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• Electrical line work pays a median salary of more than $95,000 and does not require a college degree. 
• The demand for electricity, driven by data centers, means line workers enjoy job security and union benefits in addition to their salaries. 
• However, the work can be dangerous, with line workers exposed to the elements, heights and thousands of volts of power. 
• Wisconsin Watch visited a pre-apprenticeship program at Northcentral Technical College in Wausau that trains 14 students annually to learn more about the work.

On a sunny morning in late August, a dozen teenagers wearing reflective vests and work boots stand on a hill overlooking the farm fields of their central Wisconsin college.

A few steps away is the classroom where they’ll learn how electricity works. Beside it, a handful of poles six stories tall mark the training yard where they’ll train to install and repair power lines, a skill that’s increasingly in need as Wisconsin’s infrastructure ages and data centers demand ever more energy. 

Today, they’ll try out some of the toughest physical parts of the job — while racing against the clock. 

The students have just 30 minutes to dig a hole 4 feet deep and 2 feet wide. Then they must walk two 100-pound wooden pole chunks down the school’s dirt road and haul a 70-pound piece of wood up a 65-foot pole twice, using only a pulley and their own strength. The student who finishes in the shortest time wins.

This is day three of the nine-month Electrical Power Distribution Program at Northcentral Technical College in Wausau, which prepares about 14 students each year for careers with electric utilities or power line construction companies. 

It’s one of seven such programs at the state’s tech colleges, which together enrolled 265 students in 2025. 

With a median salary of more than $95,000, electrical line work is one of the country’s most lucrative jobs for people without a college degree. It can also be dangerous and draining, as it often involves long days of manual labor, as well as exposure to the elements, heights and thousands of volts of power.

Most of the students in this class were still in high school just a few months ago. By the end of September, they’d begun scaling utility poles six stories tall. Within a year, they could land apprenticeships that pay more than $34 an hour and put them on track to earn union pensions.

It’s instructor Marc Cegielski’s job to make sure they’re ready.

“It is physically demanding. It is mentally demanding, and your work-life balance is probably not going to be very good — unless you want your work-life balance to be more work than not work,” said Cegielski, who spent four years doing line work before he started teaching. He still works as a lineman for several weeks each summer to keep his skill sharp. 

The field of electrical line work is thriving. The country is expected to add 13,600 line worker jobs between 2025 and 2035, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a jump of 10%, much faster than the average for all jobs. In Wisconsin, the ranks are expected to swell nearly 14% from 2024 to 2034, with about 240 job openings projected each year. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2150, which represents line workers and a variety of other workers in Wisconsin, reports its membership is at an all-time high. 

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One reason for that growth: the explosion of artificial intelligence. 

While the data centers that provide the computing power for all that AI tend to employ relatively few people once they’re up and running, constructing them takes a lot of labor. And it’s not just the work of building the data centers themselves. Hyperscale data centers, designed to be able to scale up their computing power as needed, will need massive amounts of electricity to power their computers, and Wisconsin will need to expand and update its electrical grid to meet the demand. Wisconsin’s first hyperscale data center opened in Mount Pleasant this summer, and others are under construction in Beaver Dam and Port Washington. Proposals for additional centers are under review in other communities, including Kenosha and Wisconsin Rapids.

The new energy demand comes at a time when states finally have the money to strengthen and expand aging electric grids, thanks to the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law in 2021. Those funds could help Wisconsin’s electrical infrastructure accommodate more energy sources and rebound more quickly after storms, changes proponents say are needed whether or not the state adds more data centers.

Meanwhile, line workers, like many other tradespeople, have been in increasingly short supply as Wisconsin’s workforce shrinks.  

“There’s never been a better time to get involved in this trade, and the work outlook right here at home in Wisconsin looks awesome for the next 10-plus years,” said IBEW Local 2150 business manager Jim Meyer. 

Risk versus reward

Installing and maintaining power lines is rewarding work, Cegielski said, because workers can see the difference they’re making. Sometimes they turn the lights back on after a storm. And sometimes, they bring electricity to a place that’s never had it, as he and a few students do each spring on the Navajo Reservation. 

“Getting people’s electricity back feels really good,” Cegielski said.

But the job isn’t for everyone. 

Line work involves heavy exertion in all kinds of weather. Machines can handle the tough tasks some of the time, but Cegielski warns his students there are plenty of times when they’ll need to dig or lift by hand because no machine is available, or it’d be too hard to maneuver the machinery — say, in a residential backyard. Plus, if there are buried utilities within 18 inches, mechanical digging is prohibited. 

“You can’t always use a machine. Sometimes you’re the machine,” Cegielski tells his students as they race to dig their holes. He says he’s sometimes spent a whole day digging a single hole, with or without a machine to help.

