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RediscoveringApprenticeshipAn Answer To Learning Enterprises

Felix Rauner

Ines Herrmann (Hrsg.)

Rediscovering

Apprenticeship

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Inhalt

Introduction to W13: Rediscovering Apprenticeship – an answer to lear-ning enterprisesInes Herrmann, Philipp Grollmann, Felix Rauner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Apprenticeship Training in Italian Regions – Progress and ChallengesElmo De Angelis, Ludger Deitmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Rediscovering apprenticeship in the Netherlands?Jeroen Onstenk, Franck Blokhuis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Creating Expansive Learning Environments: the characteristics of goodpractice in apprenticeships in EnglandAlison Fuller, Lorna Unwin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

The „profitability“ of in-firm vocational training to companies and app-renticesInes Herrmann, Philipp Grollmann, Felix Rauner, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

The Danish VET system as a framework of case descriptions and ana-lysesJette Harrebye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Value adding to apprenticeships: How an Australian construction com-pany invests in apprentices to produce future senior managersErica Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Rediscovering Apprenticeship!? The Austrian PerspectivePeter Schlögl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

3

Introduction to W13: Rediscovering

Apprenticeship – an answer to learning

enterprises

Ines Herrmann, Philipp Grollmann, Felix Rauner

Changes within the contexts of work, such as globalisation and short innovationcycles, result in challenges to the organisation of work and education. Despitethose global challenges the development of the nation states in Europe has ledto unique cultural solutions of solving the problem of the societal reproductionand development of skilled work embedded into the respective configurationof educational, economic and societal institutions. This has led to a fragmentedsituation when it comes to the state of Vocational Education in Europe andworldwide. VET systems and their relation to the world of work as well as theirconnection to the educational system differ completely. Apprenticeship buildsa common European tradition across countries, but has survived the historicalprocesses of institutionalising VET only in the crafts sector or in some selectedcountries. Large shares of an age cohort in Switzerland, Austria, Germany andDenmark undergo an apprenticeship scheme. The ratio differs within thecountries just as the nation specific characteristics of the system.

The workshop is in so far very exciting, as vocational educational training is oneof the few social spheres – perhaps the only one – which is more or less unaf-fected by the processes of internationalisation. The forces of internationalisa-tion will probably create a process towards convergences and affect also the areaof vocational education and training. The workshop “Rediscovering Apprenti-ceship” focuses on the dialectic interrelation of internationalisation and locali-sation. In the European debate a crucial question is, whether the currentfragmentation will be overcome by processes of internationalisation througheconomic forces towards a European VET system.

Introduction to W13: Rediscovering Apprenticeship– an answer to learning enterprises 5

During our first inquiries on the global situation of apprenticeship training invarious countries, interesting findings emerged: A couple of countries suchdifferent as Malaysia, Oman and Italy are currently in the process of (re-)esta-blishing apprenticeship as a dominant route within their VET-systems. In othercountries there is emerging quantitative and qualitative evidence that appren-ticeship training is on the rise. Our explanation for this was formulated as anoverarching hypothesis: Apprenticeship training can prove to be a means tocope with the challenges of global competition and short innovation cycles aslong as the quality of the learning is high and the costs can be kept low.

Based on these observations the following questions came into focus:• Are there indicators for an international trend of re-establishing apprenti-

ceship?

• Do there exist findings on the relation between training quality and benefits?

• What can we learn from innovative apprenticeship-based learning models?

The workshop’s results can be a significant contribution to the debate on thefuture development of VET systems since they are of high relevance for thedebate on the internationalisation of vocational educational training and provethat value-adding and productive work-process oriented apprenticeship is re-valued, if not rediscovered.

In the international workshop „Rediscovering Apprenticeship – an answer tolearning enterprises“, the presentations from Australia and England showcasedthat dual learning can correspond with modern forms of Human Resourcesand Organizational Development. The workshop was based on empirical inves-tigations into in-company training based on a common framework developedby researchers from ITB. If the costs of in-company-training are low and thequality of learning within the work process is high, apprenticeship training isa competitive strategy attractive to companies as well as to learners. This themebecame visible throughout the presentations of the German and Austrian casestudies. The Danish presentation illustrated the variety of types of high qualitylearning within Small and Medium Enterprises – a variety, which is excludedfrom the possibility of a standardisation by bureaucratic regulation, so thatalternative forms of quality assurance and development must be found.

Learning in partnerships and networks among various enterprises proved tohave potential as an innovative form of organising learning in the workprocess.This was one of the findings of the Italian and Dutch presentations. If this wayof structuring learning experiences can be integrated into existing co-operation

6 Ines Herrmann, Philipp Grollmann, Felix Rauner

between enterprises, it becomes exceptionally powerful, as one of the Australiancases illustrated.

On the basis of this positive international cooperation within the project „Inno-vative Apprenticeship“ an international research network was founded duringthe conference. This network is coordinated by Dr. Philipp Grollmann and InesHerrmann (ITB - Institute Technology and Education at the University of Bre-men, Germany) and headed by Prof. Felix Rauner (ITB) and Prof. Erica Smith(Charles Sturt University in Wagga Wagga in Australia).

Tool for assessing innovative vocational training methods

The case studies were conducted with the support of semi-standardized interviewguidelines and in-depth interviews in order to assess the in-company trainingmethods of firms of different sizes and from different sectors. These case studiesare intended to document examples of good and excellent vocational training pro-cedures in industrial and services trades.

At the ITB a tool for assessing costs and benefits of apprenticeship has been deve-loped and validated in pre-tests: the costs of an apprenticeship per apprentice andyear consist of four major categories, which are then subdivided into individualcategories: personnel costs of the apprentice, costs of training personnel, assets andconsumables and other costs. The tool also evaluates the benefits gained from gro-wing competence and increasing productivity of apprentices during their training.This is done by comparing skills and productivity of the apprentices with those ofa skilled worker in the domain the apprentice is being trained in. Based on thisinformation, the actual costs of apprenticeship can be estimated taking into accountthe increase of competence as a dependent variable of the work process orientationof the apprenticeship training and the productivity as a measure for the extent ofbenefits through the work the apprentices carry out. Since integration into the work-process can serve different purposes, different parts of the interview guidelinecontain questions on the quality of apprenticeship. A set of eleven questions islooking directly or indirectly at the quality of learning. On-the-job training methods,responsibilities of apprentices and the quantity and quality of work-order relatedlearning are in the scope of this set of items. Different stages of apprenticeshiptraining are also covered, such as the criteria and motivations for recruitment andthe destination of learners after completion.


The analyses are conducted with the focus to gather examples of on-the-job trainingmethods with innovative potential and possible coherences of training quality andcosts or benefits respectively.

Criteria for selecting examples of innovative vocational training

In order to encourage companies to take part in apprenticeship programmes,examples of high quality, remunerative training must be widely disseminated. Forthe same reason, innovative rather than representative examples have been selected.According to our understanding, apprenticeship can be regarded as innovative

1. as long as the apprentice works in a high quality learning environment pro-viding a solid knowledge and skills basis for a successful career. And

2. as long as it is cost-effective for the company offering the apprenticeship.

The following exploratory criteria were used to select firms for the case studies:

• A good reputation within the respective sector;

• A good reputation at vocational school or college;

• At least one apprentice must be recruited per year;

• Good examination results and successful participation in competitions;

• Vocational training is of great importance to both management and colleagues;

• Apprentices are regarded and treated as colleagues within the firm;

• The share of apprentices is sustainable compared to the reproductive needs oflabour force in the respective sector

• A high proportion of the on-the-job training is spent on learning-intensive andvalue-producing work.

The individual criteria proofed to be of different importance within different sectors.However, companies that meet a high amount of these requirements can be regar-ded as having examples of good and excellent training methods. Case studies cananalyze the more specific traits of the training and determine the benefits for thefirm and the advantages for apprentices. Based on this analysis, firms can alsodetermine how they might be able to improve their training methods. The docu-mentation of good and excellent training methods is aimed at encouraging com-panies to copy examples, improving their own methods accordingly and stimulatinginnovation.

8 Ines Herrmann, Philipp Grollmann, Felix Rauner

Please use only the given formatting. Since a content-management-system is usedfor the documentation of the conference it might happen that other formatting islost during the transfer of texts.


Apprenticeship Training in Italian

Regions – Progress and Challenges

Elmo De Angelis, Ludger Deitmer

The role of apprenticeship in the educational system

In Italy, the educational system is centralized and depends on the Department ofEducation, while the organization of vocational training depends on the Regionsand is coordinated by the Ministry of Labour and Welfare. After a long static period,during which Primary and Secondary school had the duration of 5+3+5 years, in theyear 2000, the Minister of Education, Luigi Berlinguer, carried out a school reform,providing for 7+5 years of school (deducting one year). The present Minister LauraMoratti, in 2002, retracted this reform and brought back the years to 5+3+5. Tounderstand what is now happening in Italy, it is necessary to recall both the previouseducational organization (which is still effective) and Moratti’s reform. Consideringthe UNESCO International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED,1997), theprevious educational organization provided for a compulsory education of 8 yearsdivided into 5 years of Primary school (ISCED Level 1) and 3 years of Secondaryschool of the first cycle (ISCED Level 2). The second cycle of Secondary School(ISCED Level 3), leading to a diploma, was formed by 5 years. It was possible toobtain this certification through high schools (gymnasium), Technical Schools orVocational Schools if, after completing the first 3 years (and obtaining a qualifica-tion), they were followed by 2 years of specialization. Unlike the other Europeaneducational systems, the possibility to obtain vocational specializations (for exam-ple, after completing the 5-year studies in Industrial Technical Schools or inIndustrial Vocational Schools, it is possible to obtain a specialization in electronics,mechanics, Information Technologies, etc.) characterized the Italian educational(but not vocational training) system.

10 Elmo De Angelis, Ludger Deitmer

Moreover, it must be considered that any sort of 5-year diploma allowed enrollingto any kind of University. Moratti’s educational reform, which was approved onFebruary 2002 with an Act issued by the Government under parliamentary dele-gation, provides for a cycle of Primary school of 5 years and a first cycle of Secondaryschool of 3 years, exactly like the preceding one. With respect to the previous schoolrules, this brings in a change in the enrolment age (now it is possible to enrol achild at the age of 5 years and a half, while before the enrolment was at 6 years old)as well as the introduction of the first foreign language into Primary school and oftwo foreign languages in the first cycle of Secondary school. Moreover, with refe-rence to the previous legislation, the exam at the end of the Primary school isabolished, while the one at the end of the middle school (ISCED Level 2) remainsand represents the completion of compulsory education. If compulsory educationremains fixed at the end of the middle school, compulsory training is at 18 yearsold. This obligation can be satisfied in two different ways, following the second cycleof the Secondary school, which is still of 5 years but with an internal reorganization.After compulsory education, students pursuing their studies have to choose bet-ween two options: a) a high school path of 5 years, divided into eight specializations(classics, artistic, economics, linguistic, scientific, technological, musical, beha-vioural science), including the previous “gymnasium” and Technical Schools, butnot the Vocational Schools; b) a vocational training path of 4 years that can be per-formed also through the new apprenticeship. After these 4 years, with another year,it is possible to obtain a diploma of Higher Technical Education or to re-enter thehigh school path leading to the Secondary school-leaving examinations. Therefore,compulsory education can be discharged also through the apprenticeship path thatbecomes a very important direction in educational strategies. The existence of thetwo above-mentioned paths (a) and (b) implies a change in the respective nationalstructures. Path (a) is under the Department of Education’s control, while path (b)is supervised by the Ministry of Labour and the Regions and, according to Moratti’sLaw of 2002, the Vocational Schools that are currently under the Department ofEducation “should” be transferred to the Regions’ supervision.

