Employer‐led Realities: apprenticeship past and present

Abstract

In 1993, the United Kingdom launched yet another new initiative to revitalise youth training, but this time, rather than choosing a title which conjures up the flexible workplace of the future, it chose to delve back into the industrial past and introduced Modern Apprenticeship. Piloted for a year in 15 occupational sectors, Modern Apprenticeship is to expand in 1995/1996 to cover some 50 sectors, many of which have little history of substantive or accredited workplace training. By examining the history of apprenticeship in the United Kingdom, including evidence from two industrial sectors (electricity supply and chemicals), this paper suggests that whilst the concept of apprenticeship may still be very attractive to young people, their parents and some employers, the history of its decline over the past 30 years should be treated seriously by policymakers attempting to re-create apprenticeship in the 1990s.

Basic Competence in Mathematics: Swedish and English 16 year olds

“…For females, totals were 5,000 and 4,000 respectively (Bosworth and Wilson, 1994). These figures are now higher again, in the context of the government's 'New Apprenticeship' scheme which underwrites and regulates apprenticeships in a far wider range of industries than the traditional ones (Unwin, 1996); but in the meantime, as noted earlier, full-time enrolments have increased to levels much closer to, though still significantly short of Swedish levels.…”

Recreating apprenticeship: lessons from the irish standards-based model

“…One consequence has been a marked lack of active employee support, let alone enthusiasm, for a series of key policy initiatives covering vocational qualifications, training for the unemployed and local regeneration strategy development. The risk is not simply that of creating a climate of passive compliance, but of generating active cynicism that may then jeopardise subsequent reforms, including the introduction of Modern Apprenticeships (Unwin & Wellington, 1995;Unwin, 1996).…”

“…Between the New Training Initiative of 1981 and the Review of Vocational Qualifications in 1986, a coherent United Kingdom government strategy emerged of replacing time-served models of apprenticeship with a qualificationsdriven system of training that would be based on capacity to perform, rather than on time-serving. Faced with persistent evidence of a skills deficit among new entrants to the labour market, particularly at craft and technician level, United Kingdom government policy turned in the 1990s towards the recreation of apprenticeship systems, integrated with the standards-led approach that had been introduced in the mid-1980s (Unwin & Wellington, 1995;Unwin, 1996). However, the United Kingdom was not alone in witnessing such changes in the transition between schooling and work.…”

Initial Vocational Training from a Company Perspective: a Comparison of British and German In-House Training Cultures

“…The OECD (2002) describes this situation as a 'poaching problem'. The final point is that historically, vocational education has had little significance in Britain; the decline of the guilds virtually destroyed the tradition of apprenticeships (Unwin 1996;Ryan 1991, 1995).…”

Change and continuity in apprenticeship: the resilience of a model of learning

“…Up until then, many towns and cities would have had some employers offering substantial apprenticeship opportunities to young people (albeit largely to males). At the Courtaulds Chemicals site in Derby, for example, a minimum of between 25 and 30 apprentices were recruited annually from the early 1960s to 1981 (see Unwin 1996). The apprenticeship programme involved the development of knowledge and skills through a combination of learning in the workplace, off-the-job sessions in the company training school and day-release at the local college of further education.…”