The students wipe their brows. One slips off his gloves. Cegielski urges them on. “Come on, man. The customer needs their electricity back.” 

With four minutes left on the clock, Sam Volm, 18, unfolds a ruler to check his progress. 

“I’m only about 2 feet deep! This is so crazy,” he says. He’s not alone. None of the holes are nearly deep enough. 

It’s just one example of the challenges of the job. Some line workers work for contractors hired by utility companies to build or maintain their infrastructure. Those workers could be on the road, often out of state, for weeks or months at a time. Line workers employed by local utility companies generally work close to home. Still, many work 12- to 16-hour shifts, and they may need to be available to help on nights or weekends.

“Your phone rings a lot,” Cegielski said. “You’re going to be missing a lot of things that you’d rather be doing with your friends and your family to answer that phone call and get people’s power back on so that they can cook supper, so that they can go to work and earn money for their own families.”

And then there are the safety concerns. Cegielski said he’s never been seriously injured doing line work, but he knows the risks that come from working with high voltage and at high heights, sometimes on busy roads. Electrical power line installers and repairers had the 16th highest fatal injury rate of all U.S. jobs, with an annual rate of around 24 fatalities and 189 nonfatal injuries per 100,000 workers, according to a USA Today analysis of federal data from 2020 and 2021.

Despite the challenges of the job, the training program at Northcentral Technical College consistently has a waitlist. 

For Volm, who’s worked in construction since he was 14, spending his days outside was part of the appeal. 

“You’re not behind a computer or nothing. It’s real physical work, it’s what I’m used to,” Volm said. 

His dad, an electrician, encouraged him to consider line work. Bigger lines mean bigger money, he said, plus he’d get to travel. 

The morning drill didn’t deter him. He’s been wrestling since first grade, so he’s got lots of practice putting his body to the test. 

“It was pretty tough, but I muscled through it, obviously, and embraced the suck.”

College classes not required

Training programs like these are an optional extra step for those looking to enter the field. Line workers get most of their training through apprenticeships that last three to six years and require only a high school diploma. But doing a program like the one at Northcentral Tech first gives students a chance to try out the work before they commit. 

That’s how Pat Keegan, a business agent with IBEW Local 2150, got started in the industry 25 years ago. 

“I’m glad I did it because I got comfortable with climbing and I knew I wanted to do this career,” Keegan said, though plenty of line workers go straight into apprenticeships. 

“I’ve seen people right out of high school, skip the tech school part of it … and have no issues,” Keegan said.

Prospective line workers shouldn’t assume this training will help them get an apprenticeship faster, Meyer said. Instead, they should think of it as a chance to solidify their skills and learn more about things like electrical theory. 

For Cegielski, the Northcentral Tech program is also about teaching the all-important “soft skills” that employers are increasingly looking for, like how to solve problems and persevere through challenges.

Take the August morning’s drill. What the students don’t know is that Cegielski designed the digging portion to be nearly impossible within the time limit.

“I like to observe to see, once they figure out they’re running out of time, do they continue trying, or do they give up? It’s a really good marker of character,” Cegielski said. “Even if they don’t think they can complete the task, they should keep going at it.”

Six other Wisconsin tech colleges offer electrical power distribution programs, but capacity is limited. Graduates earn around $43,000 more a year than the median high school graduate, according to an analysis of earnings data from three of the programs, conducted by Open Campus and The HEA Group. Program cost varies by school but typically runs from $8,500 to $11,000. 

Despite the growing demand for line workers, Northcentral Technical College hasn’t expanded its small program. Cegielski says he hasn’t heard anything about plans to do so. 

“They need more people than I can provide,” Cegielski said, “and I don’t see that changing anytime in the near future … I don’t know if that’s a problem that the technical college system wants to handle or can even handle.”

Leaders at Northcentral Technical College did not respond to a request for comment. 

Kristina Haensgen, a spokesperson for Moraine Park Technical College, which also trains future line workers, noted the “strong and ongoing demand for skilled electrical line workers” but said the school has no immediate plans to grow its program.

Chippewa Valley Technical College, Milwaukee Area Technical College and Southwest Wisconsin Technical College did not offer comment on their line worker training programs. 

If colleges do want to expand these programs, the booming industry might actually make it tougher, said Katy Pettersen, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Technical Colleges System.

“We have not heard much on this front, other than colleges may be having trouble finding qualified instructors because the companies building the data centers are paying so well.”

Jobs aplenty

Meyer of IBEW Local 2150 said the number of apprenticeships available through his union depends on how much local employers are hiring. In a good year, there could be room for around 170 new apprentices, he said, and it looks like Wisconsin is on track for some good years. Those waiting for an apprenticeship can get jobs as “groundmen” assisting line-working crews until a spot opens. 