The apprenticeship (and also the enhancement of on-the-job trainings) to whichMoratti’s Law of 2002 refers, is the new apprenticeship defined by Law 196 of 1997(the so-called Treu Law). Before promulgating this law, the apprenticeship contract(or training contract) provided only for training within the enterprise at theemployer’s discretion and, therefore, in fact, the apprenticeship contract (or trainingcontract) could be regulated also for jobs in which nothing was learned. As a matterof fact, these two contracts were mainly considered as employment incentives, allo-wing the enterprises to underpay the apprentice and to discharge him/her after aprobation period.

Apprenticeship Training in Italian Regions – Pro-gress and Challenges 11

With Law 196 of 1997, for the first time, in Italy, an apprenticeship contract provi-ding for work-based learning is established and training strategies begin cominginto prominence.

The apprenticeship reform

The apprenticeship system was regulated for the first time, in Italy, in 1995, by Law25.

This law belongs to a historical context characterized by a high unemployment rateand a low level of scholastic education. As a consequence, apprenticeship repre-sented an inducement to the employment of young people, especially those whoachieved only the lowest levels of education, in order to give them the opportunityto get a vocational qualification through work.

Nevertheless, this law proved to be no longer suitable for:

• the new business models that had developed according to more complex needsof the market system;

• the new education models, concerning education and training, that had becomemore complex in their objectives and methods of implementation and integra-tion with the work system, in accordance with the statements of the EuropeanUnion guidelines, in respect of the education’s and labour market’s subjects.

For the first time, in Italy, art. 16 of Law 196/97, allows the introduction of anapprenticeship contract providing for an alternation training between work andtraining, in mutual integration, aiming at cooperating in the completion of voca-tional and personal growth of young workers. This law amends some aspects of theabove-mentioned law, though leaving its structure unchanged, within the frame-work of the global reform of the labour market. The compulsory feature of trainingwas given a special importance, through the introduction of a sanction on enter-prises, in case of non-training activity for the apprentice.

The reform of apprenticeship represents one of the main innovations introducedwithin the active labour policies, and the essential transformation was the transitionfrom a simple relief form for the enterprises to a new training laboratory for app-rentices and the enterprise system itself. For the former, the off-the-job trainingrepresents a concrete opportunity to offer themselves to the market, also outsidethe enterprise; the enterprises have the opportunity to valorise their training func-


tion by formalizing tasks and roles of delegated business people and orientatingthis function to the specific business needs.

Through this reform, apprenticeship proved to be one of the most important insti-tutes of work promotion for the Government employment strategies, consideringit as a strategic tool for the work placement of young people not having a basicprofessionalism, as an opportunity to start, also in Italy, policies of flexibility andadaptability of labour market, in accordance with the similar pillar of EC strategiesfor employment.

It is also the opportunity to revive the subject of training in the enterprise, in thestronger and stronger perspective of continuous training as a stimulus of employ-ment and considering apprenticeship as a tool to access long-life learning.

Apprenticeship organizations and legislation

Apprenticeship depends on the Ministry of Labour and Welfare that makes use ofISFOL (Institute for the Development of Vocational Training of Workers), as astructure of technical assistance for research, assessment and monitoring of voca-tional training. The Italian apprenticeship, defined by Law 196 of 1997, is the resultof an action promoted by the Ministry of Labour, in order to favour a new organi-zation of vocational training through agreements among social parties, with theactive participation of the Regions (indeed, in 1996, a national Committee of mutualagreement for the vocational training policies was created within the Ministry ofLabour for the reformation of legislation concerning vocational training). Theagreements between social parties and the Government as to the vocational traininghave been very significant for the definition of new apprenticeship and, generally,for the organization of the continuous training as a whole, in Italy. The conventionprotocol among trade unions, employers’ associations and the Government, of July1993, on “Incomes and employment policies, on contractual systems, on labourpolicies and on the support of productive system” was particularly important. Theresult of this agreement has been the creation of a permanent structure among thesocial parties called Bilateral Institution, formed by entrepreneurial associationsand by trade unions of a series of categories. These bilateral institutions participatein the definition of the rules concerning the different apprenticeship contracts anddeal with their organization and monitoring in the different regions.

The increasing importance of the Coordination among Regions must be added tothese social parties’ agreements.


As to the practices, the Ministerial Order 142 of March 1998 regulates the appren-ticeships provided for by Law 196 of 1997, dividing them into two main types:

a) educational training aiming at giving the apprentice a better vocational back-ground;

b) guidance training to favour the vocational choices.

These new regulations provide that the following organizations may promote app-renticeship activities:

a) employment Agencies;

b) Universities and public or independent university institutes certified for theissue of academic qualifications;

c) Local Education Authorities;

d) public and independent educational institutions carrying out legal certificates;

e) public vocational training Centres or operating in agreement with Regions orDistricts;

f) therapeutic communities;

g) placement services for people with disabilities in the work environment;

h) non-profit private training institutions.

Apprenticeship duration provides for the following limits: a) no more then 4months for Secondary school’s students; b) no more than 6 months for unemployedworkers or that are registered in mobility lists; c) no more than 6 months for voca-tional training courses’ and vocational schools’ students; d) no more than 12 monthsfor university students; e) no more than 12 months for underprivileged categories;f) no more than 24 months for disabled people.

The main weakness of this legislation is that, for many institutions, apprenticeshippaths are “provided for”, but not “compulsorily included in the training path”. Asa consequence, in certain Secondary schools they are implemented and in othersthey are not, and the same thing occurs in vocational training Centres or in employ-ment Agencies.


Recently, Law 30 of February 14, 2003 “Delegation to Government on the subjectof employment and labour market” and the relative Law Decree 276 of September10, 2003, “Implementation of delegations on the subject of employment and labourmarket”, have made further alterations to the apprenticeship institution, includingit within the European strategy for employment concerning life long learning.

This law sets the apprenticeship contract according to the following typologies:

a) apprenticeship contract for the fulfilment of education and training right/obligation;

b) professionalizing apprenticeship contract to get a qualification through an on-the-job training and a technical-vocational learning;

c) apprenticeship contract to get a qualification or for high-training pathways

Target groups

The new apprenticeship path is open to all young people aged between 16-24, withthe maximum limit of 26 years old for people with disabilities. Moreover, theselimits (16-24 years old) are extended to the areas included in Objectives 1 and 2 ofthe European Social Fund (that is to say the Southern areas and the areas industriallydeclined). The age limits of 16-29 are provided for particular highly specializedsubjects in craft enterprises, requiring a longer apprenticeship period.

As to the age limits defined by Law Decree 276/03, they are the following ones:

• minimum age for the first typology of contract: 15 years old;

• for the second and third typology of contract, from 18 to 29 years old (for peopleaiming at a vocational qualification, the minimum age is 17 years old).

Young people can access apprenticeship if they have completed their compulsoryeducation, with any kind of certificate, but those who are in compulsory educationhave a longer period of off-the-job training (from 120 up to 240 hours).


Enterprises’ and apprenticeship contract’s features

All enterprise categories (included the rural sector) participate in the new appren-ticeship system, and the various Bilateral Institutions of industrial, craft andservices categories (engineering, textiles, tourism, etc.) have defined some agree-ment protocols on apprenticeship. These agreements accept the global strategy ofapprenticeship Contract, that is to say workbased learning with an on-the-job trai-ning plan and 120 hours of off-the-job training, in a vocational training centre.

The enterprise tutor is a figure that was established by art. 16 of Law 196/97 andhis/her requirements are defined by Ministerial Decree of February 28, 2000. It isa central figure in the apprenticeship system since he/she is responsible for busi-ness training path and for the link between on-the-job and off-the-job training.Therefore, when an apprentice is recruited, the enterprise formally identifies theperson who will have to perform this task and will play the role of guide and facili-tator of apprentice’s integration and learning path, during the apprenticeshipcontract.

The Regions, in concert with the employers’ and workers’ associations, can organizespecific training activities for company tutors, for a minimum of 8 hours, eventhough currently, in the Italian scenery, the implemented interventions of this kindare really limited. It is also established that each company tutor can guide up to fiveapprentices at the most.

The Ministerial Order of February 2000 defined the business tutor’s requirements.First of all, he/she has to learn to do his/her task as best as he/she can (throughspecific regional training paths for business tutors) and, then, to transfer his/herskills and competences. The Law 196 of 1997 provides for chances of pay increasefor these tutors. Once the apprentice’s employment is defined, employers must givenotice of it within 30 days. The enterprise must ascertain the skills the apprenticeshave developed during the apprenticeship period.

Apprenticeship’s duration, educational organization andcertification

The apprenticeship contract runs for a minimum of 18 months up to a maximumof 4 years. The Law Decree 276/03 provides for: a minimum term of 3 years for thefirst typology of contract; a minimum term of 2 years and a maximum term of 6years for the second typology; the Regions will establish the term of the third typo-logy.


The 120 off-the-job training hours take place in the vocational Centres establishedin category agreements (they are centres approved by social parties) and during thisperiod, both general subjects (organization and economics, industrial safety, rela-tions between employer and employee, relationship competencies, InformationTechnologies, English language), and more specializing subjects are dealt with. Theapprenticeship path, in Italy, leads to a “credit” that can be spent in the upper inte-grated training and in the second cycle of the Secondary school. The duration (120hours) can be extended according to the apprenticeship contract established in thedifferent categories by social parties (for example, the apprenticeship path in theengineering sector requires 200 hours: 160 of general subjects and 40 more spe-cializing hours).

Apprenticeship Training

The importance of the decree lays on the availability for enterprises to choose bet-ween external training for apprentices or in-house training, becoming real “learningsetting” for initial and continuing training, since internal training must have a“formal” character too. This device allows to narrow the differences in investmenton training between big firms and SMEs, since it gives value to those learningactivities, more strictly connected with the productive environment.

On the other side, it is very important to stress that for “thousand enterprises, trai-ning for apprentices has been the first occasion to contact the 'training world'.Where the (external) training centre involved the enterprises in training methodo-logies and practices for apprentices, enterprises' satisfaction to training activitieshighly grew” (Confindustria, 2004).

Within work experience in enterprise, it is possible for individuals to acquire know-ledge, skills and competences – in formal and informal ways – directly able:

• to fill gaps of education of different levels (primary, secondary, even tertiary)with reference to single enterprises' needs for a rapid insertion of young peoplein the labour world;

• to deepen and specialise workforce competences with respect to the differentbusiness functions, areas and sectors;

• to secure business competitiveness by the means of the continuous updatingand development of the human resources;

• to continuously create new knowledge for process and products innovation.


One of the most important challenges for the devices of D.L. 276/03 about trainingin apprenticeship is defining criteria, models and procedures to create a real “lear-ning environment” in enterprises and to develop formal training in businesscontexts, growing its learning and training value.

Sectors of Apprenticeship

For the definition of training profiles of the contract, it is committed to a necessaryagreement among social Parties. This expectation seems to be warranted by theinfluence that European Community orientations exerted on the whole reform oflabour market that Law no. 30/2003 brought. It seems interesting to specify that ateam of experts took measures to elaborate training profiles for metal and enginee-ring, building, services/tourism and textile sectors. Building sector was the fore-runner of this stance, then confirmed by the Department of Labour and SocialPolicies by the above-mentioned circular. An agreement signed on May 31, 2005,establishes the training profiles applied to professionalizing articles of apprenti-ceship exactly through the reference to profiles prearranged by ISFOL, thus makingthe contract immediately effective for enterprises that apply the National contract.

The definition of the standards for the achievement of competences and trainingprofiles is left to the Regions in agreement with entrepreneur's associations andsocial partners. The apprenticeship path leads to “credits” which can than be spentin VET and second cycle of Secondary school – Rule n. 30/2005 and Rule n.40/2005.

Another novelty of new apprenticeship is represented by the citizen training port-folio, a worker’s personal document where to record skills acquired by the personnot only during training in apprenticeship, but also during training in work place-ment contract, technical training and lifelong training carried out during workinglife and performed by subjects accredited by the Regions, as well as skills acquiredin non formal and informal way, according to the European Union guidelines onthe subject of permanent learning, provided that they are acknowledged and certi-ficated.

