New groundbreaking program puts future educators on the fast track to teaching
Dec 9, 2024, 6:09 PM | Updated: 7:07 pm
SALT LAKE CITY – A new groundbreaking program is expected to fast-track future educators by getting them into the classroom better prepared, quicker, and help to address the shortage of teachers.
The Utah State Board of Education launched the program on Monday morning. It’s called the Utah Registered Apprenticeship Program for Teachers, also known as U-RAPT.
“The traditional pathway is you go to a University for four years, get a bachelor’s degree, and then being ready with your professional license you get a teaching position,” Christina Guevara, the apprenticeship educational specialist who oversees the program, said.
But now she said with this program a college student can get into the classroom during their college years.
“Step into the classroom and have their student teaching experience extend from a traditional eight-week opportunity at the end their student teaching program to becoming their entire apprenticeship for one to three years,” she said.
Guevara said becoming an apprentice instead of a student teacher is a huge difference for those going into the education field.
“They are going to be a teacher in the classroom. They are learning how to be a teacher in the classroom, and they are doing it side by side with a person that is really committed to their success. That person is there to guide them with every aspect of being a teacher,” she said.
Plus, they get paid a minimum of $18.21 an hour and can get $10,000 a year to pay for their education.
U-RAPT is partnering with colleges and school districts to make this happen. Those include the University of Utah, Weber State, Salt Lake Community College, Ogden and Alpine School Districts and others.
“I’m excited about this program, I think it fills an important gap, that we currently have in how to train,” Maria Griffin, the acting assistant of workforce training and education at Salt Lake Community College, said. “It’s opening up pathways and the state is funding this also, which tuition was not being covered to be teachers in the past.”
To learn more about this program, click here.