Cegielski talks with many of his former students, and he doesn’t think any of them are struggling to find work.

That stands in contrast to many other fields, where AI has left many uncertain about the future. Recent college graduates with four-year degrees are having more trouble finding jobs. Across the country, office workers are wondering if they’ll be replaced by increasingly powerful AI agents, or if they’ll have the skills they’ll need to use ever-more-ubiquitous AI tools. 

“At the moment, it doesn’t seem like AI is knocking at our door to take our jobs,” Cegielski said with a laugh. ”(The work) is hands-on, and it doesn’t look like machines and robots are going to be able to take it in the future. Maybe someday.”

Natalie Yahr reports on pathways to success statewide for Wisconsin Watch, working in partnership with Open Campus. Email her at nyahr@wisconsinwatch.org.

As data centers test Wisconsin’s electrical grid, job opportunities flourish 60 feet in the air is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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New credential programs and apprenticeships are creating more pathways for Wisconsin workers to launch careers, switch fields and build skills throughout their working lives. 

But Wisconsin policymakers could do more to make those pathways accessible to students and workers.

Those were among the themes from a conversation Wisconsin Watch and Open Campus convened Tuesday to explore how short-term credentials are reshaping careers in a range of industries — from manufacturing to health care and education. 

Here are four more takeaways from the event’s two panels, which were moderated by Wisconsin Watch/Open Campus reporters Natalie Yahr and Miranda Dunlap. 

Training programs are providing more on-ramps to careers than ever — and career choices don’t have to be permanent. 

Panelists said workers increasingly can build skills over time through short-term credentials, apprenticeships and certificates. Wisconsin Technical College System President Layla Merrifield compared the “stackable” approach to constructing a Lego city — adding one building at a time as careers evolve. 

“It’s OK to change careers. It’s OK to change your mind,” she said, encouraging students and workers to view education as a lifelong process rather than a one-time decision.

Nathan Roberts, president and owner of G.D. Roberts, a metal manufacturer in Columbus, Wisconsin, encouraged students and early-career workers to take their time, try new things and gravitate toward what gives them joy. 

Parents should be patient, too. 

“Give your kids enough time to figure it out,” he said. 

Employers value more than just technical skills.

Knowing how to weld, code or care for patients may open the door to a profession, panelists said, but employers increasingly look for workers who can communicate, collaborate, manage projects and solve problems. Credentialing programs through technical colleges often teach those “employability” skills alongside the industry basics, Merrifield said.

That’s one reason why Roberts said he values candidates who have pursued credentials through technical colleges or adjacent institutions. 

“It’s not about the morsels that they learn as much as the process you go through,” he said. “We want to know that you’re trainable. That you’re a team member. That you’re a problem solver.” 

Those skills, Roberts said, are hard to find.  

Apprenticeships and short-term credentials are expanding beyond the skilled trades.

Apprenticeships aren’t limited to construction and manufacturing.

“Earn-and-learn” programs have expanded into fields including health care, education, barbering, urban forestry and cosmetology, Merrifield said. Certified nursing assistant and EMT credentialing programs are particularly popular at community colleges.  

“If they want to go into health care … that is a true stackable credential industry,” said Becky Kikkert, development director for the Workforce Development Board of South Central Wisconsin.

Since 2018 UW Health in Madison has been paying employees to gain credentials for careers as nurses, surgical techs or other positions — while they are working.

Even as career pathways expand in Wisconsin, access remains uneven. 

Kermit Kaleba, strategy director for credentials of value at the Lumina Foundation, noted that states have invested a combined $4.5 billion in career and technical education to date, much of it since the pandemic. But Wisconsin remains one of five states without dedicated funding for career and technical education in public schools, leaving access to many programs dependent on local school district budgets.

Merrifield noted Wisconsin is one of just three states that do not provide dedicated funding for dual enrollment in high schools and technical colleges. 

Merrifield said Wisconsin needs a broader conversation about what school is for — and what it isn’t. 

The goal, she said, is to build a system that lets people return to learning — whether they’re 18, 38 or 48 — whenever their careers demand new skills.

“Your path is rarely as clear or as linear as you might assume. There are many on-ramps and off-ramps … There are so many opportunities,” she said. “There are so many options.”

Disclosure: The Lumina Foundation, Ascendium Education Group and the Joyce Foundation are Wisconsin Watch funders but have no control over its editorial decisions. A list of donors and funders through 2025, as well as our donation acceptance policies, can be found here. Ascendium and the Joyce Foundation sponsored Tuesday’s event. 