The portfolio has been concretely activated only recently through ministerial Decreepromulgated in agreement with the Department of Labour and Social Policies andthe Department for Education, University and Research.

The activity for the definition of the training Portfolio started one year ago, with theAgreement ended on October 28, 2004 between the Department for Education,


University and Research, the Department of Labour and Social Policies, Regions,the independent provinces of Trento and Bolzano, Provinces, Communes andmountain Communities, for the final and intermediate certification, as well as forthe acknowledgement of training credits. On this occasion, a technical work Boardwas created. It was formed by representatives of the signatories of the Agreement,as well as by representatives of social Parties and Isfol, as an organization of tech-nical support, in order to identify the constitutive elements of the training Portfolio.In the definition of this tool, the technical Board considered both the typical issuesof the Italian system – in particular, the absence of a shared reference frameworkat national level identifying the minimum standards in validation and acknowled-gement processes of skills acquired in various contexts – and the European Com-munity indications on the subject of transparency of qualifications and titles. Witha special reference to these last indications, a particular influence was exerted bythe Resolution of the European Parliament and of the Council no. 2241/2004/CEthat provides for the institution, at EC level, of a “unique framework” for the trans-parency of qualifications and skills defined as “Europass”.

Analysis of three case studies carried out in Italy

name of the contact person(s): LATTANZI GABRIELE; date of interview: 20.05.05

function/ position/ title of the interviewed person(s): TUTOR

name and contact details of the company: ACCADEMIA SRL

address: VIA DELLE INDUSTRIE – SANT’IPPOLITO

phone number: 0721/728502 – 728627 – FAX 728596; e-mail: [email protected]

homepage:

Abb. 1 TEXTILE PRODUCTION COMPANY: ACCADEMIA SRL

Company Profile and setting up their internal apprenticeship system

This company, located in Sant’Ippolito produces high quality textiles as a local sup-plier for a bigger fashion company: Arcadia from Fossombrone. Accademia wasfounded in 2001. The company has been around for 3-3.5 years. Company portfolioentails the service for the production of clothing prototypes, pattern construction,


cutting as well as producing the required goods. This includes also purchase of theclothing material as well as shipping the textile products directly to the end custo-mer. They are responsible for the entire production cycle. In the modest sense mostemployees are semiskilled, but they have 2 or 3 technical employees. These peoplemake the prototypes. But due to the service function they all work on a certain levelof difficulty, not on an assembly line like in the traditional clothing industry, whereeverybody does his own little piece of work. Mr Lattanzi trainer and manager atAccademia summarizes: “They are able to do everything from A to Z in the clothingarea, whatever is required”.

Out of the 15 employees the company started to employ two apprentices under thenew apprenticeship arrangements set up by the regional government. ApprenticeNo. 1 is working in the area of pattern construction and in the cutting process.Cutting process is steered by an pattern construction system which delivers thelayout specifications for the cut of the garments. Apprentices No. 2 is working inthe stock department. He organises the shipping of the textiles to the customers.Lattanzi explains where and what the apprentice are integrated into certain parts ofthe production:

“One of them works in cutting. That is automated here, and 2 people work there.One of them has been with us for a while, since we bought the cutting machine(s),and now we have put our trainee under his supervision, so that he can learn stepby step what his colleague does. And I think the trainee is by now already very wellprepared for his job. Over the past 2 years, our workload has increased, so the workin the warehouse has correspondingly also increased. This youngster works closelywith the person responsible for the warehouse in Fossombrone. The finished gar-ments are taken there and then allocated to the various final customers – the shops.That’s because we also perform this part of the work for Arcadia. In other words,this trainee practically prepares the shipping”.

They see company training as a concept; this is explained by Lattanzi as follows:“….. Apprentices work together with the people who already do this work – e.g. oneis the second person responsible for cutting, the other is the second person respon-sible for the warehouse. Because along with the improvement of the work, or alsoof a method, we provide these trainees with people who can help them to growvocationally, to do what they can already do even better, with the help of old hands,if I may call them that.”


Motivation for joining the new regional apprenticeship system

The reason for joining the new local apprenticeship system is that in key elementsof the company’s production they seek to train the employees more directly to theirrequirements. From the local labour market is difficult to find persons which arequalified according to the needs of the company especially when it comes to voca-tional function like pattern construction or textile production. By employing theapprentices they can develop these persons better for the specific production needs.Trained apprentices can do things more flexible and they receive better insight intotextile production than others directly picked from the labour market. ThereforeMr. Lattanzi expresses that they want to develop the human resources in the com-pany. Training is seen as long term investment, in a longer run and not done tomeet short term requirements.

Process for finding and acquisition of apprentices

They are having interviews with 20 people and from this they select the right personand which brings the best personal competences. The employment of apprentice’sis not based mainly on economic arguments. They are looking for people who havea strong motivation to develop in the company. Lattanzi points this out: “In theinterviews (with the students applying for apprentice) we had the impression thatthese people should have a certain personality, so that, when this personality deve-lops here within the company, they may be able to accomplish certain processes aswe would like better than people who are already finished with their training.Actually, you can’t do much more than make sure that a new trainee is at leastreasonably bright and willing.”

The motivation for apprentice training by the company is that they think those onestrained in the company can fulfil the work requirements better than others. Com-mitment is most important for apprentice character and competencies, this expres-ses Lattanzi as follows: “After all, if somebody appears noncommittal even at thestart, then we needlessly waste time training him, because he actually has otherideas.”

The training process in the company

Apprentices get under the auspice of a trainer. A trainer is an experienced employeewith a long year working experience with is able and willing to train the apprenticeand introduce him into the working field he is dedicated for. Lattanzi explains the


core learning at the workplace process as follows: “That is the core part of trainingin which supervision of the trainee by responsible, or rather experienced employeeswith years of practical experience takes place. After all, these people know the wholebusiness process very well, not only their own work. And anybody who wants to getahead looks up to them and achieves at least their level of qualification or even ahigher level.”

The apprentice gets also an overlook about the full production process and all thespecific parts of the company. He is trained for a specific field like cutting or logi-stics, but nevertheless the company seeks to get him trained also in other workingtask. This entry qualification my help the apprenticeship to get a better understan-ding for the work flow process. They look after a specific openness of the apprenticeto engage also in other production functions. Lattanzi gives details to the placementof the apprentices: “…. the trainee knows how the production cycle works, but hedoes not participate actively in it. He sticks to the specific work stages that concernhis area. That is usual with our employees. Even though they know how the entireproduction cycle works, even they do not participate in the other stages, but are onlyinvolved in the one specific area”.

External education:

They want to see more specific training for developing the vocational competenciesof the trainees; like e.g. CAD courses for tailors. But language training is regardedas an important element of the external course programme. Lattanzi sees the dif-ficulties for specific vocational training in something like CAD courses in which hesays: “Well, I think for our company there is no question of a CAD course for cutting.That’s because it would be inconceivable that you could learn something betterexternally than what we do internally. So a CAD course might be something for 2or 3 participants from the other courses, but only one from our company.” Lattanziwants the external support in certain qualities but still he thinks that the core ele-ment for apprenticeship is the work process leaning in the company: “Well,considering what our trainees do, you (in addressing it to the external supportingtraining centres) could do lots of things to give them an overview I mean in fabrics,dyeing, spinning, but basically those are specific activities that both do, and espe-cially one of them does. That’s why I think it’s difficult to teach them these specificprofessional skills externally”.

All in all: They are quite happy with the programme offered by the local government.But they think that the external support could be improved into the vocationaldirection.


date of the first interview: 20.05.2005

name of the contact person(s): ANTOGNONI ANGELO


name and contact details of the company: FANO IMPIANTI SRL

address: VIA UGO LA MALFA 7/B – BELLOCCHI DI FANO

phone number: 0721/855039 – 855282 – 855037

e-mail: [email protected]

Abb. 2 HVAC COMPANY: FANO IMPIANTI

Company profile and market situation

“Fano Impianti” is a medium sized company which works in the field of installationand maintenance of HVAC1 ; as well as in plumbing and in related building works.They are specialised for mediums sized buildings with specific supply functionslike hospitals (operation rooms and intense case stations; complex office buildingsetc.). Angelo faces a lot of innovation in the sector and this forces him to specialisecertain functions in his company: “…in the installation area, the trend is definitelytoward specialisation – for instance I have 2 employees who mainly produce medicalgases – operating theatres, intensive care wards, we travel all round Italy to delivermedical gases, which is a specialisation. Especially now, with the new safety regu-lations. It’s similar in the bathroom and heating installation area – there is theoption of professional development in all types of training as long as the person iswilling”.

The company has grown by a recent merger from two local companies with nowup to 40 year business and market experience. We talked with the technical director,here Mr Angelo who also has been engaged in an official position in this profes-sional field. He was president of this craft association CNA2 .

1 HVAC= heating; ventilation and air condition.

2 CNA: Confederazione Nazionale dell’Artigianato e della Piccola e Media Impresa which tranlates for the

national association of the craft trade. The CNA training centre is TECNO QUALITY SRL, and offers courses

and certifications in fields like security, quality management and environment.


50 % of their customers are public and another 50 % are private. They act most thetime local but spread out their business up to the whole of the North of Italy (Milano,La Spezia, Venice etc.).

They employ around 40 people. Most of them are 30 % skilled workers (formalcertificate), 40 % workers with no certificate but trained through the internal infor-mal in-company training and another 30 % apprentices who don’t take part in theexternal new apprentice model. At the moment they employ recently two appren-tices which both take part in the new apprenticeship programme.

VET system in Italy and difficulties to find skilled workers in the field ofHVAC and missing of an institutional backing from IAGs3

Mr. Angelo is complaining that he is missing an strong external supported app-renticeship system (by the associations as well as by the vocational colleges) in Italy.“Yes, I’ll speak here perfectly openly, without hiding anything, because I reallybelieve in this, really, in view of the fact that the sector (profession) is right now ata complete standstill”. Because of pressure on the market (prizes, time and quality)the informal company apprenticeship system couldn’t develop and grow as needed.Angelo makes clear his position on the Italian VET system in special addresses tothe craft trade: “Vocational training in Italy is limited to an unbelievable extent.Because there are no schools, practically nothing at all, the companies do not havethe time to train staff. So the training options are decreasing”.

He complained about the long time needed for the in-company apprentice training,he speaks of 10 years to qualify an employee. “Before we reap the benefits of trai-ning, 10 years have gone by. Mind you, I’m talking about the benefits here! Up to28 years of age”

This is due to the fact that he is missing effective external support by the associationstraining centre and of other sources. He picked his two apprentices from the insti-tute Benelli4 . But he thinks that the full-time courses at Benelli is not qualifyingthe young people strong enough. These course don not provide the vocational skillsneeded.

Angelo is also criticising the institutional backing from the professional associati-ons or other stakeholders. He doesn’t believe anymore in these institutions after

3 IAG = Industrial Associations and Groupings

4 „Scuole professionali“, state vocational training centre, http://www.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de/~apaedagogik/

feesvl04/Bildungssysteme/Italien.htm


experiencing this for many years. These organisations are not in the position toovercome the weaknesses of the current structural deficits in regard to the Italianinfrastructure: “I see it very critically, because I believe passionately in the enterpriseItaly, but I don’t believe any more in any of the institutions that are close to us. Idon’t believe in any institutions any more. And I’m very sorry about it – believe me– because the crafts and trades in Italy have a huge potential, but they must achievea “cultural leap”, a big “cultural leap”, which the authorities are preventing themfrom doing – they are preventing them, you see?

The in-company training is a long the lines of the work orders they receive. Theapprentices learn to prepare the material, the preparation of the building site, thework on the building site until the final examination of the work done includingthe necessary certifications.

