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Today, America Forward and Apprenticeships for America published a joint report, Pay-for-Success Apprenticeships Pilots: A Framework for Outcomes-Focused Expansion. This policy research report leverages on-the-ground insights from leading workforce development providers and intermediaries across the country to build the case for pay-for-success (PFS) apprenticeship models supported by public funding and to provide key design insights for policymakers. 

Embracing pay-for-success approaches can provide an innovative, efficient way to expand apprenticeships participation and enhance quality. And this approach is particularly timely, given recent federal and state actions that demonstrate keen interest among policymakers in advancing the frontier of apprenticeships financing in a rigorous, intentional way. These actions include the U.S. Department of Labor’s January 2026 announcement of $145 million in forthcoming funding to support a pay-for-performance registered apprenticeships incentives payment program, following a recent $35.8 million cooperative agreement with Arkansas to expand manufacturing apprenticeships under a pay-for-performance model.

We propose launching a series of pilots to enable federal and state leaders, as well as their private partners, to set the stage for more robust, effective pay-for-success financing reforms that build on past state incentives to transform apprenticeship funding moving forward. As our report illustrates, key design considerations include:

• Rigorous evaluation of innovation is essential to demonstrate what financing approaches work best and under which conditions, building on several state-level initiatives.
• Engaging new sectors, new populations, and new providers will illustrate how apprenticeships can dramatically expand both their reach and impact, including by serving people facing barriers to employment (and by piloting support for pre-apprenticeships that lead to full apprenticeships), as well as by emphasizing engagement by providers leveraging evidence-based models. 
• Financing structures should emphasize long-term outcomes (e.g., completion, post-apprenticeship economic outcomes) while recognizing up-front financing needs, and funding should leverage the flexibility of PFS methods. 
• State-focused pilots involving at least 5 states would set up foundational reforms to the current model of federal apprenticeship funding. 
• The federal government could also serve as payor for a national pilot designed around incentivizing the growth of large-scale, multi-state programs (e.g., those currently registered on a multi-state or national basis).
• Expert technical advising support for financing design will be critical to support the effective development, implementation, and expansion of PFS pilots. 
• Moving forward, Congress should also support pilots and PFS methods by building on its prior support for feasibility assessment through appropriations or National Apprenticeship Act reauthorization.

As our brief highlights, the experiences and impact of leading workforce organizations demonstrate the tremendous potential of pay-for-success approaches to scale evidence-based approaches in communities around the nation, including:

• Propel America is an emerging, national sectoral employment provider focused on addressing the healthcare talent shortage through an innovative, integrated model that helps young adults build upwardly mobile careers. Propel’s nascent engagement with apprenticeships, which naturally align with Propel’s core coaching and wraparound support model demonstrates the promise of pay-for-success financing as a means to provide a path to scale for leading evidence-focused workforce providers and their employer and training partners.

• ActivateWork is a Colorado-based workforce provider, intermediary and group apprenticeship sponsor that helps employers meet critical IT and cybersecurity talent needs while expanding access to high-quality, earn-and-learn pathways for diverse adult learners through technology training offered in partnership with national sectoral training provider Per Scholas. ActivateWork is primed to leverage outcomes-based financing to sustain and expand its high-impact programs that engage workers historically excluded from traditional pathways.

• YUPRO Placement, the national staffing firm and subsidiary of national sectoral training provider Year Up United, provides a scalable solution to enable employers to participate much more easily in apprenticeships while leveraging a time-tested retention model to support apprentices. Their groundbreaking work demonstrates the potential of innovative, intermediary-driven approaches to scale apprenticeships, expand access to underrepresented workers, and achieve stronger outcomes for participants and employers. 
• RecycleForce is an Indiana-based workforce organization that specializes in employing men and women, as they are released from prison, in a transitional job recycling electronics designed to prepare them for steady employment in the open market. RecycleForce’s impressive, evidence-based model demonstrates how employment social enterprises offer an ideal platform for developing an apprenticeship program while offering a transitional jobs program by combining paid work experience with intensive skills training for specific occupations and employment sectors.

The innovation and experimentation of the past several years, as well as excitement among the broader workforce field regarding apprenticeships, provide cause for optimism. Policymakers now have the opportunity to capitalize on this interest by pursuing systematic, rigorous, intentional pilots that set the stage for larger, even more effective investments in apprenticeships moving forward.