How new credentials are reshaping career pathways in Wisconsin is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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A few months ago, we got an email from a reader seeking advice from journalists covering education and job training.

The reader’s granddaughter will be off to college soon. She and her friends are all wondering how to prepare for a world where artificial intelligence threatens to gobble up so many white-collar jobs. 

“Can we predict where the lasting jobs will be?” the reader asked.

The truth: We really didn’t know the answer. But we’re gonna get to the bottom of that and more, by reporting on how AI is changing the job search and the advice colleges give students as they plan their careers.

That’s where you come in. If you’re a student — or know one — help us out by filling out this short form or sharing it. The answers will help us ask better questions and address the real concerns students have.

As AI rapidly changes, well, seemingly everything around us, we’re learning right alongside you. Email me with more questions, as always: mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.

Help us report on what AI means for career choices is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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Median wages have hit a record high in Wisconsin, but job growth has stalled and the state’s Black unemployment rate is rising. 

Those are the main findings from “The State of Working Wisconsin 2026,” a new report on the state’s job market. The annual report is released by the High Road Strategy Center, a left-leaning “think-and-do tank” at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

The report found that after hitting a record high number of jobs — 3,051,000 — in November 2024, the state had just 3,042,900 jobs in July 2026.

“Job growth has ground to a halt, and though wages hit a new high in 2025, high inflation is undermining workers’ wages in 2026,” said Laura Dresser, author of the report and the associate director of the High Road Strategy Center.

“The (report) still shows some very bright spots, but the clouds are gathering on the economic horizon.” 

Dresser told WPR the report’s findings showed a “mixed picture.” 

“There’s some really great news still in this economy,” she said. “We’ve had a strong recovery from the pandemic lockdowns, it’s been sustained and we show again that we got a new high in median wages in 2025.” 

Last year’s report found that the economy was softening, and Dresser said some of those trends have continued. 

Report sees higher unemployment ahead

The state’s unemployment rate is at 3.3%. That is low but “drifting upward” compared to the 2.6% unemployment rate in 2023, the report found.

“With the state losing jobs, it is likely that the rate will continue to rise,” the report said.

And the state has been losing jobs since 2025.  

“Wisconsin’s economy has grown slowly relative to the national economy for years, and now job growth has ground to a halt,” the report said. 

It also found that Wisconsin’s economy “is riddled with inequalities by geography, race, education and gender.”

The report said the unemployment rate for Black Wisconsinites is, “growing much more rapidly than unemployment for other groups.” 

Wisconsin’s Black unemployment rate was 7.2% during the first quarter of 2026, matching the national rate, according to the report. But the state’s unemployment rate for white residents was 2.3%. 

“In 2023, when the unemployment rate was at its low and the labor market was strong, the gap between Black and white unemployment shrank,” the report said. “But as the overall rate has drifted up, the Black rate has grown much more swiftly.”

Wisconsin’s median wage hit a record $26.17 per hour last year. Data for this year are not yet available, “but the signs there are troubling,” the report said. 

“Inflation has risen and wage gains have been weaker,” the report said. “As it did in 2022, inflation could wipe out the wage gains of 2026.” 

State unionization rate plunges

The state’s unionization rate is also fell from 14% in 2011 to 7.5% in 2025.

“State trends in unionization reflect both state policy and industrial structure,” the report said.

Pam Fendt, president of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, pointed to the impacts of Act 10 on union membership in Wisconsin. She also said growing interest in unions makes her “hopeful for the future.” 

“We do see a lot of interest in organizing,” Fendt said. 

A new Gallup Poll found 71% of Americans approve of labor unions.

Meanwhile, Wisconsin’s minimum wage remains $7.25 per hour, despite efforts by some to raise it. 

“An increase in the state minimum wage to $20 by 2030 would raise wages for more than 730,000 Wisconsin workers,” the report said. 

“All the neighboring states except for Iowa are on a dramatically different path for minimum wages, and this state has (for) too long just not attended to the minimum wage and raising it for the state’s lower paid workers,” Dresser said. 

Fendt said Milwaukee Area Labor Council also supports raising the minimum wage. 

“Getting it to $20 an hour by 2030 is something that we support because, honestly, the minimum wage has been stagnant for way too long,” Fendt said.

A version of this story was originally published by WPR.

Report: Wisconsin wages reach record high, but job growth stalls is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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I’m 32 and I’ve already had more jobs than I care to admit. In my first job after college, I joined the marketing team at a big corporation. I remember asking my manager one day, “Hey, I’ve done everything on my list. Can I help with something else?” Their response: “No.” The message was clear: stay in your lane.

After that, I tried other roles, including operations, sales, construction and custodial work. Like many of my peers, I was searching for a place where I could grow and keep learning. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was looking for the right culture.