Process for finding and acquisition of apprentices

Good School notes are not the crucial argument for him to select the right youngpeople for the company and the profession. He explains this as follows: “I am amember of the personnel recruitment commission of a cooperative association, andI have rejected both those with 36 5 and those with 60. The 36 candidates becausethat is simply unsatisfactory, but still I had a good look at them, and with the 60-point candidates I was always sceptical, because if somebody learns for learning’ssake in school, he is not suitable for the world of work. Simply not suitable. If hehas talents, well yes of course – but if I have to choose a trainee, I prefer the onewith 36 points to the one with 60. This means that he prefers pupils with a stronginterest in the professional field – even when they just have modest school notes.The employability is tested in a six month testing period. Because he thinks that itis difficult tot see from an interview whether someone is suitable for his trade. Hiskey question he poses to applicants: Do you have a problem to go on travel onMonday morning and come back by Friday evening? When entry persons are limi-ted on their mobility he won’t employ them. “ …in other words, I never take anybodyon – however good he is – who has problems with mobility”.

Most people employed come from Fano and the local environment because due tohigh costs for living. Most apprentices have to stay still at their parent’s home to geta living. The app receives rather high payment of 850 Euros. They are no social taxeson the apprentice for the company. Social taxes for workers are normally around40 % and the net payment is around a 1000 Euros.

5 Points system in exams from 1 – 60, with 60 the best mark.


External VET: Vocational training and education offered by the localTraining centres

Mr Angelo is not at all happy with the quality and time duration of the coursesoffered by the external training centres. The courses should outline more specificfor the specific vocation they are trained for. He wants much more technical trainingin specific subject related lessons. The English training with 15 hours is too smallto get the apprentices qualified in technical English and in the subject field. This issummarized in the following expression by Mr. Angelo: So I would find it very goodif these courses, I mean those for the trainees, if they were less theoretical and morepractical. More technical. What I mean is, they (the apprentices) should be gearedto the specialist learning for which I send the trainee there (to the external courses).It is OK by me if they learn English, but I know for a fact that 15 hours of Englishdo not help a trainee at all …. The 20 hrs CAD is not long enough. He speaks of1200 hrs to learn the full use of a CAD system in HVAC field. He wants the courseoffers made by the local training providers done more specific to the professionalbranch. He wants at least the 120 hrs (per anno) directed to the HVAC and sanitaryand heating field. The 24 hours for the specific sector is not strong enough to trainthe specific skills needed for the profession. He expresses this as follows: “What Imean is: It would be better if these external courses were more specific. The traineesshould have at least 120 hours to learn the subject, in which the young people canlearn in such a way that this part of the training is really useful”.


date of the first interview: 20.05. 2005

date of the second appointment:

name of the contact person(s): GABELLINI FRANCESCO and Mr Bonelli


apprenticeship organised as workplace learning partnership No Yes

name and contact details of the company: M.C.E. SRL

address: VIA S. ANDREA IN CORONA, 1 ZONA MISTO ART. BOLCIANO – MERCATELLO SUL

METAURO

phone number: 0722/89321 – 0722/89771

e-mail: [email protected]

homepage: www.mce.anker.it

Abb. 3 M.C.E: PRODUCTION OF ELECTRONIC DEVICES

Profile of the Company

The Company is a high tech company in the electronic branch and is as memberof a group of interrelated companies; all in all seven companies. They are all locatedin the region of Marche. The company exists since 1986, the company group since1999.

M.C.E makes electronic appliances for domestic and industrial use, medical app-liances and also provides services to third parties by planning, assembly, technicaltesting of tailor made electronic devices. The products manufactured are sold underthe brand name “Anker” via the company’s own distribution network.

We talked with two mangers: Mr Gabellini and Mr Bonelli. Bonelli is one of thefounders of the company and can be regarded as the general manager. He is alsotrained as trainer and is also the quality assurance manager in this company. Mr.Bonelli, looks also after customer contacts. Mr. Gabellini works since 20 years inthe company and joined as an apprentice. He is a technical tester and supports theAnker distribution network in technical aspects. Altogether there are 7 partners inthis rather small company. The company employs all in all 30 people.


Human resource development is quite explicitly undertaken; both managers impo-se several times their company mission on this: “In this respect our company ismuch more advanced than most. We have a person responsible for safety, there areregular meetings, we talk to our employees all the time, and we have certain fixedprocedures, you see. So we are very keen on this aspect, because for us our employ-ees are human resources”.

Until recent times the company has an in house apprenticeship system. The trai-ning processes take part at the different work places/departments as an on the jobtraining and additionally to that have an in company formal training. “Until recentlythere were in-house training courses. In terms of subject matter and content theywere geared to the function the employee would later perform. The newly recruitedemployees were correspondingly supported and instructed”.

Every new apprentice is supported by a dedicated trainer which is an experiencedperson with several years of working practise. BONELLI also refers to this internalapprenticeship system which is based on rather long training periods: “So far, voca-tional training was only carried out by the companies, and the trainee had to betrained under the constant supervision of the company owner or a skilled workeror the like over a certain period (4.5-5 years), before he was fully capable in his job.So it was more a question of time”.

They select the person from the little town the company is placed in. They look forthe young persons which could fit into their company and pick them up to get themtrained by this in-house personal development approach. Because of the fact thatthey know all citizens of Mercatello sul Metauro they can have an eye of youngperson which could fit into their company. Gabellini: ….Everybody who works herecomes from the town – we know practically all the people who live here, and basedon these acquaintances we select the people we are interested in.

It is also the case that young people get interested in the company and ask for anapprenticeship. At the moment the company is due to more difficult market situa-tion not in a situation of hiring more apprentices. They just educate as muchapprentices they can employ. After the apprentice time most people stay in thecompany and only in rare cases persons leave the company. Beside school notesthey see the motivation of the young employee as a high factor for acquisition.

Gabellini explains that they find it very difficult to employ people who are trainedcompletely so in every case they start with their personal development plan. Theytried to find such ready trained persons but in only one rare case they were able to


find such a person. It can be said that in most cases they couldn’t find the peoplewhich could meet their specific requirements.

GABELLINI: “So, at least up to the present day, we have never found an employeewho was already trained for the specific work required in our industry. We havetried to find these people in various companies in the electronics industry, but ulti-mately we always found that the skills for this special work were not available, inother words, the previous training did not meet our demands”.

The company has structured his in-house on the job training based on their QASSystem that means all work task are well defined and documented. These docu-ments form also the element for the training instructions for the trainees orapprentices. This is explained by the Training manager Mr.BONELLI in such a way:“We organise that internally. With regard to quality, we keep a file on each trainee.It details the duration of training, the type of work carried out, and after the end ofthe contractual training time there is a kind of test and a corresponding report,written by the person responsible for the training, on whether the trainee has achie-ved a positive or negative result. So we certify whether the trainee is sufficientlycapable of performing his work or not. This also happens in the same way for wor-kers at the end of the contract”.

The QAS approach is used also to control the quality of the training during the timethe trainee is in this transformation process from a person which is not very qua-lified. This Quality check on training is done as Bonelli explains: “Yes, well we don’tgenerally train our trainees to run a factory, but show them within the specific areasof work in our company – also using written material – how to e.g. assemble a certaincomponent, how to weld etc. – and there are several of these vocational areas in thecompany. Components, electrostatic charges, both are very important in electro-nics.

I am the person in the company responsible for in-house qualification, because Iam the Quality Manager and have taken the relevant certification courses in Seni-gallia, so when it comes to staff training and training conditions, I attended thesecourses for about 1.5 years.”

Nowadays they also take part in the new apprenticeship offered by the regionalgovernment. At the moment they have 5 apprentices which work in the differentparts of the company. But the company sees the new model rather critical about thenew law because it is not fitting with their requirements in which Bonelli says: “Noweverybody’s talking about this idea of “regulated vocational training” – which interms of professionalism is pretty unimportant to us. In fact, economically it is more


of a great loss for us. That’s because the trainees do not really learn about their work,but about the safety norms. Of course that’s important as well. But taking profes-sional aspects into account, we still have to carry out our training, make traineesfamiliar with the work, and qualify them. Of course the “Biagi Law” gives traineesa different sense of responsibility when it comes to regulations. The idea is that youcan’t leave everything to the companies, because they cannot always be right up todate about the regulations”.

Summary on the three case studies

• Most companies have already introduced an internal apprenticeship trainingsystem which is based on an individual contract between trainee and trainingcompany

• This makes apprentice training duration rather long: electronic company up to5 years: HVAC company even up to 10 years.

• Companies miss effective external support on their activities concerning trai-ning. Outside support both from the regional governments as well from theIAGs is regarded as weak

• The new apprentice system models supported by the governments is regardedin the following aspects as weak: missing strong professional orientation theythink that the hours devoted to the vocational side are to little and think that atleast the full amount of the 120 h, external training should go to this side tospecific subject training.

• The current support is not useful for the companies in the extreme it weakensthe still practised internal apprenticeships.

• They see rather high extra costs in respect to loss of production time and lossin labour hours by these 120 h they get externally from the state

• In one case the in company training plans are developed as side product fromthe definitions made on behalf of their QAS System

• Companies recruit their personal most of the time from the local communitiesthey are placed in

• Training is done by appointing the apprentice to the a trainer or mentor

• In the craft trade this training is oriented to the order processing

• Training principle is in clear congruence with the four step method: prepara-tion, viewing the master; action and assessment of work done

• Problems of missing occupational standards or competence standards in somesectors.


• Every company is working highly isolated in this while support from the asso-ciations doesn’t overcome this problem

The Italian apprentice system exists more likely as a ‘grown-up employment’ ins-tead of a ‘skilled occupation’. The target of the training process follows an ‘organi-sational picture’ set up by the functions of the individual firm. In this respect theso to say informal in-house apprenticeship system works effectively. What mightbe missing are general occupational standards (like in the German system). Thesehave to be governed by state statutes and would allow removing them significantfrom the limitations and functionalisation of the individual firms.

What is missing so far are state-standardised ‘skilled occupations’ set up as a qua-lification framework. This could deliver for more standards on vocational trainingcourse which would allow describing the quantity and quality of the acquired skillsand knowledge. Also the validation through intermediate and final examinations ismissing.

References

Regional Agency for Employment in the Marche region (2004): Armal Focus nr.6, January 2004.Il punto su economia e lavoro, un quadro d’insieme: http://www.armal.marche.it.

Consorzio Formazione & Lavoro – VET Centre Emilia Romagna: Three years of activity in thefield of training for apprenticeship edited by Edoardino Cavalletto, Bologna: http://www.apprendistato.org.

Projcet Leonardo Da Vinci “Dream Job”: Analysis of apprenticeship system – Coordination by:Maria Elena Romani/Andrea D’amore; http://www.dream-job.org/.

Confartigianato (2003): I Quaderni di impresa artigiana, Le imprese artigiane tra tradizione einnovazione, Roma; http://www.confartigianato.it.

Isfol (2003): Manuale per il tutor aziendale.

Isfol (2004): rapporto; http://www.isfol.it.

Isfol: La regolamentazione regionale sull’apprendistato professionalizzante:stato di avanza-mento; http://www.isfol.it.


http://www.armal.marche.it/

http://www.apprendistato.org/

http://www.apprendistato.org/

http://www.dream-job.org/

http://www.confartigianato.it/

http://www.isfol.it/

http://www.isfol.it/

Isfol (2004): Rapporto apprendistato, http://www.welfare.gov.it/EuropaLavoro/Ucofpl/Pro-dottiEditoriali/CollaneEditoriali/ILibriDelFondoSocialeEuropeo/icontenutiapprendistato.htm. http://www.welfare.gov.it/EuropaLavoro/Ucofpl/ProdottiE-ditoriali/CollaneEditoriali/ILibriDelFondoSocialeEuropeo/LareteconfiniprospettiveRapportoapprendistato2004.htm.

Isfol (2004): La rete, i confini, le prospettive, apprendistato.

Isfol: Una lente sull’apprendistato: i protagonisti ed i processi della formazione; http://www.welfare.gov.it/EuropaLavoro/Ucofpl/ProdottiEditoriali/CollaneEditoriali/ILibriDel-FondoSocialeEuropeo/Unalenteapprendistatoprotagonisti+.htm.

