Apprenticeships In European Countries
Carla George (Doctoral Researcher) University Of Warwick March 2019
Apprenticeships In European Countries Abstract— The paper provides a brief over view regarding the comparing the standards of apprenticeships in European countries and investigating the practices involved which will be further explored in further research papers.
Introduction I have been reviewing current apprenticeship standards in UK and have come across material on how it compares to different countries. There is some research regarding this, but it is not widely talked about. I am presenting a brief insight on this with the intention of exploring this further. I will be looking at the skills gap, different practices and quality standards and how this can be adopted for future purpose.
Apprenticeships Harris R and Deissinger T compared the cultures in Germany and Australia regarding apprenticeships. Both countries consider apprenticeships as a culture experience rather than a routine learning experience. The paper distinguishes key concepts in both cultures. Germany is referred to as a dual system this involves combination of vocational education and work study in one course without involvement from the employer. Germany adopted this approach to provide opportunities for young people to learn a variety of skills that will contribute towards the skills gap and to gain employment in the foreseeable future. Apprenticeships within the German economy has grown over a period, the dual system has expanded in other counties such as South Korea and France. Then it suffered a decline due to the economic climate and preferences towards higher education and lack of maturity towards the education system. In Australia, the dual system is less effective as they adopt a different approach towards vocational education. This is due to families consider full time higher education as an importance rather than pursuing vocational education they believe that this pathway is eligible for uneducated poor people to support them with moving away from menial work. Apprenticeships in Australia has suffered the same decline in the economy market due to lack of apprenticeship contracts and lack of awareness and promotion of apprenticeship schemes. In 1998 the new apprenticeship scheme was introduced to tackle some of these issues that included further training development and full time and part time opportunities. The new scheme complicated matters for employers and apprenticeships due to a lack of understanding of the new scheme. Harris R and Deissinger T compared the cultures in Germany and Australia regarding apprenticeships. Both countries consider apprenticeships as a culture experience rather than a routine learning experience. The paper distinguishes key concepts in both cultures. Germany is referred to as a dual system this involves combination of vocational education and work study in one course without involvement from the employer. Germany adopted this approach to provide opportunities for young people to learn a variety of skills that will contribute towards the skills gap and to gain employment in the foreseeable future. Apprenticeships within the German economy has grown over a period, the dual system has expanded in other counties such as South Korea and France. Then it suffered a decline due to the economic climate and preferences towards higher education and lack of maturity towards the education system. In Australia, the dual system is less effective as they adopt a different approach towards vocational education. This is due to families consider full time higher education as an importance rather than pursuing vocational education they believe that this pathway is eligible for uneducated poor people to support them with moving away from menial work. Apprenticeships in Australia has suffered the same decline in the economy market due to lack of apprenticeship contracts and lack of awareness and promotion of apprenticeship schemes. In 1998 the new apprenticeship scheme was introduced to tackle some of these issues that included further training development and full time and part time opportunities.
The new scheme complicated matters for employers and apprenticeships due to a lack of understanding of the new scheme. Harris R and Deissinger T explains further on the quality assurance in both cultures. Germany has to follow the Vocational Training Act to ensure that the apprentices has a structured approach towards completing their apprenticeship and also employers to employ those that are eligible to be an expert within their chosen career field. However, in Australia this is not the case there are surrounding issues that employers have taken on apprentices that are not eligible for the programme even though there is a considerable amount of training that has taken place questions has raised around the quality of the training programmes and the qualification levels surrounding the training providers. Gray D and Morgan M explain that the current climate in UK for apprenticeships are very weak due to lack of high skilled workers with the relevant qualifications this move will encourage employers to be more involved with the apprentices learning and to close barriers for disadvantaging the system and to boost quality assurance. Pullen C and Clifton J explains in their reports that apprenticeships within the UK will be undergoing current changes where employers will be required to contribute towards off job learning and that there are loop holes within the current system such as lack of progression, lack of employer involvement, issues of fraud and too much funding being invested that is not contributed towards skills development.
McNally compared two models based in England and other European countries based on programme duration, wage and training development. She further explains that in European countries that there are further opportunities to hire skilled technicians for support with on job training whilst in England there is a shortage of technician making on job training support difficult.
In Switzerland and Germany organise their classroom training through groups of employers. German Government policies state that all apprenticeship training should be funded by the employer. The off-job training will take place one to two days a week. In Norwegian countries they expect all apprentices to dedicate their first two years towards being with an employer and the 2nd year in a vocational school. In UK 40% of apprentices received less off job training than the apprenticeship requires as the minimum should be 20% in the survey the apprentices were only receiving 5% of this equivalent to 30mins and 33% of apprentices received 1-5hours per week of informal and formal training.
In other countries employer are given the choice to train their apprentices on job or off job training or use simulated training through feedback. (Learning by doing). Employers are recognising the challenges involved when taking on apprentices as they need supervision especially for those with minimal experience. Apprentices can contribute towards the overall output as they can respond to the work demands required. Other research found that German companies were able to respond to labour market demands by dedicating time towards training apprentices whilst maintaining quality of learning and efficiency.
McNally in her research explains that Germany has upkept a long tradition of apprenticeship training and maintaining relationships through local trade associations. In English firms there is this fear of competition or reference to poaching which has contributed towards the skills shortages and discouragement towards employing apprentices. The duration of apprentices is different in UK there is no agreed duration whilst in Germany this is fixed to avoid uncertainty which is shown in the table above.
Summary Professionals that are knowledgeable and have awareness of the apprenticeship opportunities and pathways to support apprentices. Best practices are measured against external and internal partnerships creating opportunities towards upskilling and adapting apprenticeships to meet business targets. This research will be carried out in further papers to investigate duration and practices in all sectors.
References McNally S, Apprenticeships in England: What does research tell us? Field S Taking Training Seriously: Lessons from An International Comparison Of Off Job The Job Training For Apprenticeships In England