Then, two years ago, I saw a job posting at DSG, a wholesale contractor supply company based in the Midwest. I remembered a college coach who worked for DSG. He seemed to have a great experience there. DSG had a training program, so I decided it was worth a try, even without experience in contractor supply. I had run out of other ideas.

That was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I’ve turned off all my old job alerts because I hope to work here until I retire. I believe I’ll keep improving my skills and moving upward even if I’m here for decades, and my co-workers will value creativity and unconventional ideas.

We’re 100% employee-owned through an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. It’s a retirement plan that allows companies to share ownership with workers. Our employee ownership culture is the secret ingredient that makes me excited to stay here for the next 30 years.

When I started, I didn’t know anything about ESOPs or what being “employee-owned” meant. During my orientation, my manager showed me our company’s ESOP retirement wealth calculator. If I stayed at the company long enough, I could accumulate generational wealth for myself and my family without contributing a cent to my ESOP account. From year one to year two, my ESOP account balance grew by more than 200%.

From the start, DSG’s training program encouraged me to get involved in every aspect of the business. Instead of a “that’s not my job” attitude, my co-workers went out of their way to answer my questions and help me learn. They celebrated when I got involved outside my direct job and listened to my ideas. When the training program ended, DSG hired me full time as an inventory planning analyst. I learned that this welcoming environment was the norm across the company.

As employee owners, we all have an interest in doing our best and helping others excel. For example, all 63 of our branches share inventory. Rather than compete, we cooperate. We know the savings across the organization benefit our finances in the long run. I also travel for my job. Instead of using company funds to buy expensive meals on the road, my co-owners in other branches have invited me over for home-cooked dinners. By doing what’s best for each other and the company now, we all reap the rewards in our ESOP accounts later.

Most importantly, it’s not just people with college degrees who are building generational wealth. Whether we’re working with spreadsheets, driving delivery trucks or loading equipment in the warehouse, we have the same opportunity to change the trajectory of our financial futures. No matter the position, background or education level, each full-time employee at DSG gets an ESOP retirement plan.

I’ve read studies that found companies with ESOPs tend to have higher employee retention and withstand economic downturns better than non-employee-owned companies, but there are only 240 ESOPs in Wisconsin. Still, momentum is building. 

The Expanding ESOPs coalition is building a movement of nearly 100 organizations focused on expanding employee ownership in Wisconsin and beyond.

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., previously introduced H.R. 3105, the Promotion and Expansion of Private Employee Ownership Act of 2025. The bill would help small businesses establish S corporation employee stock ownership plans (S ESOPs), provide technical assistance to companies pursuing S ESOPs and create an employee ownership advocate within the U.S. Department of Labor.

Two years ago, I took a chance and applied for a position meant for recent college grads. I knew nothing about ESOPs. I thought it would be just another job. I couldn’t be happier that I was wrong. If employee ownership can have that kind of impact on me, imagine the impact of having more ESOP companies in Wisconsin.

Conner Scott lives in Eau Claire with his wife and two sons. He is an SIOP analyst at DSG, which has locations across Wisconsin.

Guest opinion: Why Wisconsin needs more employee-owned companies is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• Labor and employment attorney Victor Forberger offered several tips for people who are filing for unemployment during a recent webinar.
• He advised people to know the difference between an initial claim and a weekly certification; to know that mistakes can be used against you; to make sure you’re searching for work; to document and retain records of your work search actions; to report all job offers; and to know if the reason you left your job is valid.

In Wisconsin, filing for state assistance after becoming unemployed can be an odyssey. 

A long list of mistakes can derail your claim, jeopardizing your benefits and even opening you up to legal trouble. 

Wisconsin Watch attended the State Bar of Wisconsin‘s unemployment filing seminar, where labor and employment attorney Victor Forberger presented on the mechanics of the winding filing process. 

We used that information to compile this list of tips and common mistakes to avoid when filing your unemployment claim. Here are some things to know. 

Know the difference

To be paid unemployment benefits, you must file two main things:

1. File an initial claim, where you report that you separated from a job.
2. File a weekly “certification,” where you must continue to prove you meet each of the state’s criteria for benefits. 

Department of Workforce Development staff and judges use the word “claim” interchangeably while referring to each of these processes, Forberger said. Knowing the difference can help lessen mistakes. 

Know that mistakes can be used against you

The online system will repeatedly ask if all of the information you’re entering is truthful, as a method of protecting against fraud.

Thus, any mistake you make is assumed to be purposeful, unless you can point to a specific reason that might have caused the mistake, such as a disability, that shows you’re not at fault. That’s hard to do. 

Mistakes can — and often do — lead people to be charged with fraud, enabling the state to claw back unemployment benefits and charge penalty fees. 

