We identify the causal effects of student characteristics on the likelihood of being hired for an apprenticeship and explore the mechanisms underlying the employer’s decision. To this end, we perform a vignette experiment among human resources professionals in Belgium, focusing on less‐qualified youth. Our results indicate that students with favorable educational records and students revealing being motivated are more likely to obtain an apprenticeship. Furthermore, we find that these characteristics are used by human resources professionals as signals of trainability, employability, and quit intentions.