The newly formed Leaders for a Better Louisiana on Tuesday released new data that shows Louisiana lagging other Southern states when it comes to the number of students participating in internship and apprenticeship programs. Even so, the number of Louisiana students participating in such programs h as grown in recent years, Better Louisiana says. In 2023, just over 2,000 of the roughly 42,000 graduating high school students in Louisiana graduated with an internship credit, or about 5% of the graduating class, the data shows. While Better Louisiana acknowledges that that figure is still “relatively low,” the percentage of students graduating with an internship credit was meaningfully higher than it had been the two years prior and slightly higher than it had been before the COVID-19 pandemic. While state-by-state comparisons are “difficult to come by,” according to Better Louisiana, data from Georgia and Tennessee suggests at least 15% to 20% of students graduating with an internship of some sort. In regard to apprenticeships, Louisiana has among the lowest percentage of high school apprentices in the South, and the apprentices it does have are paid the lowest wages in the region. However, Louisiana did move from 47th in the nation for new apprentices per capita in 2019 to 40th in the nation in 2024. “All of this is important because Louisiana has a serious leakage in the pipeline of students who transition from high school to postsecondary education and the workforce,” a statement from Better Louisiana reads. Better Louisiana is proposing legislation for the upcoming regular legislative session that would combine two existing but “underutilized” tax credits designed to support employers who hire apprentices or youth from disadvantaged circumstances. Those credits “have different rules and do not align with the new school accountability system” that goes into effect in August, the organization says. The goal is to create a program that is more accessible to students and more attractive to businesses. Read Better Louisiana’s full report here. Take Our Poll ...read more read less