Dates are tricky. Prepare accordingly

When you file your initial claim, you’ll be asked to select the first week you want to begin receiving benefits. That date may have nothing to do with when you actually lost your job. 

“You may have suffered a job loss, and the employer gave your vacation pay that you had accrued for 20 years, and so you’re being paid now for six weeks,” Forberger said. “You don’t file your unemployment claim on the week that the job loss ended. Start your unemployment claim when the vacation pay has run out.”

People often try to start the initial claims in the past, on the date that they lost their job. 

You are supposed to file your initial claim within seven days of the week you want to start receiving benefits. If it’s outside of that time frame, the state considers it a “late claim,” which is very difficult to prove and accepted under only what the state deems “exceptional circumstances.” 

Reporting the wrong date could disqualify you and derail the process of receiving benefits. 

Make sure you’re searching for work

The main way people disqualify themselves, Forberger said, is by not properly showing the state you are looking for new work. 

To receive unemployment benefits in Wisconsin, typically you must prove you’re seeking a new job by doing things like giving a resume to a hiring employer, interviewing for a job or meeting with a career counselor. 

You must conduct four new work search actions every week and upload the proof during the weekly certification process.

Forberger recommends doing five actions, to be safe, in the event that one action is disqualified.

Falsely reporting actions could be considered fraud, disqualifying your claim and opening you up to legal penalties.

Hang onto your documents

You should keep all of the documented proof of your work searches handy for one year.

The state randomly audits people’s work searches for accuracy, so you could be asked to submit proof of your work search actions for any particular week. Any issues could mean having to repay your benefits for that week.

Report all job offers

During the weekly certification process, you will be asked if you have turned down a “bona fide job offer” that week, meaning a legitimate job offer, complete with a pay rate and list of duties. 

“It can’t just be like, ‘Hey, come by tomorrow, I got a job for you,’” Forberger said. “It’s got to be like, ‘You’re going to get hired at $15 an hour to stock shelves at my department store, and your schedule is going to be in the evenings, part time.”

During the first six weeks of your job search on unemployment, you are allowed to turn down what the state deems suitable work without threatening your benefits if the offer involves lower skills or significantly lower pay than before. 

After those six weeks, you have to take any “bona fide” offer that comes your way, Forberger said. You must also report all of the offers that you’ve turned down, even if they weren’t suitable work. Failing to do these things could disqualify you from unemployment benefits. 

Don’t file your weekly certifications on Sunday

People often file their weekly certifications on Sundays thinking they’re being proactive by doing it early. But there’s no phone support available to call for help on Sundays. 

“There’s no need to rush because you’re going to get paid,” Forberger said. “Getting it one or two days earlier is not going to make all that much of a difference.”

Know if your reason for leaving your job is valid

When filing for unemployment, you will be asked to report why you separated from all of the jobs you’ve held within the last 18 months.

The onus is on you to understand if your reason for leaving a job is one Wisconsin considers “disqualifying,” and report it accordingly. Mistakes you make here will be treated as intentional.

Among the reasons that will disqualify you from receiving unemployment benefits:

• Left your job without good cause.
• You were fired for misconduct or substantial fault.
• You refused work without good cause.
• You work a job considered “excluded.” Learn more here.  

Among the reasons that are accepted:

• Were laid off or your work hours were reduced because your employer did not have enough work for you.
• Left your last job and can show it was for a good cause. Learn more about what is defined as “good cause” here. 

Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Find her on Instagram and Twitter, or send her an email at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.

Filing for unemployment in Wisconsin is tricky. Keep these tips in mind. is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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• UW Health leaders created a new company called WorkForward to help health care systems and state agencies nationwide create their own apprenticeship programs. 
• UW Health officials started offering apprenticeships to their employees in 2018. 
• The program has helped the company fill entry-level roles and retain existing staff while filling gaps for in-demand positions. 
• But experts say apprenticeships aren’t a silver bullet: They require clinical staff to supervise apprentices; employers have to pay staff for hours they’re in school; and each state has its own regulations for apprenticeships.

Violet LaClair was ready to leave her job. 

As a certified nursing assistant at UW Health in Madison, she used the skills she developed while caring for her dying grandmother for nine years. Her co-workers had supported her through her gender transition. She’d even won an award for providing “extraordinary” care. 

She loved her workplace, but after four years, she wanted a change.

“I felt like I’d done it all,” LaClair said. “I felt like at some point I needed to challenge myself more.” 

She thought about going back to school, but that didn’t seem doable. She was already in her 40s and didn’t have time or money to spend.

Then she learned she could get trained to be a medical assistant for free, while working, through an apprenticeship program UW Health started in 2018. She pays no school costs, and she gets paid for the time she spends in class. 

