New Toolkit Empowers HBCUs to Expand Student Success Through Registered Apprenticeships
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Jacinda Nembhard | jacinda.nembhard@gse.rutgers.edu | 848-932-0774
June 30, 2025 – New Brunswick, NJ –The Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions (CMSI) has released a new report, The HBCU Registered Apprenticeship Toolkit. The publication offers Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to launching and sustaining Registered Apprenticeship (RA) programs, equipping students with paid, hands-on work experience while completing their degrees.
Registered Apprenticeships, long underutilized by HBCUs, are now being recognized as mission-aligned, equity-centered models that empower students economically, academically, and professionally. “RA programs are not just about workforce training,” said Marybeth Gasman, Distinguished Professor and Executive Director of CMSI. “They are about economic justice and giving students real pathways to their future.”
With only three HBCUs hosting registered apprenticeships in 2021 and over 20 doing so today, the toolkit aims to accelerate this momentum, helping more institutions bridge education and employment.
The toolkit also highlights how RA programs deepen employer engagement, align curricula with industry needs, boost retention, and create scalable funding opportunities. Drawing from extensive work with HBCUs and national experts, the resource provides practical tools.
You can read the full report here.
About the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions
The Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions (CMSI) brings together researchers and practitioners from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander Serving Institutions. CMSI’s goals include: elevating the educational contributions of MSIs; ensuring that they are a part of national conversations; bringing awareness to the vital role MSIs play in the nation’s economic development; increasing the rigorous scholarship of MSIs; connecting MSIs’ academic and administrative leadership to promote reform initiatives; and strengthening efforts to close educational achievement gaps among disadvantaged communities. The Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions is part of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity and Justice (Proctor Institute) at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. For more information about CMSI, please visit http://cmsi.gse.rutgers.edu/.
