yards’ aftercare program benefits because they get a hard-to-find motivated employee interested in growing their skills with children. It benefits the students, like that little boy Wade connected with and his family, and it benefits South Milwaukee’s Career and Technical Education Program, whose mission is to prepare students for high-need positions in the Milwaukee area (including teachers of any kind) and in Wisconsin.

Youth Apprenticeship Program Growing

“We have had a great year, our best one in a long time,” said Chis Daniels, the Work-Based Learning Coordinator for the School District of South Milwaukee and Youth Apprenticeship Coordinator for a group of schools called the South Shore Suburban Consortium.

“We have 25 Youth Apprentices right now just at South Milwaukee High School. That's over 10% of our student senior class population, which is awesome.”

The Youth Apprentice Program started in 1991 in Wisconsin and has been growing - particularly in recent years, throughout the state. 

“The Department of Workforce Development looked at industries that are important to Wisconsin for growing our economy, and they created work programs for students,” Daniels explained. “So it's not limited to what people typically think of as apprenticeship trades such as plumbing and electrical, though those are part of the program, too.”

There are, in fact, 16 different career clusters, from banking and business to HVAC and construction, and South Milwaukee has programs for all of them. 

Julian Jurney – Turning a Hobby into a Career

Julian Jurney, 18, has been playing with computers since middle school. It started with gaming but then progressed into upgrading the computers themselves with faster processors, graphics cards, and everything else inside the machines. Since July 2024, he’s been getting paid to do it with the school district’s Information Technology Department. 

He has a desk in the IT office in the Middle School, piled with laptops that need different software installed on them, as well as desktop computers that need to be set up for other staff.

“It’s been great. I’ve been able to learn a lot of stuff I enjoy in my field,” Jurney said.

“The best part is you get to experience the side of technology you don’t get at home, like switches and ports and V-LAN (virtual local area networks). I’m very thankful for that because, at the end of the day, if I want to do this as a career, I have that experience.”

Jurney, who builds and sells gaming computers in his free time, thinks he’ll be ready to start a business when he graduates. He has his sights on starting a marketing company that uses Artificial Intelligence for clients. 

“I want to help businesses in the new AI world manage their leads and keep up with the competition,” Jurney said. 

Daniels said that students typically apply to the Youth Apprenticeship program at the end of their junior year and start working in the summer.

“Students apply as part of their academic & career planning process. During this process, they identify what kind of careers they want to do and if they've done well in the classroom and passed all of their classes, they usually have some flexibility in their senior year. Then, they share their interest in the program with me, their teachers, and their school counselors, and we all work together to help students find jobs that qualify for the program.” Daniels said. 

Caden Krueger – Graduating Early and Starting a Career

Caden Krueger, 18, is not a typical Youth Apprentice candidate – he was ready to start his apprenticeship his junior year. 

Krueger applied for, and was hired as a Youth Apprentice at Grunau, a local mechanical systems engineering and contracting company with a location in Oak Creek.  

“A big part of it was definitely my teachers,” Krueger said. It was his teachers that encouraged him to try a Youth Apprenticeship. 

Krueger started in the summer between his sophomore and junior years. It wasn’t glamorous – he swept a lot of floors and other lower-skilled work, but he was in a career field and was being paid more than he made working at Culver’s.  

During his junior year, he’d get up at 5 a.m. to be a Grunau by 6 and work a couple of hours before heading to school for a 9 a.m. class. 

In the second semester of his junior year, he took classes in the morning and then worked in the afternoon. He repeated that schedule this year, his senior year, and graduated early in December. After some paperwork at the union hall and a physical exam, he was hired full-time as a pre-apprentice. 

“They taught me a ton of stuff. That got me excited for work, finally. It made me feel like I was doing something important,” Krueger said. 

Now, he’s cutting and fabricating ductwork for the company’s heating, ventilation, and cooling (HVAC) operations. Union apprentices, he said, get equal time in the shop and out in the field. He’ll still be in a classroom at Milwaukee Area Technical College, but it will be to earn certifications for work. In the field, Krueger is excited to see projects as they’re finished. 

With more skill and time comes a different title and increased pay. His salary, he said, is generous.

“I know people who are a few years older than me that make less,” Krueger said. “It’s very much a livable wage. It’s a financially smart way to start your life.”