Three days a week, she works at the company’s Union Corners clinic, where she gets patients situated, takes blood pressure, flushes ears and more. 

“I can pretty much do anything the doctor asked me to,” LaClair said. Two days a week, she takes classes on pharmacology, laboratory procedures, and law and ethics.

“I think the program is great,” LaClair said. “It’s given me a whole new chapter in my life, and something to be excited about.” 

Opportunities like these are novel, but increasingly common. The idea is simple: Maybe the country’s next nurses, surgical technologists and medical assistants are already working in hospitals and clinics. The people who’ve spent years booking appointments or drawing blood might jump at the chance to train for new careers — if their employers will help them do it. 

UW Health now offers apprenticeship options for 17 professions, including surgical techs, pharmacy technicians, respiratory therapists and registered nurses. Apprentices pay nothing for their course work, and they get paid to be in class.

To date, more than 1,000 apprentices have graduated. 

Bridgett Willey, who oversaw the launch of those apprenticeships, said they’ve helped fill a critical gap. Wisconsin colleges alone just aren’t graduating enough students to meet the needs of the three major health systems in southern Wisconsin, Willey said. 

The popular programs, which attract far more applicants than they can accommodate, have helped the company fill entry-level roles and hold onto existing staff. Before it began offering apprenticeships, as many as 3 in 10 positions for medical assistants, nursing assistants and pharmacy technicians were unfilled, Willey said. Today, it’s around 1 in 10. 

“We’ve increased our supply by growing our own and training our own folks,” Willey said. 

UW Health isn’t the only health system trying this model. Apprenticeships, once a rarity in health care, have become increasingly common at hospitals and clinics nationwide.

But offering this kind of on-the-job training isn’t always easy. Now, UW Health plans to use what it’s learned to help other states overcome the financial and bureaucratic barriers that can stand in the way. In May, the health system announced it created a separate company called WorkForward to help health systems and state agencies elsewhere set up apprenticeships. Willey, who directs that new project, thinks it’s the first such initiative by a U.S. health care company.

The health care apprenticeship surge

Historically, apprenticeships have been a key on-ramp to technical trades like plumbing and carpentry, allowing trainees to earn as they learn.

Now, apprenticeships are flourishing in U.S. hospitals and clinics, too. In just five years, the number of registered apprentices in the health care field has grown by more than 40%, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, as employers have expanded existing programs and others have started new ones. 

The boom comes as demand for health care workers has shot up across the country, triggered by the growing needs of an aging population and a wave of longtime health care workers retiring. By 2038, the country will be short about 109,000 registered nurses, 61,000 physical therapists, 33,000 pharmacy technicians and 13,000 respiratory therapists, according to projections by the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis.

Meanwhile, vocational and on-the-job training is becoming increasingly popular across the board, said Susan Skillman, senior principal research scientist at the University of Washington Center for Health Workforce Studies. 

“Apprenticeships in general are growing,” Skillman said. “We’re kind of in that place in the nation where the pendulum is moving away from four-year college degrees.”

Staff seize opportunity to advance

Some health apprenticeships last months while others last years. At UW Health, apprentices training to become medical assistants finish in 10 months while future registered nurses train for four years.

No matter the length or industry, all apprenticeships involve a combination of on-the-job training and classroom instruction. In the case of Wisconsin’s registered apprentices, who are approved through the state’s Department of Workforce Development, employers must pay apprentices for the time they spend in class. In some cases, the employer pays for the apprentices’ school costs, too. 

At UW Health, the employer covers tuition. The health system’s staff also coordinate the apprentices’ work and school schedules to avoid conflicts. 

Those were big selling points for Brianna Matheson, 35, who had worked as a medical assistant for 12 years when she learned last spring that UW Health was starting a three-year surgical tech apprenticeship. She’d spent time in the operating room before, and she liked helping with clinical procedures.

“I was just ready for something more,” Matheson said. “I was in clinics for so long, doing the same thing for so long. I wanted to learn again, be a student again, and be a novice.”

When the application opened, she was the first to apply. 

“I had kind of given up on the idea of going back to school because I, like so many others, need full-time income, and I didn’t really want to give up all of my free time to work full time and go to school in the evenings and weekends,” said Matheson, who now processes and delivers supplies to the operating room at Madison’s University Hospital. 

Not only does she not pay tuition, but the Department of Workforce Development offers a stipend for scrubs, reimburses mileage to and from school, and even covers some daycare costs for apprentices with kids, Matheson said. 

The position also let Matheson keep her prior $25 hourly wage, reflecting the raises she’d earned during more than a decade on the job. When Matheson graduates in May 2028, she’ll earn surgical tech wages, which range from around $30 to $44 an hour, according to current UW Health job listings.

