Apprenticeship

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"Apprentice" redirects here. There is also a reality show called The Apprentice.

Apprenticeship is a traditional method, still popular in some countries, of training a new generation of skilled crafts practitioners. Apprentices (or in early modern usage "prentices") build their careers from apprenticeships. Most of their training is on the job, working for an employer who helps the apprentices learn their trade, art or craft. Less formal, theoretical education is involved.

The system of apprenticeship first developed in the later Middle Ages and came to be supervised by craft guilds and town governments. A master craftsman was entitled to employ young people as an inexpensive form of labour in exchange for providing formal training in the craft. Most apprentices were males, but female apprentices can be found in a number of crafts associated with embroidery, silk-weaving etc. Apprentices were young (usually about fourteen to twenty-one years of age), unmarried and would live in the master craftsman's household. Most apprentices aspired to becoming master craftsmen themselves on completion of their contract (usually a term of seven years), but some would spend time as a journeyman and a significant proportion would never acquire their own workshop.

Subsequently governmental regulation and the licensing of polytechnics and vocational education formalised and bureaucratised the details of apprenticeship.

Universities still echo apprenticeship schemes in their production of scholars: bachelors are promoted to masters and then produce a thesis under the oversight of a supervisor before the corporate body of the university recognises the reaching of the standard of a doctorate. The modern concept of internship is also analogous.

Also similar to apprenticeships are the professional development arrangements for new graduates in the professions of accountancy and the law (that is, lawyers), a British example was training contracts known as 'articles of clerkship'.

1 United Kingdom
2 Germany
3 France
4 See also
5 Further reading
6 External links

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United Kingdom

Apprenticeships have a long tradition in the United Kingdom's education system. In early modern England 'parish' apprenticeships under the Poor Law came to be used as a way of providing for poor children of both sexes alongside the regular system of apprenticeships, which tended to provide for boys from slightly more affluent backgrounds.

In modern times, the system became less and less important, especially as employment in heavy industry and artisan trades declined. Traditional apprenticeships reached their lowest point in the 1970s: by that time, training programmes were rare and people who were apprentices learnt mainly by example. In 1986, National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) were introduced, in an attempt to revitalise vocational training. Still, by 1990, apprenticeship took up only two-thirds of one percent of total employment.

In 1994, the government introduced Modern Apprenticeships (in England - but not Scotland or Wales - the name was changed to Apprenticeships in 2004), again to try to improve the image of work-based learning and to encourage young people and employers to participate. (Modern) Apprenticeships are based on frameworks devised initially by National Training Organisations and now by their successors, Sector Skills Councils, state-sponsored but supposedly 'employer-led' bodies responsible for defining training requirements in their sector (such as Business Administration or Accounting). Frameworks consist of National Vocational Qualifications, a technical certificate and Key Skills including literacy and numeracy. Those who complete all elements of the framework receive a certificate, but the Apprenticeship is not a discrete qualification.

There are now more than 160 Apprenticeship frameworks (2005). Unlike traditional apprenticeships, the current scheme extends beyond 'craft' and skilled trades to areas of the service sector with no apprenticeship tradition. Employers who participate in the scheme have an employment contract with their apprentices, but off-the-job training and assessment is wholly funded by the state through various agencies - formerly the Training and Enterprise Councils, now the Learning and Skills Council in England or its equivalents in Scotland and Wales. These agencies contract with 'learning providers' who organise and/or deliver training and assessment services to employers. Providers are usually private training companies but might also be Further Education colleges, voluntary sector organisations, Chambers of Commerce or employer 'Group Training Associations'; only about 5 % of apprenticeships are directly contracted with single employers participating in the scheme. There is no minimum time requirement for apprenticeships, although the average time spent completing a framework is roughly 21 months.

In 2000 the Government established the Modern Apprenticeships Advisory Committee (MAAC) to recommend 'how best to ensure that the quality of Modern Apprenticeships fully matches the standards set by leading nations worldwide' . Its 2001 report noted that 'England currently does not have a strong apprenticeships system'; critical weaknesses identified included: declining participation by young people; low completion rates, with only about a third of all apprentices completing their frameworks; and weaknesses in training, assessment and data collection. Many young people and employers were still unaware of exactly what an apprenticeship involved.

