OSE Apprenticeship Financial Aid
Summary
This financial aid program offers a work-study model where students earn money through an apprenticeship involving 16 hours of work per week, with free weekends. Pay starts at $14/hour but increases based on documented skills, potentially reaching $40/hour for high-performing individuals and even higher for leadership roles. Students self-document their skills through video and photographic evidence, contributing to a study on peak performance.
The program emphasizes becoming debt-free upon completion. While students need to pay tuition upfront for the entire year to support the program's replicability and address cash flow issues related to building Seed Eco-Homes, there are several options to manage these upfront costs. These include a 50% interest-free loan from OSE with repayment starting two years later, collaborative efforts to secure sponsorships or crowdfunding, and the possibility of using an RV temporarily instead of renting an apartment (with a requirement to contribute to infrastructure projects, potentially including building micro-housing). In exceptional cases, 100% tuition financing may be considered.
The program anticipates that even at the starting wage, a student working during the semester and summer could earn around $13,000 annually. However, it's expected that students will quickly develop skills, leading to significantly higher pay within the first year, potentially covering both tuition and living expenses. Just in the work-study (16 hours per week) - and not counting the summer - it is possible to earn up to $25k per year, and more if one is running crews or working in the summer. This is at $39/hr - which is the pay scale that we expect any motivated student to reach within 4 years of the apprenticeship. The program stresses a collaborative approach to financial planning, encouraging students to propose budgets and learning objectives to create a mutually beneficial financial aid package. Moreover, we collaborate and support each other in learning, as swarm builds require that everyone performs at a high level. We are incentivizing the program for collaborative learning, such that it is more about teamwork and helping slower learners catch up to speed rather than leaving them behind - because successful teams can function at a higher level when all the team members perform at a high level rather than when individual 'superstars' perform at an extraordinary level. As such, we aim to raise the level of play for the entire world - not just our team - but that means that we start with that intention.
More Detail
The financial aid is such that you can earn an absolute minimum around $13k but you have to work summers - with the caveat that this is very minimum and we do not expect anyone to earn this little because this minimum amount does not consider that a person is gaining skills and improving their pay substantially within the first year.
Apprenticeship involves 16 hours work per week, with free weekends.
We pay people according to skill level. Students self-document their skills and publish results openly as part of our study of peak performance. Documentation consists of video time lapse of specific tasks along with documentation of several quality control points via pictures etc.
Everyone starts on the 'factory floor' meaning $14/hr unless they document their skill to show competency. The top pay for Seed Eco-Home build work during the apprenticeship will be $40/hr - for high quality and speed in build tasks - unless one is managing crews in leadership positions in which case pay would be higher. In summary, a student who also works in the summer would almost cover tuition if they got paid our minimum wage, but any student should also be able to cover tuition AND living expenses as they are increasing their skills set even in the first year.
But the question remains how the student pays up front in the first place, and why they need to pay up front. Students pay up front - while leaving our pogram debt free. Up front payment is necessary to make the program also replicable and therefore scalabe - for individuals who would like to start another OSE-based campus in another location. As such, we request that students pay up front for the whole year. The idea is that if someone starts another campus, they are not getting themselves into debt to start the campus in the first place - as student tuition helps to make the program self-funding. Since there are significant cash flow issues involved in building homes, the tuition paid all up front addresses some of these cash flow issues. We are designing all of our product, from Seed Eco-Homes to the very Appenticeship - to be as bootstrap-funded as possible for the sake of robust scalability.
To pay up front for tuition and living expenses, outside of the work-study and vacation work option, these are the 3 options, separately or in any combination:
1. OSE can provide 50% financial aid to you in the form of an interest free loan for your tuition. Repayment would start in 2 years, so that by the time you have finished your 4 year Apprenticeship, you are living debt- free.
We collaborate with students on the above by requesting that students propose their budget and work plan - so that we can go over it in detail to come up with a financial plan or financial aid package - that includes both your tuition and living expenses - that is a win-win for both sides. With corresponding commitments on both sides. You start the process of 'setting your own pay' right here by defining learning objectives for skill acquisition, which are tied to your overall performance and pay. In particular - do you want to work on weekends or during the 2-month vacation, or do you liberate that time for additional studies? We learn and document our learning throughout this process as part of a lifelong learning journey, while laying the groundwork for those who will follow in our footsteps as the program evolves. We have ambitious goals for scaling and audacious goals for solving pressing world issues.
2. Once you apply and we create your financial plan, and determine any financial need, we can help you get sponsored or crowdsourced for your tuition. This would be through sponsorships, grants, or plain crowdfunding. This would help with publicity in the program in the first place, while involving others in the funding capacity. For example, we have already secured 1-2 sponsorships for students from Victoria, BC. This route can take some effort, but it will depend on the interest and need of the candidate to determine how much to pursue this route. This would be done collaboratively with OSE.
3. We are setting up a multipurpose 1/2 acre experimental infrastructure area called Alpha, and we are open to setting up an RV park if any students come with an RV. However, RVs would not work in winter so RVs can only be a temporary solution. After 6 months, we may start to build a microhouse village in Alpha. Students are required to volunteer 2 hours per week on infrastructure projects. This time can be allocated to helping on any infrastructure project to improve the campus, including building microhouses for students.
4. In exceptional cases, OSE can consider 100% financing of tuition in the form of a loan.
The basic principles here are that both OSE and the candidate collaborate for a win win solution. In general, candidates who are a good fit should not be prevented from attending based on cost. We will discuss this early on in the application process with each candidate on a case-by-case basis. Does this address your question?
Thanks,Marcin
More notes on pay structure:
Take $14/hr absolute minimum and 10 months of this during the semester is around $9k. Summer work at this rate would be another $4500, for a total of $13.5k at the bottom pay scale. We do not expect this bottom pay, as everyone should be around $20-25/hr after 10 months.
Say it takes 6 months to get to $25, which we certainly expect for at least the top candidates - and you have $5376 at $16/hr and $6400 for the last 4 months, and with summer work full time - that is a total of about $20k in the first year, correct me if I am wrong.
If students reach $25 in the first year, they are making $16k at the start of their second year, not counting any summer work. With summer work at that rate, it would come to $24k in their second year. We expect students to graduate at the $72k per year full time level minimum in the OSE Apprenticeship main track, and $95k if they are leading crews. The $72k corresponds to about $39/hr. We expect top students to reach this well ahead of the 4 year timeline - and every student to reach this by the end of the apprenticeship.
