What About College?
INCAP expands your education and career options — whether you’re starting in high school, building your career, or considering your next move.
INCAP Is an Options Multiplier
More Ways to Learn, Work, and Build Your Future
The Indiana Career Apprenticeship Pathway (INCAP) builds on Indiana’s existing education system by giving Hoosiers another way to develop the knowledge, skills, and experience needed for in-demand careers. College and INCAP are not mutually exclusive. Both combine education with career preparation, but INCAP puts a greater emphasis on learning in the workplace through paid, employer-driven education and training.
With INCAP, the goal is more options, not fewer. Depending on where you are in your education and career, INCAP can help you enter the workforce, continue your education and training through INCAP, pursue college, or build a path that includes more than one of these options.
Build on What You’ve Already Accomplished
The education and training you complete through INCAP may count as credit that can help you continue your education and work toward additional credentials in college or through INCAP. That means the learning you’ve already completed can count toward what comes next, so you can keep moving forward without starting over.
And these options aren’t limited to a single point in your career. You might enter the workforce after INCAP, pursue college later, or return to INCAP for advanced education and training as your goals and opportunities change.
After INCAP, You’re Ready for What Comes Next
Enter or Advance in the Workforce
Start or advance your career with skills, experience, and credentials employers value
Pursue a College Degree
Build on the education and credit you've already earned as you work toward a college degree
Continue with INCAP
Build on what you've already accomplished through another INCAP program to earn additional or higher-level credentials and degrees
If You’re Starting in High School
Graduate With Options for What You'll Do Next
The INCAP Apprenticeship Program gives you the opportunity to begin preparing for a career while completing your high school education.
You combine classroom learning with paid, on-the-job education and training, building toward:
- An Indiana high school diploma
- The Employment Honors Plus diploma seal
- An INCAP credential or degree, recognized as an Indiana Credential of Value
- Depending on your apprenticeship schedule, you may complete your INCAP credential or degree after high school graduation
- Multiple years of paid, on-the-job experience in your chosen industry
After completing your Apprenticeship Program, you can choose the next step that fits your goals. You may:
- Enter the workforce
- Go to college, potentially receiving credit for your INCAP credential or degree
- Continue your education and training through an INCAP Career Program
Choosing an apprenticeship in high school doesn’t mean eliminating college as an option. It gives you another way to prepare for whatever comes next, whether that’s college or not.
If You’re an Adult
Build on What You’ve Already Learned
For adults, the INCAP Career Program provides another way to build education, skills, and experience while working. Programs combine employer-driven education and training with paid work experience, and they’re designed around the skills employers need for specific occupations.
Depending on the specific Career Program and where you are in your career, INCAP can help you prepare for a career change or continue advancing in your field.
Participants earn INCAP credentials and degrees that are recognized by employers within their industries. An INCAP credential or degree may also be equivalent to, or count toward, an associate, bachelor’s, or advanced degree, depending on the college degree program.
Choosing INCAP does not prevent you from pursuing traditional higher education in the future, it expands your options.
Building Connections Between INCAP and College
Helping Education and Training Build on One Another
In 2025, Indiana’s Department of Education published a proposed Indiana Qualifications Framework (IQF) to create clearer connections between professional education and traditional higher education. The proposed framework defines levels of knowledge, skills, and competencies across different types of education and training.
As INCAP grows, the goal is to align INCAP credentials and degrees within the framework so colleges and employers can better understand what participants have already learned and can do. Over time, this will make it easier for students to move between INCAP and the college pathway (and vice versa), receiving recognition and credit for education and training they have already completed.
Oversight of this process rests with the new Indiana Qualifications Advisory Panel, which reviews proposed degrees and credentials and convenes industry experts to evaluate training plans against the requirements and expectations of the relevant industry.