Italian National Law n. 251, 6 Ottobre (2004): http://www.welfare.gov.it.

Italian National Law n.276/2003: http://www.welfare.gov.it.

Italian National Law n. 30, 14/02/2003: http://www.welfare.gov.it.

Italian National Law 53/2003: http://www.welfare.gov.it.

Italian National Law n. 196/1997 (Treu): http://www.welfare.gov.it.

Italian Regional Law (2005): Marche Region n.2/2005 art.17.

Italian Regional Law (2005): Emilia Romagna Region, n 17, 1 Agosto 2005.

Report from Leonardo da Vinci project named “WLP” – Work & Learning Partnership”: http://www.workplace-learning-partners.org/activities/maps/LEO%20WLP%20-%20Report%20I.doc.


http://www.welfare.gov.it/EuropaLavoro/Ucofpl/ProdottiEditoriali/CollaneEditoriali/ILibriDelFondoSocialeEuropeo/icontenutiapprendistato.htm



http://www.welfare.gov.it/EuropaLavoro/Ucofpl/ProdottiEditoriali/CollaneEditoriali/ILibriDelFondoSocialeEuropeo/LareteconfiniprospettiveRapportoapprendistato2004.htm



http://www.welfare.gov.it/EuropaLavoro/Ucofpl/ProdottiEditoriali/CollaneEditoriali/ILibriDelFondoSocialeEuropeo/Unalenteapprendistatoprotagonisti+.htm



http://www.welfare.gov.it/





http://www.workplace-learning-partners.org/activities/maps/LEO%20WLP%20-%20Report%20I.doc



Rediscovering apprenticeship in the

Netherlands?

Jeroen Onstenk, Franck Blokhuis

Introduction

The Netherlands has an elaborated system of vocational education, including bothschool-based and work-based learning. The VET system is under constant pressureto respond to a changing economy. It has been adapting to fundamental changesin job demands as well as to a strongly growing number of vocational students. Thequalification system has been thoroughly restructured and various vocational lear-ning paths and school types (the apprenticeship system and school-based vocationaleducation; initial and adult vocational education) are integrated into one vocationaleducation and training (VET) system. New content as well as new didactics forvocational schools have been implemented to respond better to the needs of a chan-ging economy and labour market. Schools are developing from industrial trainingcentres into innovative learning centres, in order to prepare students better forworking life and lifelong learning. In order to reach that objective, the challengefacing the Dutch system is making qualification structures, educational targets andnew educational practices like problem based learning more convergent, ratherthan the current state of tension or even contradiction.

VET in the Netherlands

Recent Dutch vocational educational policies show some fundamental contradicti-ons. On the one hand, Dutch policy makers in 1997 have made an explicit choicefor the development of an integrated system of vocational and adult education, rat-her than tearing down system boundaries between general and vocational educationat secondary level, as was done elsewhere in Europe. During the early 1990s, the

Rediscovering apprenticeship in the Netherlands? 33

need arose to make the education and training system a more integrated and natio-nal one (Onstenk, 2001b). Two important objectives were chosen to meet that need:integration of different education and training structures into one national quali-fication structure; and the creation of a limited number (around 40) of large regionaltraining centres instead of the huge number (around 400) of small vocationalschools. These priorities were implemented from 1997 onwards through the 1996Act on Vocational and Adult Education (Wet Educatie en Beroepsonderwijs, WEB).A great deal of autonomy and responsibility was given to the players in the field tobuild a VET system that has optimal flexibility and effectiveness. The reality, howe-ver, is still rather different (Nijhof & van Esch, 2004).

In the new millennium, in order to fulfil European policy agreements regardinganswering the knowledge society with increasing participation in higher education,policies started to focus more on the so called ‘vocational column’; that is, buildingvertical vocational educational learning careers, and crossing system boundariesacross secondary, senior secondary vocational and higher education.

The Dutch vocational educational system consists of three layers (Cedefop, 2004).It starts very early (age 12) in compulsory secondary education as preparatory voca-tional education. It continues in senior secondary vocational education. And it peaksin a vocational, or rather professional, education as part of higher education (inpolytechnics or professional universities). Preparatory Vocational Education(VMBO) is differentiated into five levels, which differ in possibilities for further(vocational) education. More than 65% of all youngsters (age 12–16) attend this typeof compulsory secondary education. Most of them continue after graduation insenior secondary vocational education (MBO): however, some 15% enter the labourmarket directly, most of them without a diploma, running considerable risks ofbecoming unemployed.

Senior secondary vocational education (MBO): four levels, twopathways

The heart of the VET system is senior secondary vocational education (MBO). It isin continuous reform form the eighties onwards, finally resulting in 1996 in theAdult & Vocational Education Act, the WEB (Ministry of Education, Culture, andSciences, 996). Training programs and qualifications are offered in four differentfields: technology, commerce/administration, services/health care and agriculture.The entrepreneurial skills needed to prepare students to start their own enterprisesin any sector are included in the training programs (Onstenk, 2003). Training

34 Jeroen Onstenk, Franck Blokhuis

courses are provided within the framework of the national qualification structurefor vocational education at four different levels, ranging from pre-basic and basicvocational training (1 to 2 years) to middle management training (3 to 4 years). LevelIV qualifications give entry to higher professional education. Transfer of those withMBO qualifications to Higher Professional Education (HBO) has increased sharplyin the last 15 years. The levels differ in a) complexity varying from assistant’s trainingto middle management training and specialist education and b) duration varyingfrom 6 months till four years.

Another specific characteristic is the distinction between two main pathways. Bothcombine learning in school and in worksites, but in different quantitative and qua-litative relationships. One is a full-time, school-based pathway that includes workplacements for 20–60% of the time (BOL). The second is a part-time work-basedpathway, including apprenticeship in a company for 60–80% of the time (BBL), aswell as a one-day or two-day school release1 . These percentages are laid down in theAdult & Vocational Education Act of 1995, the WEB (Ministry of Education, Culture,and Sciences, 1996). In the BOL route, participants are seen as students who dowork experience in a number of labour organisations. In the BBL route, participantsare employees who combine part-time education with an apprenticeship in a com-pany. In principle, it should be possible to get any qualification through bothpathways. However, in practice most programs are not yet offered in both pathways,although possibilities are increasing. It does mean, however, that learning at theworkplace is an essential part of every secondary vocational education and trainingcourse irrespective the level and the route.

Participation in the work based pathway, BBL, has grown since the mid-1950s.There is large participation in the technical sectors (metal, electronics, installation,building industry, car mechanics etc.) and later on also from the caring and healthsector, resulting in more and more women taking part in apprenticeships. Nowa-days, caring and health occupations count most apprentices. It is also the sector inwhich there really are two pathways leading to the same jobs. In technical sectorsin fact work and school bases courses train for different level jobs: apprenticeshipsfor the lower levels (mainly 2), with some specialist courses on level 3 and 4, whereas school based training focuses on level 3 and 4. The proportion of students overthe age of 20 or even 27 in particular is increasing rapidly. Since around 2000, thenumber of apprentices is slowly going down, partly as a result from economicmalaise, partly as a result form structural changes in Dutch economy, especially the

1 BOL can be seen as the continuation of the former schools for secondary vocational education, BBL as the

continuation of the former separate apprenticeship system. In both strands Regional Colleges for Vocational

education are delivering the school based part and bear responsibility for the whole of the learning process.


decay of technical producing industry. Still, BBL covers one third of all participantsin vocational education at secondary level (Table 1).

On the other hand participation in the vocational training school based pathwayBOL increased sharply the last two decades, with a particularly high growth rate inthe economic and caring sectors.

Tab. 1 Participation in MBO training schemes, in thousands, 1998/99 to 2002/03

1998/99 2001/02 2002/2003*

MBO – BBL 131.9 155.9 152.0

MBO – BOL (full-time) 255.0 264.5 281.7

MBO – BOL (part-time) 23.4 25.5 20.5

* (provisional figures)

Source: Key Figures1999-2003, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science

Participants can choose from more than 700 vocational courses that are offered bythe regional vocational education and training centres (roc's) and the agriculturalvocational education and training centres (aoc's). However, the number of studentsleaving vocational education without qualifications remains a source of concern.Although precise figures are hard to give as a result of complicated regulation andbad administration, it is estimated that between 25 and 35% leave the system withoutany qualification.

Financing

The amount of money spent per student in senior secondary vocational educationhas increased from €5490 in 1999 to €6250 in 2003. The work-based or day releasepathway (BBL) consists of a school-based part (one day a week) and a work-basedpart (4 days a week), and consequently has a hybrid structure of financing. Theschool-based part is funded directly with public funds by the Ministry for Education,Culture and Science. The work-based part is also funded, in part, by central gover-nment (Ministry of Finance) by fiscal measures introduced in 1996: enterprise taxcan be reduced for employers hiring apprentices. In addition there are contributions


from employers in the form of salary or pocket money for students engaged inapprenticeship activities.

Students older than 16 years have to pay course fees. The level of fees is annuallyadjusted and depends on the type of education (full-time or part-time, or adult edu-cation). On the other hand, students (and their parents) receive money. Until theirchild is 18 years old, parents receive child benefits. From 18 years on, studentsreceive individual study grants. Additional grants can be obtained depending on theincome of the parents of the student.

New didactics

Curriculum content and didactic methods in vocational education are challengedon several levels (Onstenk, 2001a). There are new insights in learning and instruc-tion around. Students ask for differentiated approaches with regard to their back-grounds, characteristics, interests and learning styles. Societal developments makenew demands on (future) citizens. Content and design in vocational education arealso challenged, more directly than general basic, secondary or higher education,by developments in organisations and occupations. Practitioners must be able toselect and interpret knowledge and information. They must be able to solve pro-blems, plan and co-operate. In short, they need broad professional competence.

There seems to be some synergy among these demands. Didactic and learningtheoretical insights, as well as motivational and learning styles of students and newdemands on the job, all seem to ask for different didactic approaches. These shouldbe characterised by an emphasis on self-directed learning, the development of pro-blem solving competences, tailor made education and individual coaching, andguidance, rather than frontal teaching in a classroom or ‘simply-sitting-next-to-Nel-ly-teaching’ in a workplace learning situation. This synergy gives an important pushto innovations in the educational process and has led to, sometimes drastic, changes(Onstenk, 2001a,b). Against these structural backgrounds and growing demandsmade by business on vocational education, schools are busy innovating their cour-ses, both with respect to content, responding to the new qualification structure, andmethods, responding to the need for broad occupational competence and learningskills, and also preparing students for an accelerating rate of change and a lifetimeof learning.

One interesting example of a new learning concept is occupational task-orientedlearning for lower level technical courses, in school-based as well as work-basedtrajectories. The concept has been designed to solve motivation problems of these


students, to reduce the dropout rate, to improve the image of working in the tech-nical sector, to attract more students and to adjust educational courses to thedemands from professional practice. Learning is seen as an active process; wherestudents learn from experiences, activating knowledge they already acquired earlier.This didactical concept is aimed to gain and develop competences, and puts thelearner at the centre. The occupational tasks form the basis of the course, and canbe realised either at school or in a company. These tasks form a coherent and con-sistent framework of work-based actions derived from practice. Different subjectsare integrated in the occupational tasks, and students have to learn to work together,just as in the workplace.

Another recent new development is achievement steered learning (prestatiegestu-urd leren), also called ‘natural learning’. Vocational learning is organised aroundreal work tasks and assignments, as formulated by companies. They fulfil require-ments with regard to covering important learning objectives (relevance, complexity,developmental quality). Guidance in executing these tasks and reflection on theprocess and results are improved. Teachers have an active role in this guidance,provided they regularly visit the company and the student and discuss progress andresults. Students can take their work assignments to school, rather than the otherway around. It is also expected that working on these real assignments will stimulatelearning questions with regard to theory and learning motivation in students. Inthis kind of curriculum students participate in a number of company providedassignments (this can be simulated learning companies, connected to the school),covering the whole range of learning objectives.

