ERUDIRE
Apprenticeship-as-a-Service · Advanced Manufacturing

America is rebuilding its factories.
We're building the workforce
to run them.

\ eh-roo-DEE-reh \ · Latin — to teach, to train, to develop talent

Erudire Workforce builds employer-funded talent pipelines for advanced manufacturing. We source, screen, train, and place work-ready technicians under an Apprenticeship-as-a-Service model.

See how it works Read the thesis →
0
manufacturing roles projected
to go unfilled by 2033
0
new manufacturing workers
needed over the next decade
$0
students pay to enter
the pipeline
Apprenticeship-as-a-Service· Employer-Funded Pipelines· Advanced Manufacturing· Defense & Shipbuilding· Semiconductors· Biopharma Manufacturing· Source → Screen → Train → Place· Hampton Roads · Manassas · Virginia· Apprenticeship-as-a-Service· Employer-Funded Pipelines· Advanced Manufacturing· Defense & Shipbuilding· Semiconductors· Biopharma Manufacturing· Source → Screen → Train → Place· Hampton Roads · Manassas · Virginia·
Executive Summary

The opportunity, the model,
and the moment.

The whole thesis on one screen: where the gap is, what we do about it, where we begin, and why now.

The Gap
1.9M U.S. manufacturing roles may go unfilled by 2033. The binding constraint is technicians — not engineers or line labor.
What We Do
Erudire sources, screens, trains, and places technicians through employer-funded pathways. Employers pay; students enter free.
Where We Start
Maintenance & mechatronics in Hampton Roads — shipyards, semiconductor fabs, and biopharma plants that all hire the same technicians.
Why Now
America's industrial rebuild in chips, defense, and biopharma is colliding with a retiring technician workforce. The shortage is structural, and it widens every year.
Where we are: pre-revenue today, with early employer interest and a clear first step: a paid embedded pilot.
The Problem

The current system
doesn't produce technicians.

Manufacturers need skilled industrial maintenance techs, CNC operators, mechatronics specialists, and marine mechanical & systems technicians. Every existing channel fails them in a different way.

Community colleges
Move slower than employer demand. Grant credentials, not job-ready workers. No accountability for placement or conversion.
Staffing agencies
Fill open requisitions with résumés. They don't create trained talent — they redistribute existing workers between employers.
Internal L&D
Expensive, inconsistent, and pulls experienced employees off the floor to train novices. Most manufacturers never build it right.
Apprenticeships
Work well, but are painful for manufacturers to launch alone. Compliance, coordination, and curriculum are a full-time job most plants won't take on.
An unfilled technician role costs $50K–$100K+ per year in overtime, delays, and recruiting churn.
0
of the 3.8M need is workers retiring
this decade — not new demand on top
2033
horizon year of Deloitte & the Manufacturing
Institute's 3.8M-worker gap forecast
180d
DoD SkillBridge window — DoD pays
transitioning service-member salaries
The Gap, Over Time

Watch the shortfall widen.

By 2033 American manufacturing needs 3.8M more workers, and on current trends nearly half of those roles go unfilled. Drag across the decade and watch the gap open.

Roles unfilled · 2028
0.75M

skilled roles employers can’t fill that year — and the gap compounds as more workers retire.

2.3M
Roles to fill
1.6M
Qualified workers entering

Directional model anchored to Deloitte & The Manufacturing Institute’s 2033 projection (3.8M needed, ~1.9M unfilled). Illustrative, not a forecast.

Why Now

The shortage is structural —
even if 2026 hiring is uneven.

Economic uncertainty has made some manufacturers cautious about permanent headcount. That strengthens the case for this model rather than weakening it.

A pay-for-conversion pipeline is lower-risk than traditional hiring. Cautious employers still need technicians — they just want to commit later. Erudire de-risks the commitment without pausing the pipeline, so talent is ready the moment production ramps.
01
Lower-risk hiring: pay for screened, trained candidates instead of speculative hires
02
Build workforce optionality without a permanent headcount commitment
03
Reserve talent capacity before production ramps, not after
04
Convert learners to full-time roles only when the employer is ready
05
Every reshoring announcement worsens the gap and strengthens the thesis
The Solution

One operator. The full chain.
Accountable for outcomes.

Apprenticeship-as-a-Service across six steps. We own every link from sourcing to retention, so one company stays accountable for the result.

