Apprenticeship in the United States: Implications for Vocational Education Research and Development. Occasional Paper No. 66.

Overview & Synopsis

An alliance between apprenticeship and vocational education could accomplish more than either system could achieve on its own. An understanding of the system is important prior to working effectively with apprenticeship programs. They are sponsored by single employers or groups of employers acting singly or jointly with a union. Union interest centers around control of craft competence and productivity, increased job security, and union security. Employer interest is based on lower costs of training for groups of small-scale employers. Apprenticeship in practice is concentrated in the building trades, which have over 60% of registered apprentices. Government, specifically the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training and state apprenticeship agencies, has a supportive and regulatory function. Apprenticeship seems to resemble cooperative education but differs in that the apprentice has a regular job, the cooperative student has a training position. Apprenticeship is industry-based; cooperative education is school-based. Vocational education and apprenticeship can work together in two ways: (1) vocational education can channel well-prepared and well-informed candidates into apprenticeships and (2) public vocational education can serve as a resource for providing the related instruction portion of training in apprenticeship. (Discussion questions and answers are appended.) (YLB)