NC State’s College of Education has launched the Wolfpack Teacher Registered Apprenticeship Career, or WolfTRAC, program in partnership with the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) to create an apprenticeship pathway for instructional assistants across the district to become highly effective, licensed teachers. Through this apprenticeship program, the instructional assistants will earn a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree from the College of Education and a North Carolina teaching license through a cohort-based pathway in about 18 months while continuing to be employed full time with WCPSS.

“The WolfTRAC partnership represents an innovative approach to addressing one of the most critical challenges facing public education today: building a sustainable pipeline of highly qualified teachers. By creating an apprenticeship pathway for aspiring educators to earn while they learn, we are expanding access to the profession and investing in the future workforce our students deserve,” said Crystal Gregory, WCPSS’s director of talent acquisition. “Wake County Public School System is proud to partner with NC State University to develop and support the next generation of educators.”

Eleven instructional assistants who work across 11 WCPSS schools began the WolfTRAC program in summer 2026 as part of a special cohort in one of three content areas: elementary education, multilingual education and special education. Of those, seven are also part of the North Carolina Teaching Fellows program through which they will receive up to $10,000 per year in forgivable loans to teach elementary, science, technology, engineering, mathematics or special education. 

Among the WolfTRAC students and Teaching Fellows is Janaki Palaniappan, an instructional assistant at Smith Magnet Elementary School. After gaining experience in the classroom as an IA and deepening her understanding of the school system, Palaniappan has decided to become a licensed teacher and complete her MAT so she can “take on a greater role in supporting students’ academic success and making a meaningful difference in their lives.”

WolfTRAC provided “the perfect opportunity because it allows me to keep working with students while earning my teaching license,” she said. 

This month, the College of Education received provisional status as an apprenticeship training program sponsor through ApprenticeshipNC. The college will receive permanent status if it satisfies all the ApprenticeshipNC requirements during its first year of operation. With the launch of WolfTRAC, the College of Education has become the first university apprenticeship program sponsor in North Carolina to be registered as a teacher training program with ApprenticeshipNC.

“Our College of Education is proud to lead the way in North Carolina in teacher education apprenticeships. Now that we are registered as an ApprenticeshipNC program, we will seek to expand teacher pathway opportunities to further address the state’s teacher shortage,” said College of Education Dean Paola Sztajn. “We are grateful for our partnership with Wake County and look forward to collaborating with more school systems across North Carolina to scale this innovative model of teacher education.”

This post was originally published in College of Education News.