01 · Source
Source
High schools, veterans (incl. DoD SkillBridge), underemployed adults, workforce orgs
02 · Screen
Screen
Aptitude, reliability, mechanical reasoning, work-readiness — before they cost the employer anything
03 · Train
Train
Role-specific technical pathways with hands-on delivery, VR modules, and real equipment
04 · Embed
Embed
Paid work-based learning inside employer facilities — registered apprenticeship coordination included
05 · Place
Place
Qualified candidates convert to full-time employer roles — conversion fee paid on hire
06 · Track
Track
Conversion, retention, and performance data — building the data moat that compounds over time
The product is trained workers, not curriculum. Employers get a predictable supply of qualified technicians on their own timeline, billed monthly in advance, with conversion written into the contract.
Speed to Productive

Two ways to fill the floor.

The old way is a speculative hire that takes most of a year to pay off. Erudire delivers a screened, half-trained technician who is productive in weeks. Flip between them.

Week 0~30 weeks to productive
29
weeks to a productive hire
Risk
Elevated — a speculative bet on one résumé
Commitment
Permanent headcount, paid up front
Initial Wedge

Start narrow:
maintenance & mechatronics.

One repeatable role before we multiply programs — the same technicians a shipyard, a fab, and a cleanroom all need.

Why this wedge
Needed across semiconductors, aerospace, defense, EV, marine, robotics, CNC, and automation
More repeatable than launching five programs at once
High pain for plant managers and operational leadership
Equipment and curriculum can be modularized
Graduates branch into higher-specialization tracks over time
Expansion tracks over time

Install, calibrate, and service the deposition, etch, and metrology tools that run a fab line.

Where Chip fabs and their equipment makers — the heart of the CHIPS-Act buildout.

Program, set up, and run computer-controlled mills and lathes to tight tolerances.

Where Precision parts for aerospace, defense, medical, and automotive suppliers.

Join structural and pressure-critical assemblies, from TIG work to robotic welding cells.

Where Shipyards, energy, heavy equipment, and defense fabrication.

Maintain and troubleshoot robotic cells, PLCs, and automated production lines.

Where EV plants, distribution centers, and high-volume assembly lines.

Build and inspect airframe and propulsion assemblies under exacting tolerances.

Where Aircraft and space manufacturers and their tier-one suppliers.

Wire, test, and repair industrial control systems and electronic assemblies.

Where The connective layer in nearly every advanced-manufacturing plant.

Install, maintain, and repair propulsion, hydraulic, and shipboard mechanical & electrical systems.

Where Naval shipyards, ship-repair yards, and the maritime supplier base — our Hampton Roads beachhead.

One repeatable operating system before we multiply programs.
3.8M
Manufacturing workers needed
in the U.S. by 2033
Source: The Manufacturing Institute
1.9M
Of those roles projected
to go unfilled
Source: Deloitte / Manufacturing Institute
12.5B+
Committed to Virginia manufacturing
by AstraZeneca, Lilly & Merck
Source: VEDP
Business Model

Employer-funded,
outcome-oriented.

Erudire prices around cost per productive hire, not tuition. Students pay nothing. Employers pay for trained workers, not résumés. Pricing is illustrative until the first cohort contracts.

Paid pipeline design
Custom pilot with role mapping and curriculum scoping
$50K–$150K
Apprenticeship-as-a-Service fee
Fully-loaded monthly rate — curriculum, instructors, coordination, insurance, compliance. The apprentice wage is employer-funded and sits outside this fee.
$3K–$8K
per learner / mo
Conversion / placement fee
Paid when a learner converts to full-time employment
$5K–$15K
per hire
Dedicated cohort contract
Annual employer commitment for a reserved cohort
$250K–$1M+
SMB consortium model
Multiple smaller employers pool seats to share a single cohort
Seat-based
Illustrative per-learner economics
~50%
Gross margin at cohort scale · 80% placement base · wages employer-funded
AaaS training fee — committed (~$4K × 7 mo) $28K
Placement fee (80% base × $7K) ~$6K
Revenue per learner ~$34K
Instruction, curriculum & equipment ($10K)
Sourcing & screening ($4K)
Coordination, compliance & admin ($3K)
Gross profit per learner ~$17K
The Unit Economics

Model the math yourself.

Two lenses on the same engagement — what an employer saves, and what Erudire earns. Drag the assumptions. Every figure is illustrative until the first cohort contracts.

Technicians to hire / year12
Months a role sits unfilled today7
Cost of one vacant role / year$75K
Erudire gross margin50%
Annual vacancy cost avoided
$375K

Erudire collapses time-to-productive from months to weeks. That recovered time is the saving.

Old way · 7 mo open$525K
With Erudire · ~8 wks$150K
7 → 2 mo
Time to fill the role
71%
Less vacancy drag per role
Annual contract value · one employer
$478K

Recurring training fees plus per-hire conversion revenue — from a single account, before any expansion.