Apprenticeship and work-based learning

As has already been indicated, work based learning is becoming more important inDutch vocational education on all levels, from preparatory vocational education toprofessional higher education. Innovation in VET focuses on the inclusion of work-based learning by establishing quality criteria for work-based learning places andby designing curricula which integrate learning places. Since the implementationof the WEB (1996), which gave workplace learning a more extended and moreimportant place, there have been a lot of initiatives for quality improvement andmonitoring. From the start, formal requirements for learning places in companieswere established. The WEB laid down the amount of time to spend on learning atthe workplace linked with levels and routes of courses. The importance of learningat the workplace is expressed by stating that a diploma is awarded only if the parti-cipant has fulfilled the learning-at-the-workplace part sufficiently. The law also


prescribes that the participant, the vocational education and training centre, andthe labour organisation where learning at the workplace will take place have to makeup and sign a training-employment contract. This contract specifies the period forlearning at the workplace, the required coaching of the participant by the labourorganisation during that period, and the learning aims for that period. In BOL-courses this does not include a labour contract.

Although the act mentions four parties involved, only three are directly involved inthe learning process: the participant, the labour organisation, and the vocationaleducation and training centre. It is the ROC (the vocational education and trainingcentre) that is responsible for the realisation of the contract. It also has to assesswhether the learning aims are realised. The labour organisation (training company)has to coach the participant. The fourth party, the national bodies for vocationaltraining (kbb), contribute indirectly to the learning process and therefore have anindirect responsibility. They have to assure a sufficient amount and quality of cer-tified training companies. Training companies are registered, and are expected tofulfil quality criteria like offering the opportunity to do the work that the course istraining for, making sure that there is a coach with some pedagogical skills, takingcare of safety, and communicating with the school about the performance of thestudent.

Still, studies about apprenticeship show some serious problems in realising thesedemands. The connection between learning at school and learning in the workplaceis often not secured. It appears to be difficult to guarantee quality standards for workplacement companies. In a large survey among participants, commissioned by theassociation of young people in vocational education (JOB, 2001), revealed that, alt-hough participants state that learning in the workplace is satisfying, preparation forwork experience, school assignments, and guidance offered by the school lack qua-lity. Nijhof and Van Esch (2004) find that learning in work placements andapprenticeships is problematic. Problems concern lack of co-operation between theparties involved; lack of control and evaluation of learning in the workplace byRegional VET College, and insufficient possibilities of organisations to provide highquality learning opportunities and high quality coaching. In order to solve theseproblems the evaluation committee advises a focus on communication, on attuningtheory and practice, and of developing competencies of practical work supervisorsin school and practical instructors in labour organisations. Blokhuis, Jellema andNijhof (2002) identified eight problem fields with regard to learning at the work-place: lack of cooperation and interaction between the parties involved, insufficientorganisation of the learning process itself (relevance of learning assignments, theprogramming and the tuning of theory and practice), and lack of information.


In the recent past, several models and approaches are developed to monitor andenhance the quality of workplace learning in VET. Less is developed with regard tocontent issues, to choice and career development and to integration of learning inschool and in the workplace (Onstenk, 2003). The enlarged proportion of workbased learning is supposed to be an important way to concretise the new broadqualifications. In order to realise this role, more attention should be paid to struc-turing and supporting communication between school, company and studentsabout what could be learned in a specific learning workplace, what the studentwould like to learn and how both fit in the specification of the qualification. In arecent project new proposals are made to enrich the accreditation process for app-renticeship places, by developing a data bank in which both data on content and onguidance are registered (Blokhuis, Onstenk & Pruis, 2006). It is attempted to sup-plement formal requirements with more substantial ones, which take into accountorganisational aspects and quality of guidance, but also learning opportunities andpossibilities for tailor made trajectories are monitored much more closely.

Case study 1: The cable company

As part of the international apprenticeship project INAP we completed a case studyin a technical company, which was awarded a ‘Training Company of the Year’-nomination in 2004. This is a case of innovative ‘classical’ apprenticeship.

The company has 300 employees and is involved in construction and maintenanceof cable, pipes and wiring networks as well as installations for industries, utilitybuilding and railways. The company has intensive contacts with many clients, whomostly ask for high quality work. The company is NEN-ISO 9001 and VCA certified.The company was established in 1920 as cable laying company. It has grown byworking for a big regional electricity supplying company, and has expanded in elec-tronic work and road and water works.

1 % of employees is younger than 21 years, more than 10 % is between 21 and 30years of age, above 65 % is between 30 and 50, above 20 % is older than 50. Theeducational level of personnel is as follows: Unskilled 10%, Low skilled (MBO level1 and 2) 30%, Skilled (MBO level 3 and 4) 59% and Higher education 1%. At mbo-level 2 are mechanics, assistent-mechanics for gas and water and foreman cableworker (18% of employees). At mbo-level 3 and 4: First mechanics, technicians andproject leaders as well as administrative staff (in total 59% of employees).

The company works closely together with a Regional College for vocational educa-tion in order to fine tune theory and practice, content of courses and testing. It also


has intensive contacts with the relevant knowledge centres with regard to recogni-tion as training company and the planning of examinations.

The company has intensive contact with one ROC. On a weekly basis there arecontacts between the company and the school about student accomplishments,attuning what is learned in school, in the company and on the work floor. Thecompany has its own company school with one full time coordinator and fourinstructors. The company school offers more opportunities for planning of trainingcontent and moments, depending on the own needs of the company. In this wayskill levels and usability of employees can be guarded. This choice of investing intraining binds employees to the company. Because there is a scarcity in getting newpersonnel this is seen as important for securing the continuity of the company. Thecompany offers no learning places for school based vocational education, becausethat is seen as a burden with regard to necessary guidance, and students deliver tolittle in return to the work activities of the company. There are, however, a numberof apprentices in the work based trajectory of vocational education. These have alabour contract with the company. The main criterion in selecting apprentices isdedication, motivation and collegiality. As least important criterion are consideredschool grades.


Tab. 2 Importance of criteria is selecting apprentices

Not

important

Very

important

1 2 3 4 5

School grades X

Suitability for

occupation/kwalification

and previousknowledge

X

Prior qualifications X

... „the apprentice must fit

in the company”…

X

Soft skills and social

competence

X

Dedication and motivation X

If apprentices are not hired, this is because of a lack of motivation for the occupationand the company of for getting a diploma. Also if there are no possibilities to caterfor the educational wishes of the apprentice (because a specific occupation is notpresent in the company).

Most training offered by the company is on MBO-level 2 (ISCED 2)(See Table 3).The part in the company school includes both the company’s own apprentices, aswell as apprentices of other companies (external). The number of apprentices forlevel 3 and 4 is much smaller (only 5 in the past 5 years), although the percentageof employees on this educational level is higher. This is partly because the companyhas no apprentices in administrative jobs.


Tab. 3 Number of apprentices in the company school (internal and external)

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 Qualifications level 2

int ext int ext int ext int ext int ext Int ext

Mechanic low charge 21 2 15 16 8 21 2 22 2 7 4 13

Mechanic middle

charge

1 16 1 16 0 24 0 23 5 8 1 18

Mechanic gas and

water

8 4 10 4 5 8 5 8 3 2 2 4

Total 30 22 26 36 13 53 7 53 10 17 7 35

On-the-job Learning in the company

The company strives for a close connection between theory and practice in appren-ticeship learning. Actual tasks that apprentices are allowed to do, depend partly onthe demands of the client and partly on work safety regulations.

Learning at the job has a number of objectives. The most important are qualityconsciousness and involvement.


Tab. 4 Importance of learning objectives for apprenticeship

low High

1 2 3 4 5

on-the-job experience X

Theoretical vocational competence x

social competence (client relations,

etc.) X

occupational autonomy X

consciousness of quality X

professional commitment X

vocational identity X

corporate Identity X

motivation for continuous

vocational learning X

The work place is the most important learning environment, measured in time.Apprentices learn to apply skills and knowledge, guided by an experienced and/orhigher qualified colleague and the training coordinator, who comes to the workplace. Every week a decision is made about work that the apprentice can do on thejob, taking into account the skills that he has already acquired. Apprentices mostlyassist experienced colleagues. Also apprentices learn at the company school and atthe regional college. They are one morning every week at the company school forpractice training, and an afternoon at the regional college for theory lessons. Theother four days apprentices are working at company assignments.

While in training apprentices develop competences needed for working as skilledemployee in the work process. In the first training year the apprentice (employeein training) can do about 20-30% of work activities than an experience fully skilledemployee is doing, related top a lack of the required skills. At the end of the twoyear course it is estimated that the apprentice has 90% of the necessary skills. The


main difference with a fully skilled experience employee is the speed of working. Itwill cost about a year to reach the required level 100%. The employee develops whileworking also competences that are related to dealing with clients as well as collea-gues, managing, control of assignment orders and sometimes billing clients.

During training up-to-date standardised instruction means are used. They containall theory that is needed for the actual job. A couple of years ago there was moretheory in the course, because there was an expectation that mechanics could con-tinue to higher level jobs. As it turned out, this hardly happened, so theory has beentailored to fit exactly the actual jobs.

The acquisition of competences is measured in externally standardised examinati-ons, done in the company school. Assessment with authentic assignments on thecompany shop floor is not used. About 70% of the apprentices scores at the firstexamination attempt ‘good’, some 25 % scores ‘more than adequate’. If an appren-tice does not pass at the first opportunity, there are two more chances. There is extraguidance by teachers available, when needed. Ultimately, almost all apprentices geta diploma.

Costs and benefits of apprenticeship learning

A two year training course costs the company between € 16.000,-- and € 17.000,--.After certification the company gets a subsidy (of the government) that varies withthe level of training. The company makes exact cost-benefit analyses of training.Taking into account loss of productivity by being in training the company has cal-culated costs at € 33,-- for an hour. This includes costs of training staff and wagecosts of apprentices (€12,--/€13.—pro hour). At the end of training productivity isestimated as 60% of an experienced employee. Three years after starting a two yearcourse, someone is regarded a full skilled employee. It is estimated that is takesabout 4 to 5 years to earn back the costs of apprenticeship. Earning back is realisedby higher hourly rates of full skilled employees, as well as the higher working speedand quicker accomplishment of orders. Also the company gets orders whichdemand for recognised quality standards of personnel (i.e. ISO-certification).

Almost all internal apprentices stay after their training with the company. 1% leavesthe company, because they are bought away by other companies, can earn moreelsewhere or because they have a troublesome relationship with their manager.


Case 2: The temporary employment agency

As second case we studied an agency for temporary employment. It is an exampleof new forms of apprenticeship, as it involves apprentices who are enrolled in theschool based vocational educational trajectory (BOL). It shows the growing import-ance of mixed courses, which in fact blur the distinctions which officially charac-terise the vocational education system.

The company is part of a large international organisation, the world largest tempagency. The Group’s main services include temporary staffing, permanent place-ment, project solutions and outsourcing services. In the Netherlands the companyis one of the largest personnel service organisations, with 170 local branches in thewhole country. This company does not have classical regular apprenticeships, buthas a quasi-apprenticeship policy for practical placements in school based educati-on. It employs at any time around 135 trainees or apprentices (stagiairs), of which60% is on level 4 of secondary vocational education, 30% is higher vocational edu-cation and 10% is university students.

The company also recently has started its own part time course for consultant, incooperation with a regional vocational college. It offers career opportunities forconsultant-in-training. This is a two-year, accelerated BOL-course. From the begin-ning there is intensive learning in the company. Theory lessons in small groups.The second year finishes with a mbo level 4-diploma Social-Legal employee. Admis-sion criteria: motivation, work- en thinking level of secondary general education,intake and application.

The company has a recruitment, guidance and assessment policy for apprenticesthat are the same as for regular employees. Each local branch has an apprenticeplacement. This is partly because of social responsibility, partly making sure futureemployees. In most cases school assignments can be done on the job.

