PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Pinellas County Schools became the first district in the state to offer a teacher apprenticeship program.

Now, those apprentices are halfway through the two-year program. 

What You Need To Know

  • Pinellas County Schools became the first district in the state to offer a teacher apprenticeship program

  • The program is helping people like Tiffany Reilly reach their dreams and helps the school district fill critical teaching positions

  • It's a two-year apprenticeship that allows employees to earn their bachelor’s degree in education while working in schools with veteran teachers as mentors full time

  • All tuition, books, and fees are fully covered, and apprentices receive a salary increase in while in the program

Spectrum News Bay News 9 first introduced Tiffany Reilly last spring. She’s a teacher apprentice at the Nina Harris ESE Center, and she says this unique program is helping her reach her dreams and helps the school district fill critical teaching positions.

Reilly has worked as a paraprofessional for six years. Last spring, she became one of the first teacher apprentices in Pinellas County.

“I’m doing my paraprofessional work, I’m also being an online student, and I’m also a teacher apprentice. It’s a lot, it’s a lot,” she said.

It’s a two-year apprenticeship that allows employees to earn their bachelor’s degree in education while working in schools with veteran teachers as mentors full time. There are 25 in this cohort, and Dr. Nicole Gallucci-Landis, who oversees the program, says it’s proving to be a success.

“We have some apprentices when we look at their data, when they work directly with students, they’re excelling, and students’ achievement levels are going up, and so it is, we’re really seeing a great return,” she said.

Reilly says this apprenticeship is allowing her to fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a teacher, and she says working with her mentor, “Ms. Fitzpatrick”, helps her learn more about teaching than she ever could, sitting in a traditional college classroom.

“As we work together, it’s incredible because we are so alike — it’s funny. We feed off each other, but I just enjoy watching her because I’m like, I would do that too, and then she sometimes gets things from me, and I just couldn’t ask for a better mentor,” said Reilly.

While Reilly admits it can be challenging juggling work and school, she says her faith and her love for her students keep her going, and in the end, she knows it will all be worth it. 

The teacher apprenticeship program is a partnership between Pinellas County Schools and St. Petersburg College. All tuition, books, and fees are fully covered, and apprentices receive a salary increase in while in the program.