Revenue mix$478K
Pipeline design $75K Apprenticeship-as-a-Service $336K Conversion fees $67K
Gross profit @ 50% margin
After delivery, instruction & coordination cost
$239K
$34K
Revenue per technician placed
$2.4M
Gross profit across ten employers

Illustrative model for discussion — not a forecast or an offer. Old-way cost is vacancy drag across the months a role stays open; with a standing, pre-trained pipeline Erudire fills the seat in weeks rather than months, so most of that drag disappears. Gross margin is an illustrative assumption.

Competitive Landscape

Crowded market,
fragmented accountability.

Every alternative either lacks conversion accountability, doesn't deliver hands-on manufacturing training, or requires the employer to run the program themselves. Hover or tap any competitor to see where they stop.

SourceScreenTrainPlaceRetain
Training only, credential-focused on 2-year timelines. No sourcing, screening, placement, or retention.
We run all five stages on a 6–12 month, employer-spec pathway.
Broker access to generic courses and place grads, but don't build hands-on manufacturing skills or own retention.
We deliver the manufacturing training ourselves, then stay accountable through retention.
Place and backfill from existing résumés. They find talent but never create it.
We source and train work-ready technicians, not just fill open reqs.
Employer trains in-house, with no external sourcing or screening, competing with the day job.
Turnkey operator: we own sourcing through retention so the team doesn't have to.
Train and place, but employers run the chapter themselves on 2-year timelines, only where one exists.
Turnkey, fast, and accountable for conversion under contract. Available now.
ERUDIRE SOURCE → SCREEN → TRAIN → PLACE → RETAINALL FIVE STAGES

Competitors cover one or two stages. Erudire is the only operator accountable across the whole pipeline, from source to retain, under a single employer-funded contract.

White space: a scalable, for-profit operator that bundles source → screen → train → place → retain under one employer-funded product — with contractual accountability for conversion that no existing provider offers.
Strategic Geography

Three sectors hiring at scale,
one shared talent base.

A shipyard, a fab, and a cleanroom all run on the same mechatronics and industrial-maintenance techs Erudire trains. One training system serves three high-demand anchors.

Defense Maritime
Navy + Newport News Shipbuilding
19,000 hires
Newport News Shipbuilding plans ~3,000 hires this year and ~19,000 this decade. Hampton Roads is short ~10,000 shipbuilding and repair workers. The famous Apprentice School graduates ~200/yr — the supplier and ship-repair base has no pipeline at all.
Read announcement →
Advanced Semiconductors
Micron · $2B+ Manassas Fab
$275M CHIPS
Micron's $2B+ Manassas fab onshores memory for aerospace and defense, part of a CHIPS-backed U.S. expansion that includes a $275M federal award — a CHIPS-funded advanced-manufacturing anchor in-state creating immediate and sustained technician demand.
Read announcement →
Biopharma Manufacturing
AstraZeneca · Lilly · Merck
$12.5B+ committed
AstraZeneca, Lilly & Merck committed $12.5B+ to Virginia plants and $120M to the VCAPM training center — proof that employers fund pipelines. VCAPM grants credentials (~2027); Erudire is the accountable placement and maintenance-tech layer it won't provide.
Read announcement →
From Virginia outward

Anchored in Virginia. Built to follow the national build-out.

The same mechatronics and industrial-maintenance training travels. As the country’s advanced-manufacturing megasites come online, Erudire’s model maps onto each one. Click Virginia to explore our home base.

  • Operating today — Virginia
  • Expansion targets — major fab & megasite regions
1Newport News — Navy & Newport News shipbuilding (Hampton Roads)
2Manassas — Micron $2B+ semiconductor fab (Northern VA)
3Richmond region — AstraZeneca, Lilly & Merck biopharma (central VA)
  • Virginia — home base, operating today: Navy/Newport News shipbuilding, Micron’s Manassas fab, and the central-VA biopharma cluster
  • Phoenix, AZ — TSMC  ·  Taylor, TX — Samsung  ·  New Albany, OH — Intel
  • Clay, NY & Boise, ID — Micron
Delivery Model

Start asset-light.
Build sites after proof.

Capital requirements scale with revenue milestones, so there are no big bets before the economics are validated. Hover or tap each phase.

Train inside the employer's facility using off-shift equipment. Partner with local technical schools and vendors for modules. Erudire provides instructors, curriculum, screening, and coordination. Minimal facility CapEx. Proves conversion economics before any real estate commitment.
Proves conversion economics.
Dedicated leased facility with CNC and mechatronics equipment. Serve multiple employers from one hub. Standardize instructor hiring, compliance, and curriculum. One physical location, many employer relationships, and much better unit economics per learner.
One hub, many employers.
Central HQ owns curriculum, systems, data, and the employer playbook. Regional sites execute sourcing, training, and placement. Many sites serving a growing learner base. The data moat built in Phases 1 and 2 compounds into a national competitive advantage.
National scale, standardized.
Why Kyle

The same lens that found
mispriced markets found this.