Apprentice consultant should be commercially motivated, result oriented, admi-nistratively skilled, a real team player, willing to work hard and socially andcommunicative strong and willing to take challenges. Apprentices should be stu-dents on secondary or higher vocational education in the commercial or personnelstudies. An apprenticeship takes at least 500 hours.The apprentice learns the job by working as an assistant consultant. The job consistsof administrative tasks, like answering the telephone, registration, filing cv andapplications, planning of appointments with temporary employees and clients etc.But it is also an important part of the job to deal with job seekers: registration ofjob-seekers, dealing with applications of existing clients, recruiting and binding flex


workers and making matches between person and job by using an automated sys-tem. The job includes solving all kinds of ad hoc problems.

Students have to apply for an apprenticeship on the website of the company. Thisappliance should include a written motivation as well as a CV. Applicants shouldhave good school results, showing the adequate educational level. Before beinginvited for a start meeting for apprentices, candidates get a digital test, consistingof three parts: will do (motivation), can do (self assessment of skills) and will fit (fitbetween work swishes and job possibilities and requirements).

The start meeting is at the national head quarters of the company. Candidates areintroduced to each other by mutual interviews. Remember that the job is for jobbroker (intercedent) at offices of the agency, doing job interviews and finding fitsbetween job seekers and company job openings. The company is making a presen-tation about the company and apprentice opportunities and expectations. Somecases and statements about the jobs are discussed. They get another test, the socalled Xpert-test, which has the same three dimensions (will do, can do and will fit),and will serve also as measurement instrument for learning during the apprenti-ceship period. This test is the same as is expected of real employees. Apprenticesare allowed a lower accomplishment rate (level 2 rather than level 3 on a five-pointscale).

After test completion learning objectives are discussed with the applicant. One pointoften discussed is the necessity of improving fluency (speaking and writing) inDutch. After completion of the test a formal application procedure starts with thelocal branch, including an interview. In the interview much emphasis is put onmotivational and social skills, like being on time, prepare your self, look well groo-med and show a motivated and proactive attitude.

Every apprentice gets a mentor and is introduced in the local branch office. Theapprentices do not get a regular wage, but a financial compensation. They do get atemporary labour contract, as well as a learning contract. Students/apprentices arenot expected to stay working in the company. If they decide to do so after gettingtheir qualification, they can apply for a job. They get the same procedure as normalapplicants, but of course they have the advantage that the company already hasinformation about them, collected with the same instruments as are used in normalrecruitment policies.


Conclusions

The workplace as learning site is becoming more and more popular in Dutch edu-cational discussions. The amount of work based learning is increasing on all levels,from lower secondary to higher, of vocational education. At the same time ‘proper’apprenticeship including a labour contract as well as a learning contract is in thedecline. The number of students is declining, especially in the technical field, whichwas the traditional stronghold for apprenticeship. But also many regional collegesare not very interested in innovating bbl-courses. They prefer dualisation of bol-courses by enlarging practical learning in companies or in simulated environments.An important argument is the greater freedom for the school in designing thesekinds of trajectories. I.e., students do not need to have a labour contract with thecompany, as in traditional bbl. Also a bol-student gets a higher financial supportthan a bbl-student. One problem with this tendency is the factual absence of theschool at the workplace, and the danger that commitment of the company, as wellas of the student, to practical learning is lower. There are, however, a few promisingattempts to counter these dangers by establishing more connective models. Theseexamples are characterised by a new practice and competence oriented approach ofthe whole curriculum. We studied examples of these in the case studies presentedhere.

It could be doubted whether the development in the Netherlands is towards redis-covery of apprenticeship, or to the development of new learning and workingarrangements, with new relationships between school and work based learning. Aswe have seen in the case studies there are innovations within classical apprenti-ceship as well as in enlarging the quantity and quality of apprenticeship learningin school based VET. In many respects the distinctions which officially characterisethe vocational education system are getting blurred.


References

Blokhuis, F./Jellema, M./Nijhof, W.J. (2002): De kwaliteit van de beroepspraktijkvorming. Eenonderzoek naar praktijken en ervaringen met de beroepspraktijkvorming bij ROC Eindho-ven. Enschede: Universiteit Twente.

Blokhuis, F./Onstenk, J./Pruis, D. (2006): De leermogelijkheden in het bedrijf in kaart brengen[Charting learning opportunities in the company]. In: Onstenk, J./Janmaat, J. (Eds.). Samen-werken aan leren op de werkplek. Op weg naar codesign en comakership van scholen enbedrijven. Den Bosch: CINOP.

Cedefop (2004): Vocational Education in The Netherlands. Thessaloniki: Cedefop.

JOB (2001): De nieuwe JOB-Norm. Amsterdam: Jongeren Organisatie Beroepsonderwijs.

Nijhof, W./Esch, W. van, (2004): Unravelling policy, power, process and performance. Theformative evaluation of the Dutch Adult and Vocational education Act. Den Bosch: CINOP.

Onstenk, J.H.A.M. (2001a): Training for new jobs: contents and pilot projects. In: Tessaring,M./Descy, P. (Eds.). Second Report on Vocational Training Research in Europe. Thessalo-niki: CEDEFOP.

Onstenk, J. (2001b): Broad Occupational Competence and Reforms in Vocational Educationin the Netherlands. In: Australian and New Zealand Journal of Vocational Education Vol.9,2, pp. 23-45.

Onstenk, J. (2003): Werkplekleren in de beroepsonderwijskolom. Naar een integratie van bin-nen- en buitenschools leren [Work based learning in the vocational education column.Towards integration of learning inside and outside school]. Den Haag: Onderwijsraad.


Creating Expansive Learning

Environments: the characteristics of

good practice in apprenticeships in

England

Alison Fuller, Lorna Unwin

Introduction

There are currently some 260,000 young people aged between 16 and 24 on thegovernment-funded ‘Apprenticeships’ programme. This is divided into two stre-ams: ‘advanced apprenticeship’ which leads to a level 3 qualification; and ‘Appren-ticeships’ which lead to a level 2 qualification1 . The government pays for all thetraining required to enable apprentices to gain the prescribed qualifications for theirapprenticeship framework. Employers are required to pay the apprentice a wageand to cover the costs of any training over and above that needed to meet the requi-rements of the framework. In the case of the level 2 apprenticeships, some app-rentices do not have employed-status and so are paid a training allowance (fundedby the government) by the training provider (college or private training company)who oversees their apprenticeship. Apprenticeship frameworks are available in over90 occupational sectors, though the vast majority of apprentices are located within12 frameworks:

1 In the UK’s National Qualifications Framework, level 3 equates to intermediate (or technician) skills, whilst

level 2 is classified as the basic level for entry to employment.

50 Alison Fuller, Lorna Unwin

Tab. 1 Apprentice numbers by sector

Sector framework Total number of

apprentices

Advanced (level 3) Level 2

Engineering 28,303 18,060 8,906

Construction 24,637 3,904 20,732

Hairdressing 22,529 3,166 18,363

Automotive industry 21,902 14,187 7,714

Business Administration 19,732 4,760 14,972

Hospitality 19,268 5,083 14,185

Early years care &

education

15,558 6,769 8,790

Electrotechnical 14,280 11,770 2,510

Customer Service 14,245 4,459 9,786

Health & Social Care 11,261 3,705 7,556

Retail 9,211 1,318 7,893

Plumbing 8,598 3,045 5,553

Source: Learning and Skills Council, Reports 2004/05, Cummulative Starts to April2005 (www.apprenticeships.org)

This table shows that that seven of the twelve most populated sectors cover the serviceindustries, many of which would not have had a history of running apprenticeships priorto 1994. It also reveals that the service industries recruit the vast majority of their app-rentices onto the level 2 programme, unlike the more traditional apprenticeship sectors(such as engineering) where the focus is on level 3 skills. We can see, therefore, that theoriginal aim of the apprenticeship programme introduced in 1994 to boost the UK’s stockof intermediate skills has been abandoned (see Fuller and Unwin, 2003a).

Creating Expansive Learning Environments: the cha-racteristics of good practice in apprenticeships inEngland 51

http://www.apprenticeships.org/

Costs are shared between the employer, who pays the apprentice’s wages, and theState which funds training towards the attainment of mandatory qualifications(NVQs, Technical Certificates, and Key Skill units) and any other vocational awardswhich have been approved as part of the sectoral ‘frameworks’ which employersand training providers have to abide by. The intermediary (and powerful) role oftraining providers has resulted in a curious situation in which the majority ofemployers play an overly passive role in the apprenticeship programme. This canbest be explained as follows:

• The national Learning and Skills Council (LSC) has a budget from governmentto fund apprenticeships in England.

• The LSC divides this budget between its 47 local LSCs who are given targetsfor achieving apprenticeship numbers in specific sectors in their area. In thecase of very large employers with sites across the UK, their contracts are mana-ged by a national agency reporting directly to the national LSC.

• A local LSC (e.g. Greater Manchester or Leicestershire) funds a number of trai-ning providers (in both the public and private sectors) to recruit and organisethe training for a number of apprentices in specific sectors. For example, atraining provider may specialise in a sector (e.g. hairdressing or engineering)or may be an ‘umbrella’ provider for a number of sectors.

• A training provider will then seek out employers willing to take apprentices. Insome cases, the provider will look after all the training and assessment asso-ciated with the prescribed qualifications for the apprenticeship and will tell theemployer to simply concentrate on giving the apprentice work experience. Inother cases, the employer may be involved in some of the on-the-job assess-ment.

• Only around 5% of employers involved in apprenticeships have a direct contractwith the national LSC or their local LSC and the vast majority of these are verybig (sometimes multi-national) companies.

These arrangements reflect the underlying key problem with the UK’s approach toapprenticeships: government still conceptualises youth training in terms of provi-ding work experience placements for young people who choose to leave school at16. Hence, the national LSC and local LSCs have a contractual relationship withtraining providers and very little, if any, direct contact with employers. As a conse-quence, not enough is known about what happens to apprentices in the workplace,as it is very difficult for researchers to gain access to those employers who haveapprentices due to the gate-keeping role of the training providers (see Fuller andUnwin, 2003a). In addition, the local LSCs’ approach to apprenticeship is target-driven. Their focus is on achieving the targets set for them by the national LSC,


rather than on creating an apprenticeship programme geared to raising skill levelsand meeting business needs.

Qualifications and credentials at the transition between the educationand employment system

Three types of qualification underpin the ‘Apprenticeships’ programme in Englandand are specified in the frameworks laid down by the SSCs. These qualificationsare the trigger for government funding in that the training providers and/oremployers who hold contracts with their local LSCs to deliver apprenticeships mustdemonstrate that procedures are in place to enable apprentices to work towardsthem. Achievement of all the qualifications specified in an apprenticeship frame-work is required for the apprenticeship to be completed and the award of a finalcertificate from the relevant SSC. Apprentices receive certificates for the separatequalifications as and when they achieve them from the relevant awarding bodies.The three types of qualification are as follows:

1. National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) – this is a competence-based quali-fication designed to be achieved through assessment of an individual’s com-petence to perform a series of tasks in the workplace. This assessment can becarried out by employees who have been trained as assessors and/or by qua-lified assessors from external organisations (e.g. colleges or private trainingproviders). The assessment is checked by a process of internal and externalverification approved by the awarding body responsible for the NVQ. In somesectors (notably engineering and accountancy), however, NVQ assessmentcan also be carried out entirely off-the-job through written or manual skillstests.

2. Technical Certificate – this is a term used to cover those vocational qualifica-tions (sometimes referred to as ‘knowledge-based’) that are not competence-based and are designed to cover the theoretical and conceptual knowledgeunderpinning the specific subject area. Before the introduction of NVQs inthe late 1980s, all vocational qualifications were delivered in colleges of fur-ther education or equivalent organisations in the private sector.

3. Key Skills – apprentices are required to pass Key Skills tests at Level 2 inCommunication, Application of Number, and Information Technology. App-rentices who have already achieve a grade C or above in English, Mathematicsand IT at GCSE do not have to sit these tests.


