A state program called “Earn and Learn” allows businesses to offer a new kind of apprenticeship to students – one which gives them both pay and college credit.  As Indiana Public Broadcasting’s Samantha Horton reports, state officials are praising a Kokomo business as the first one to use the option.

Office of Work-based Learning and Apprentice Executive Director Darrel Zeck says the Earn and Learn initiative is designed to allow small-to-mid-sized businesses to form their own apprenticeship programs.

“As a state, we can offer multiple pathways to help businesses.”

The first program, at Kokomo’s Stewart Healthcare Consultants, will train Certified Nursing Assistants in a nursing home setting.

CEO Tony Stewart says his company’s program is aimed at easing the state’s high turnover rate for CNAs in nursing homes.

“We’re doing leadership training, HR training, and plus we’re teaching the staff how to adapt.”

Stewart says he plans to begin the first class later this summer.

Estimates suggest Indiana could need to fill a million jobs by 2028.