Illinois retailers celebrate early successes of state-funded apprenticeship program

CHICAGO — In May 2025, Alejandro Tribin started as a sales associate at American Sale, an outdoor furniture and appliances retailer in the Chicago area. Tribin came from an entrepreneurial background, but before joining the company’s Carol Stream branch, had no retail experience.

Less than a year later, Tribin was promoted to be one of the store’s managers, a change he attributed largely to participating in the Illinois Retail Leaders Apprenticeship Program.

Launched by the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, the apprenticeship program is the first of its kind in Illinois and includes both online coursework through the College of Lake County and an in-person apprenticeship with an Illinois retailer.

In his early work for the program, Tribin said he has engaged with the online modules and had regular check-ins with an assigned mentor. He also developed a proposal for new revenue development strategies and presented his findings to the company’s owner.

“I spent a lot of time at home working and perfecting (the proposal), and I think that if it gets finally approved and implemented, I’m going to be very excited,” Tribin said. “I’m proud of that accomplishment.”

Tribin is one of 11 apprentices in the early stages of the program, which comes during a time of significant workforce investment in Illinois. A little over a year into the program, which was formally announced in February but began recruiting last year, organizers and participants already claimed individual success stories, touting a 100% apprentice retention rate as they focus on sharpening the skills of current retail employees.

The program is funded through a grant by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, and the state’s budget has included funding for promoting retail for the last three years, according to IRMA President and CEO Rob Karr. Employers who enroll current or future employees in the program can receive up to $5,000 in tax credits per apprentice. There is no cost to participating businesses or apprentices.

In an email to Medill Illinois News Bureau, a DCEO spokesperson said the department also oversees similar state-funded grant programs that support apprenticeships across industry sectors, including training programs for the Illinois Climate and Equitable Jobs Act,  the Illinois Works Pre-Apprenticeship Program and the Job Training and Economic Development Program.

Organizers tout these programs as methods of bolstering youth employment in Illinois, but some have pointed out areas where the state comes up short. In a 2025 report, the Illinois Policy Institute found that the state spent about 17 times more on college education than apprenticeships last year. They also identified that three in four apprentices are concentrated in Cook County and the surrounding collar counties.

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In a release announcing the IRMA program, DCEO Director Kristin Richards said the program will provide opportunities for growth to the “next generation of retail industry leaders.”

“The State of Illinois is supporting this critical program that will build upon Illinois’ world-class workforce and bolster economic development throughout the state,” Richards said in the release.

Karr said retail is often overlooked, both as a potential career path and a driver of the state’s economy. An independent 2022 report by the University of Cincinnati Economics Center, commissioned by IRMA, identified retail as the largest sector for employment in Illinois. IRMA’s apprenticeship program aims to address retail employers’ calls for “soft skills” training for current and prospective employees, Karr explained.

The program’s curriculum was first developed by the Kentucky Retail Institute in Frankfort, in partnership with the MBA Research & Curriculum Center in Columbus, Ohio, but IRMA has adopted its own strategy for recruiting apprentices.

Underscoring the importance of apprenticeships, this week (April 26-May 2) marks National Apprenticeship Week celebrated by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Promoting from within

The Illinois program is open to anyone interested in retail, but IRMA Workforce Development Coordinator Pamela Jones said participating businesses have focused on enrolling current employees, many with the goal of promoting them to management positions.

“They’re a little bit more mature. They’re on their way to management. They’ve worked in retail for a little while,” Jones said. “They’ve shown their commitment to the employer through the job retention, right? And then they’re more engaged when I meet with them. I can tell the difference in their performance.”

Eight of the apprentices work at American Sale locations across the Chicago area. Another retailer in Illinois participating in the apprenticeship program is All In One Laundry Center & Services in Springfield.

Kellymarie Heitmann, American Sale’s director of human resources, said the company’s managerial staff must understand “niche” processes, such as installing pools and hot tubs. As such, she said they tend to promote from within, and IRMA’s apprenticeship program helped to provide managerial skills to current employees.

“I was like, ‘(They) just get to get the basics down, and all I have to teach them is the American Sale way? Oh my God. That’s a phenomenal idea,’” Heitmann said.

Three American Sale apprentices have already been promoted, including Tribin, Heitmann said. One of those three, Brittany Christman, said the program has led her to aspire to a career in management.

Christman started as a cashier in 2023 and transitioned to a product consultant role before beginning the apprenticeship in August 2025. In December 2025, she was promoted to senior product consultant. As someone with a young child at home, she said she hadn’t considered a management path before beginning her apprenticeship.

“I wanted to be a senior product consultant, but I didn’t know if I wanted to go on the management route,” Christman said. “But after this program, I want to do it in the future. I’d like to look into becoming an assistant manager and then possibly, in the future, general manager.”

Heitmann said she worries some retailers may be reluctant to participate in the program if they worry their employees may go elsewhere after gaining new qualifications. However, she said that has not been her experience.

“Being in HR and seeing what it does and knowing what training and development does across all companies that I’ve worked at, it really only enriches the employee and the culture of the business,” Heitmann said. “It does not hurt it.”

Visit IRMA’s website for more information about the program or to apply.

Hannah Webster is an undergraduate student in journalism with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, and a fellow in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.