Founder & CEO
Kyle Cooper
Former elite endurance athlete and self-taught investor, now focused on the one supply-demand gap nobody is pricing: the technicians American manufacturing cannot hire.
01 · Elite Competitor
A ~16:30 5K at 14, then elite triathlon — 7th at 2022 nationals and the #1 '07 athlete at the 2023 Americas Championship.
02 · Redirected Excellence
When illness ended the athletic career, the same hunger for winning went into the markets.
03 · A Proven Eye
Calculated, contrarian calls on supply-demand gaps the street mispriced — controlled risk. Long AI memory, then a geopolitical gold repricing. Both paid off.
04 · Why Erudire
The same lens found this: guaranteed demand, a technician supply that can't scale, mispriced because no one is looking.
Team

Founder-led strategy,
industry-expert execution.

The Founding GM is an operator who sells. From day one they co-sell with the founder, design the pilots, and hold their own with VPs of Operations.

Hiring Now
Founding GM · Head of Employer Partnerships
Open Role
Manufacturer relationships, pilot design, enterprise accounts. Must have closed high-value deals into manufacturers with live VP-of-Ops relationships.
Base
$120K–$160K + commission
Equity
2–4%
Hiring
Curriculum & Program Lead
Open Role
Technical pathway design, instructor coordination, and assessment development across maintenance and mechatronics tracks.
Compensation
$110K–$150K
Hiring
Ops / Partnerships Coordinator
Open Role
Candidate pipeline management, logistics, compliance coordination, and local partner relationships.
Compensation
$95K–$125K
Ideal Founding GM: has closed high-value enterprise deals into manufacturers, holds live VP-of-Ops relationships, and can co-sell with the founder, design pilots, and speak credibly with plant floor leadership, often in the same week.
Milestones

10 months to a paid anchor.

Two non-negotiables: a paid commitment by month 8, and a live pilot cohort by month 9.

Mo. 1
Draft pilot curriculum; 25+ employer discovery calls; build 30+ target employer list
Mo. 2
Hire Founding GM; begin co-selling
Mo. 3–5
2–3 written pilot proposals out; 1+ in procurement / legal
Mo. 6
Finalize pilot curriculum; build the candidate sourcing pipeline
Mo. 7–8
Sign anchor — OR 4–6 employers at 2–3 seats each — money attached
Key non-negotiable
Mo. 9
Launch the first embedded pilot cohort
Mo. 10
Early cohort data; expansion pipeline building
Target outcome
The Detail

Go deeper, if you want to.

The market math and the risk register, tucked away so they don't crowd the story. Click to expand.

Market sizing — capture scenarios
How revenue scales from a regional platform to category leader
ScenarioLearners / yrAnnual revenue
Early regional pilot 300–1,000 $10M–$34M
Multi-site platform 5,000–10,000 $168M–$336M
National scaled platform 30,000+ $1.0B+
Category leader 100,000+ $3.4B+

Illustrative scenarios, not forecasts — the top rows are aggressive ceilings. The pilot proves the first row; everything above is contingent on repeatable cohort economics. Revenue per learner is held at our ~$33.6K base case — a 6–12 month pathway of monthly Apprenticeship-as-a-Service fees plus a conversion fee — so each row scales with learner volume.

Risks & mitigations
The honest risk register — and how each one is retired
Employers interested but don't signRequire paid design fees / deposits; aim for money attached from the first conversation
First hire failsTrial period, advisor-assisted vetting, milestone-based equity
Pricing looks too highFrame against vacancy cost; clarify the fully-burdened rate; use grants to lower employer price
No facility for the pilotAsset-light embedded model — train inside the employer's facility
Free public programs undercut usPartner with them as feeders; sell speed, accountability, and roles they don't serve
Instructor bottleneckRetiree instructor bench + standardized curriculum + VR / simulation
Founder seen as too hands-offCEO-led on strategy, capital, and first sales; the GM scales the motion under him
Macro uncertainty delays hiringDiversified employer base + grant-funded delivery cost
Net-60/90 terms drain runwayPrepayment / monthly-in-advance required in pilot contracts
GM hire + single anchor = two single points of failure5–8 GM candidates in parallel; 3–5 anchor candidates advanced simultaneously
Connect

Let's build the workforce
America needs.

Erudire Workforce is building the talent pipeline for America's advanced-manufacturing rebuild. If you're an employer, a potential partner, or want to learn more about what we're building, get in touch.

· Kyle Cooper, Founder & CEO