Changes recommended by the Committee at first seemed to have little effect: between 2000 and 2003, the number of people starting apprenticeships fell from 76,800 to 47,300. In 2001, just over one fifth of young people under age 22 took up an apprenticeship: of these, only 33% actually completed it, making approximately 7% of young British people under 22 who completed an apprenticeship in 2001. Between 2001/02 and 2004/05, however, the percentage of young people completing apprenticeships rose from 24% to 39% and in 2005 it was announced that the target of getting 28% of 16-21 year olds to start an apprenticeship had been met. Recognising that demand for apprenticeship places exceeds supply from employers, and that many young people, parents and employers still associate apprenticeship with craft trades and manual occupations, the Government developed a major marketing campaign in 2004.

Refinement of the Apprenticeship system continues - in 2005 the Learning and Skills Council, Department for Education and Skills, and Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, together with their equivalents in Wales and the Sector Skills Councils, launched the Apprenticeship Blueprint for England and Wales, which revises and redefines the essential and flexible elements of an apprenticeship framework.[1]

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Germany

Apprenticeships are part of Germany's successful dual education system, and as such form an integral part of many people's working life. Young people can learn one of 356 (2005) apprenticeship occupations (Ausbildungsberufe), such as Doctor's Assistant, Banker, Dispensing Optician or Oven Builder. The dual system means that apprentices spend most of their time in companies and the rest in formal education. Usually, they work for three to four days a week in the company and then spend one or two days at a vocational school (Berufsschule). These Berufsschulen have been part of the education system since the 19th century.

In 1969, a law (the Berufsausbildungsgesetz) was passed which regulated and unified the vocational training system and codified the shared responsibility of the state, the unions, associations and chambers of trade and industry. The dual system was successful in both parts of divided Germany: in the GDR, three quarters of the working population had completed apprenticeships.

Although the rigid training system of the GDR, linked to the huge collective combines, did not survive reunification, the system remains popular in modern Germany: in 2001, two thirds of young people aged under 22 began an apprenticeship, and 78% of them completed it, meaning that approximately 51% of all young people under 22 have completed an apprenticeship. One in three companies offered apprenticeships in 2003; in 2004 the government signed a pledge with industrial unions that all companies except very small ones must take on apprentices.

The precise skills and theory taught on apprenticeships are strictly regulated, meaning that everyone who has, for example, had an apprenticeship as an Industriekaufmann (someone who works in an industrial company as a personnel assistant or accountant, etc) has learned the same skills and had the same courses in procurement and stocking up, cost and activity accounting, staffing, accounting procedures, production, profit and loss accounting and various other subjects. The employer is responsible for the entire programme; apprentices are not allowed to be employed and have only an apprenticeship contract. The time taken is also regulated; each occupation learnt takes a different time, but the average is 35 months. People who have not taken this apprenticeship are not allowed to call themselves an Industriekaufmann; the same is true for all the 356 occupations.

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France

In France, apprenticeships also developed between the ninth and thirteenth centuries, with guilds structured around apprentices, journeymen and master craftsmen, continuing in this way until 1791, when the guilds were suppressed.

In 1851 the first law on apprenticeships came into force. From 1919, young people had to take 150 hours of theory and general lessons in their subject a year. This minimum training time rose to 360 hours a year in 1961, then 400 in 1986.

The first training centres for apprentices (centres de formation d'apprentis, CFAs) appeared in 1961, and in 1971 apprenticeships were legally made part of professional training. In 1986 the age limit for beginning an apprenticeship was raised from 20 to 25. From 1987 the range of qualifications achieveable through an apprenticeship was widened to include the brevet professionnel (certificate of vocational aptitude), the bac professionnel (vocational baccalaureat diploma), the brevet de technicien supérieur(advanced technician's certificate), engineering diplomas and more.

On January 18 2005, President Jacques Chirac announced the introduction of a law on a programme for social cohesion comprising the three pillars of employment, housing and equal opportunities. The French government pledged to further develop apprenticeship as a path to success at school and to employment, based on its success: in 2005, 80% of young French people who had completed an apprenticeship entered employment. In France, the term denotes manual labor only. The plan aimed to raise the number of apprentices from 365,000 in 2005 to 500,000 in 2009. To achieve this aim, the government is, for example, granting tax relief for companies when they take on apprentices. (Since 1925 a tax has been levied to pay for apprenticeships.) The minister in charge of the campaign, Jean-Louis Borloo, also hoped to improve the image of apprenticeships with an information campaign, as they are often connected with academic failure at school and an ability to grasp only practical skills and not theory. After the civil unrest end of 2005, the government, led by prime minister Dominique de Villepin, announced a new law. Dubbed "law on equality of chances", it created the First Employment Contract as well as manual apprenticeship as soon as 14 years old. From this age, students are allowed to quit the compulsory school system in order to quickly learn a vocation. This measure has long been a revendication of conservative French political parties, and was met by tough opposition from trade unions and students.

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