Replicating INCAP
Explore how lessons from the Indiana Career Apprenticeship Pathway can help other states and regions build employer-led education and training pathways designed for their own workforce needs.
Built in Indiana. Designed to Inform What Comes Next.
A framework that can be adapted to meet different education and workforce needs
The Indiana Career Apprenticeship Pathway (INCAP) was built for Indiana, but many of the challenges it addresses are not unique to our state. Across the country, many states are exploring new ways to better connect education and employment, expand opportunities for high schoolers and adults, and help employers develop the skilled talent they need.
INCAP offers one example of how those pieces can come together and align with the traditional college pathway as a coordinated system. Rather than simply reproducing Indiana’s new pathway, other states and regions can learn from how INCAP was developed while building an approach that reflects their own industries, education systems, and communities.
A Framework, Not a Formula
Building an employer-led education and training pathway requires shared principles and strong supporting structures, but implementation will look different from one place to another.
Built Around Employer Demand
Employers play a leading role in identifying priority occupations and defining the knowledge and skills those occupations require, with Industry Talent Associations bringing employers together around shared talent needs
Education + Work, Connected
Classroom learning and meaningful workplace experience are designed as complementary parts of a coordinated education and training pathway
Credentials That Build on One Another
Qualifications frameworks can help participants move between professional education and traditional higher education while receiving recognition for what they have already learned
Designed for Long-Term Scale
Clear governance, leadership, and implementation structures help move the work beyond individual programs toward a sustainable system
What It Takes to Build a Pathway
Building a pathway means building the system around it
Indiana’s experience — and collaboration with other states pursuing similar work — has reinforced that successful implementation involves more than launching individual apprenticeship or adult training programs. The specific organizations, policies, and implementation strategies may differ, but an employer-led pathway depends on several core elements:
- Strong and sustained employer engagement
- Industry structures that bring employers together around shared talent needs — such as Indiana’s Industry Talent Associations (ITAs)
- Collaboration among employers, educators, training providers, and other partners
- Clear roles for statewide, industry, and regional leadership
- Education and workplace learning designed to work together
- Credentials and degrees that support continued education and career growth – along with a qualifications framework that aligns them with academic degrees
- Long-term governance and leadership structures that can support the pathway as it grows
A Closer Look at Indiana's Approach to Employer Leadership
In Indiana, Industry Talent Associations (ITAs) provide the structure for employers within an industry to work together around shared talent needs and lead the development of education and training programs. They are central to making an employer-led pathway work.
Learn more about why Industry Talent Associations are critical to designing and implementing an employer-led education and training pathway, how they work within INCAP, and lessons learned from launching ITAs in Indiana in Industry Talent Associations: Empowering Employers to Lead Education and Training (PDF).
Adapted to Each State or Region
Every state or region brings a different mix of industries, education systems, organizations, and workforce needs. A successful pathway isn’t copied — it’s built for the place it will serve. That means applying shared principles in ways that make sense locally.
Grounded in Shared Principles
What remains consistent is the commitment to meaningful employer leadership, strong connections between education and work, high-quality training, credentials that support continued learning, and structures designed for long-term sustainability.
The framework can travel. The pathway itself must be built for the state or region it will serve.
Learning Across State Lines
A growing national effort
Indiana is part of a growing national effort to explore how proven professional education and training practices can be adapted for the United States.
The U.S. Advanced CEMETS Institute
Created as a joint initiative of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation and CareerWiseUSA, the U.S. Advanced CEMETS Institute brings together state teams working to build professional education and training pathways inspired by Switzerland’s Vocational and Professional Education and Training (VPET) system. Participants share lessons, examine implementation challenges, and work with national and international experts, including the Center on the Economics and Management of Education and Training Systems (CEMETS) at ETH Zurich, on issues such as employer engagement, qualifications frameworks, and long-term governance.
From Seven States to a Growing Network
The inaugural Institute in September 2025 brought together teams from Alabama, California, Colorado, Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina, and Utah. The second U.S. Advanced CEMETS Institute in October 2026 convened all states from the inaugural institute, with the addition of Illinois, to continue advancing this work and sharing lessons. Additionally, observing representatives from seven additional states attended.
A New Structure for the Work Ahead
Building on What We’ve Learned
Lessons learned from the 2025 and 2026 U.S. Advanced CEMETS Institute convenings made one thing clear: It is critical to continue to create opportunities for states to learn from one another and from experts in professional education and training systems development.
Introducing the CAP Institute
The Career Apprenticeship Pathways Institute (CAP Institute) launched in October 2026. It was created as an overarching structure for this work, providing a broader umbrella for the Indiana Career Apprenticeship Pathway and efforts to develop similar pathways in other states. Its role will continue to take shape as the work develops, and additional information about opportunities for states and partners to engage will be shared as it becomes available.
Interested in Learning More?
Organizations and leaders exploring how an employer-led education and training pathway could work in their state, region, or system can connect with INCAP to learn from Indiana’s experience and explore how these principles could apply in their own context.