“I would not have been going back to school at this point in life to pursue this without the support of specifically the apprenticeship program that UW Health is offering,” Matheson said. “I wouldn’t have done it on my own.”

Apprenticeships attract new job applicants

Offering apprenticeships could help health systems draw entry-level job applicants like 25-year-old DeForest native Alex Lippman. 

Lippman trained as a certified nursing assistant in high school, then worked at a skilled nursing facility in Madison. He started college at Arizona State University with plans to become a doctor, but moved back to Wisconsin when his grandmother fell ill in his sophomore year. He wanted to continue his education but figured he’d missed his chance.

Then, in 2023, UW Health announced it was starting the state’s first apprenticeship for registered nurses. That apprenticeship, like all of UW Health’s multiyear apprenticeships that lead to degrees, are open only to employees who’ve worked for the system for at least six months. 

“I had a plan of trying to get into this program because going back to school on my own was no longer feasible,” Lippman said. He got a job as a certified nursing assistant and began the apprenticeship the next year. 

Today he takes classes at Madison College and works three night shifts a week caring for patients with brain and spine injuries in University Hospital’s neuro intensive care unit. He’s on track to graduate in 2028.

UW Health’s shorter training programs, meanwhile, are open to new applicants as well as current employees. Already, some have finished one and moved onto another, looking to advance their careers, Willey said.

“What we’re seeing is that people come in through one of our entry-level (apprenticeship) programs like medical assistant or nursing assistant, get their feet under them working in that capacity, and then now they’re applying for our degreed registered apprenticeship programs,” Willey said.

This isn’t the first time the company has built its own pipeline of health care workers. In 2013, Willey started a program called Health Occupations and Professions Exploration, or HOPE, where high school students spend a Saturday learning to do CPR, place a breathing tube in a mannequin, and more. The goal, Willey said, is to show students the range of careers available in health care. The program has trained about 6,500 students.

How much can the model grow?

Apprenticeships offer a unique way to address workforce shortages and help employees move up on the job, said Andy MacCracken, who coordinates health workforce planning for North Carolina at the NC Center on the Workforce for Health. That, he said, is one reason the number of apprentices and apprenticeships in the health care field has soared in recent years. 

Still, he said, it’s not clear exactly how much of the health worker shortage can be solved through apprenticeships. 

“We need to have a realistic view about what we’re actually aiming for when deploying apprenticeships as a solution,” MacCracken said. “I think apprenticeships are a really helpful tool in the toolbox. They’re not the only one.”

One challenge: It’s expensive to pay the clinical staff needed to supervise apprentices, so it can be hard for health system leaders to make the business case to their boards. Even health systems that embrace apprenticeships may not be able to accept as many apprentices as they’d like. 

UW Health pays for its apprenticeship program with a mix of its own funds, private donations and public funds, though Willey said the latter is usually only available for starting up a new program.  

Still, there are always far more applicants than openings. When the registered nursing apprenticeship launched in 2023, 200 employees applied for 16 slots. Last year, 70 people applied for 40 medical assistant apprenticeships.

Another challenge: Each state has its own laws about what counts as an apprenticeship and what standards an employer must meet when offering one. Likewise, the regulations for each profession may vary from state to state too. And then there are the accrediting agencies that approve educational programs, which are still getting used to the idea that students might get paid for their clinical training hours.

Willey said WorkForward will publish research on apprenticeship approaches that work, lobby for resources to support such programs and help other states identify potential funding sources. The company is a nonprofit, she said, which will apply for private and public grants. It will not receive direct funding from UW Health. 

Currently, she said, WorkForward is working in Massachusetts with Tufts Medicine and Mass General Brigham — the state’s largest health care employer — and 12 of the state’s community and technical colleges.

“It would be great if we could take the solutions that we’ve built and spread (them at) scale across the U.S. … Health care continues to be a driver of new jobs for the U.S. economy,” Willey said, “and we have an aging population who needs more care, and so we need to be addressing these things now.”

MacCracken said he hasn’t heard of another health care employer taking on this role, but he thinks it makes sense, as employers may be more willing to listen to other employers. 

In North Carolina, he said, he’s already seen how a few model programs can pave the way for others. 

“I think because of the successes of some of the early adopters who have put these programs in action, we’re seeing great results, and so that’s helping inspire more action and scalability and replication.” MacCracken said. 

Natalie Yahr reports on pathways to success statewide for Wisconsin Watch, working in partnership with Open Campus. Email her at nyahr@wisconsinwatch.org.

Can Wisconsin’s health apprenticeships become a national model? UW Health thinks so is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.