The Apprentice Model 2.0: Enhancement of the Apprentice Model
An agency-run apprenticeship program can lift BCBA pass rates from university norms (34–60%) to 88% while filling your BCBA pipeline.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Hartley et al. (2023) built an in-house program to grow BCBAs. They call it Apprentice Model 2.0. Staff who want to sit for the BCBA exam get paid supervision, study groups, mock exams, and real-world practice all inside the agency.
The paper is a case series. It shows how the program ran and what happened to the first group.
What they found
Eighty-eight percent of the apprentices passed the BCBA exam on the first try. University programs usually see 34–60%.
Today, seven out of ten supervising BCBAs in the agency started as apprentices. The agency no longer hires outside BCBAs to fill gaps.
How this fits with other research
McGonigle et al. (1982) did the first big pyramidal staff training. They trained a few supervisors who then trained 45 staff in a state hospital. Daily feedback kept skills high. Hartley keeps the pyramid idea but moves it upstream: train future BCBAs first, and they later supervise everyone else.
Courtemanche et al. (2021) showed one trainer can teach 18 staff at once with BST and peer feedback. Hartley uses the same large-group DNA, yet the goal is certification, not just skill accuracy.
Kamana et al. (2024) added on-the-job feedback in many group homes. Hartley folds that in too—apprentices get feedback while they work with real clients. The twist is the feedback comes from the same agency that signs their paychecks, so learning and job performance rise together.
Why it matters
If you run a clinic, school, or home-based program, you can copy this. Pair each RBT who wants to be a BCBA with an in-house supervisor. Add group study, mock exams, and paid fieldwork. You stop waiting for outside hires and you keep your best staff. Start small: pick two RBTs, block two hours a week, and track their mock-exam scores.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
There are not enough board certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) with specialization in the treatment of individuals with autism to meet the growing patient demand for applied behavior analysis (ABA) treatment. In addition, there are no streamlined, organization-led fieldwork supervision systems to aid in the professional development of Trainees to meet this need. This article describes enhancements made to the Apprentice Model (Hartley et al., 2016), emphasizing the mutual benefit to the Apprentice, the Supervising BCBA, the organization for which they are both employed, and perhaps most important, the field of behavior analysis. Within the organization where the Apprentice Model has been adopted, 88% of Apprentices who took the exam, since the 2022 modifications were applied, passed on their first attempt despite attending universities with 2021 reported pass rates ranging from 34%–60% (Behavior Analysts Certification Board [BACB], 2023). In addition, through the 6-year history of the adoption of the Apprentice Model, 70% of the organization’s BCBAs who supervise a caseload of patients were prior Apprentices. Structuring a wide-scale supervision model within an organization creates opportunities for the Trainee to experience high-quality tailored fieldwork, it allows the Supervising BCBA to provide supervision under a well-organized and structured framework, and it permits the organization to employ high-quality, newly certified BCBAs to begin meeting patient treatment needs. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-023-00799-9.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2023 · doi:10.1007/s40617-023-00799-9