In addition to these qualifications, certain SSCs may require their apprentices toachieve other qualifications. For example, engineering and automotive apprenticesare required to achieve certificates in specific skill areas such as welding. The intro-duction of NVQs was and remains a highly controversial intervention by govern-ment and has been widely criticised by academics, vocational teachers, andemployers. The competence-based model separates assessment from the learningprocess and is concerned solely with ‘outcomes’. Although NVQs have been refor-med over the past 15 or so years in the light of criticism, they are still considered bymany people to be problematic. One of the complications surrounding apprenti-ceship in the UK is that some occupational sectors have a long history of includingknowledge-based qualifications in their programmes (e.g. engineering and con-struction), whereas sectors that have only recently begun delivering apprenticeships(e.g. retailing and social care) tend to place more value on NVQs. When the MA wasintroduced, an NVQ was the only mandatory qualification required in apprenti-ceship frameworks, though some sectors also included knowledge-based qualifica-tions from the start. In 2001, the government decided that apprenticeships at Level3 should be made more rigorous and provide young people with the knowledge andskills they would to progress to further and higher education. To that end, all fra-meworks were required to include a knowledge-based qualification alongside theNVQ. Five years later, the government is now reconsidering this due to the unsa-tisfactory attainment and completion levels across many apprenticeship sectors, asshown in Table Two:


Tab. 2 Apprentice completions by sector

Sector framework Advanced (level 3) Level 2

Engineering 45% 35%

Construction 26% 31%

Hairdressing 22% 34%

Automotive industry 31% 30%

Business Administration 34% 44%

Hospitality 15% 31%

Early years care & education 19% 27%

Electrotechnical 50% 20%

Customer Service 39% 41%

Health & Social Care 19% 16%

Retail 18% 31%

Plumbing 21% 22%

Source: Learning and Skills Council, Reports 2004/05, Completion and Attainmentto January 2005 (www.apprenticeships.org)

There are many reasons for poor attainment, including: a) employers can, withoutany penalty, remove young people from their apprenticeships before they haveattained the prescribed qualifications and employ them as part of the normal work-force; b) some apprentices enter the programme with low levels of general educationand struggle with the qualification requirements; c) some providers offer a poorservice and fail to monitor apprentice progress, and some local LSCs perform betterthan others in managing providers; and d) in some sectors, the prescribed qualifi-cations have minimal relevance to actual workplace activity. Despite their beingcomplex and overlapping reasons for the low attainment and completion rates inapprenticeships, it is not clear that reducing the qualification requirements will behelpful.


http://www.apprenticeships.org/

Analysis of Case Studies

Selection and methodology

The case study organisations for both sectors (Business Administration and Engi-neering) were selected from those who had gained the highest grade in theinspection of their apprenticeship programmes by the Adult Learning Inspectorate(ALI). ALI is responsible for inspecting all government-funded work-based learningprovision in England and visits every training provider every four years. An analysisof ALI’s inspection reports revealed four suitable organisations in England: twopublic sector local authorities (referred to here as Authority A and Authority B); andtwo private sector engineering companies (referred to here as Company C andCompany D).

The researchers contacted the four organisations to seek permission for an inter-view. All four granted their permission and agreed to the researchers visiting theirpremises to conduct the interviews on site. This ability to speak to training person-nel face-to-face was important as it enabled to researchers to examine valuabledocuments and visit the places where the apprentices were working and being trai-ned. The key informants in the four organisations also supplied additional infor-mation via email and telephone.The key informants showed considerable interestin the research study and would be willing to participate in any follow-up meetingsto share good practice. They are particularly interested in learning more about howapprenticeship is conducted in other countries.

Business Administration: Authority A

Authority A is the organisation of local government for a county in the South ofEngland. Its mission is ‘to improve the lives of people’ in its area. It is the biggestemployer in the area with 14,000 employees. The council is organised into fivedirectorates run by a Director, and they in turn are responsible to the Chief Executiveof the council. The directorates are: Corporate Services – includes the History Centre,Trading Standards, Registration Service and the Library Service; Education – inclu-des Early Years, Schools and Youth and Community Service; Environmental Services– includes Building Management, Planning, Transportation, Engineering Consul-tancy, Works Organisation, Valuation and Estates, and Economic Development;Resources Directorate – includes Pension Fund and the IT section; Social Care andHealth – includes strategic services, policy, children’s services and services foradults. Ultimately, the performance of Authority A is judged by the local electorate


who have the opportunity to re-elect or reject the incumbent councillors at the localelections held every four years.

Organisation of apprenticeship

Authority A has been providing training opportunities for young people for 30 yearsand is a highly experienced provider of government-supported youth training sche-mes. Its Advanced Apprenticeship in Business Administration lasts two years, iswell-established and has been training and developing young people to pursueadministrative careers for over ten years. Authority A recruits school and collegeleavers aged between 16 and 19 years old. By the end of the Apprenticeship parti-cipants will have:

• Progressed through Business Admin NVQ Level 3

• Achieved relevant Key Skills

• Passed a business related Technical Certificate Exam

• Demonstrated occupational competence within the work place in line withnational standards.

Authority A needs to recruit and train younger people to replace its largely ageingworkforce. Offering good quality apprenticeship is seen as one way of encouragingsome young people to become skilled and to stay and work in the area. Currentlythere are two full time employees involved in managing 19 Apprentices.

Selection process

Authority A reviews its financial and employment position in January each year inorder to decide on the numbers of apprentices it wishes to recruit. Leaflets aredistributed to all relevant schools and colleges, and an open evening is held eachMay which interested young people are invited to attend. Apprenticeships areadvertised in the local press and on the organisation’s intra and inter-net web pagesafter Easter. The closing date for applications is in May. In recent years the Authorityhas received approximately 80 applications per year. As part of the application pro-cess, applicants are asked to submit a short essay on why they want to become anapprentice. Approximately half of the applicants are called to sit three hours ofability and aptitude tests. These externally prepared tests are administered andmarked by the Human Resources department. Approximately half of the candidatesare shortlisted on the basis of their test results. These individuals (approx. 20) arecalled for a final selection process, which comprises a full day of activities including:


one to one interviews, individual tasks, (such as letter writing and an informationsynthesis exercise), group tasks (such as role plays) and personality tests. Followingthe selection procedure, approximately 12 candidates are appointed. Most recentlythis comprised seven males and five females. This is the first time more males thanfemales have been recruited. Staff involved in the selection process include the twointerviewees who are from the training, development and assessment side of theAuthority, as well as workplace managers, and ‘learning officers’.

Training

The apprentices are trained entirely in-house. In Year One, this comprises: 24 dayson-the-job training; 30 days in the apprentice workshop, including 15 days inductionto the Authority’s ways of working; and 12 days preparation for assessment. In YearTwo: 12 days on-the-job training; 18 days in the apprentice workshop; and 12 dayspreparation for assessment. From the first day of their apprenticehsip, apprenticesare placed in a department, given real work tasks to complete, and are treated asemployees. Heavy emphasis is placed on seeing the apprenticeship programme asastrong platform for career progression.

Cost

Approximately, 10 to 20% of the costs of the apprenticeship programme are metthrough government funding, and the rest by the Authority itself.

Business Administration: Authority B

Authority B employs 4,170 people and is responsible for managing and deliveringpublic services to its population. Authority B is accountable to the local electoratethrough 48 councillors elected every four years to serve 19 different areas of thetown, known as ‘wards’. Funding for the Authority comes through a number ofroutes from central government and from the Council Tax levied each year bycouncils on all adult residents. Authority B also receives significant funding fromthe European Union as Luton has Assisted Area Status due to its economic pro-blems caused by the decline of its manufacturing sector. The town was famous inthe 19th century for the manufacture of straw hats and, in the 20th century for itsautomotive sector following the opening of a car plant in 1905. In recent years,however, car manufacturing has stopped and now service sector jobs are beginningto dominate the local economy. In addition to the Authority, the major employersare now: an airport; a hospital and a university.



Authority B has organised government-funded work-based training programmessince 1983 when the Manpower Services Commission launched the national YouthTraining Scheme. The current apprenticeship programme is called the ProspectsTraining Scheme (PTS) and is run by the Prospects Training Unit (PTU) basedwithin the Human Resource Division of the Corporate and Customer ServicesDepartment. Apprenticeships are offered to 16-19 year olds in the following areas:Business Administration, Plumbing, Civil Engineering, Information Technology(IT), Carpentry, Motor Vehicle Engineering, Horticulture. In 2005/06, BusinessAdministration was the third most popular sector in terms of applications, afterPlumbing and Carpentry. Business Administration apprentices work towards anNVQ Level 2, a Technical Certificate in Business Organisation and People, and KeySkills. Authority B has the same problem as Authority A in terms of the need torecruit more young people due to its ageing workforce. The PCU has five full-timestaff to manage some 42 apprentices and other work-based training programmesfor the Council.

Selection Process

Apprentices are recruited on an annual basis and places are determined by thedepartments, who identify how many recruits they need. In 2005/06, there were25 apprenticeship places and there are 42 apprentices currently in training. Thereare no entry requirements, as Authority B believes that in an area of low educationalattainment, all young people should be given an opportunity to show their potential.The recruitment campaign beings in April/May and is promoted via the followingoutlets: the website; the Connexions Service; attendance at school and college openevenings and careers fairs; advertisements in newspapers; information packs forcareers advisors in schools; posters in libraries, community centres and sports cen-tres; the Authority B intranet; and ‘word of mouth’ by employees. also holds an openevening for young people and their parents where they can meet representativesfrom the different departments to hear about what it is like working for the Autho-rity. Everyone who registers an interest at any of the recruitment events is sent anapplication form and invited for an interview. In 2005, 396 application packs weresent out and 177 applications were received. Some parents telephone the Authorityoffering to pay a fee if the council will give their child an apprenticeship.

Of the 177 applicants, 172 were invited to a first interview in June, of whom 25 didnot attend. The Authority organises 12 panels (2 interviewers per panel), comprisedto reflect the diversity of the community vis-à-vis gender, race and disability. Inter-


views are held over a three days at the local university. All interviewers follow thecouncil’s ‘Fair Selection’ policies and the recruitment process is monitored so thatannual reports can be given to the Authority’s Performance, Resources and AssetsScrutiny Committee. At the interview, applicants are required to undertake tests innumerical computation and verbal usage. Those who meet the required standardare recalled for second interviews in July conducted by a representative of the rele-vant department and a caseload officer from the PTU.

In terms of Business Administration, Authority B had 12 placements to offer in2005/06 and 33 young people were invited to a first interview. Of these 33, 19 werecalled back for a second interview where they were required to complete a numberof BA-related tasks (e.g. filing). Of the 19, 12 were offered apprenticeships at Level2. There are currently 22 Level 2 apprentices and 1 Level 3 apprentice in this area.The apprentices are placed across the departments, mainly within the town centre.All apprentices begin their programme in August and attend a 3 day inductioncourse and a one week residential ‘outward bound’ course. All apprentices are ona one-month probation period.

Training

The apprenticeship last two years. In Year One, the apprentices spend 181 days inon-the-job training, five days on a residential course, three days in workshops, and24 days studying at a local further education college. Apprentices also spend 100days working on real tasks in their assigned offices. In Year Two, apprentices spend200 days on-the-job training and 10 days in college, and continue to work on realtasks. The level of autonomy is dictated by the extent to which individual supervisorschoose to grant their apprentices the opportunity to work on their own initiative.This reflects the fact that apprentices are recruited with a wide range of educationalattainment. The PTU officers closely monitor apprentices’ progression through in-depth reviews every 12 weeks, which also involves input from tutors and workplacesupervisors.

Cost

Authority B receives similar government funding to Authority A to run its appren-ticeship and invests its own money to make up the shortfall.


Engineering: Company C

Company C is part of a German owned, multi-national, multi-utility group com-prising seven operating companies and is spread across eight sites in England andWales. This case study is based on one site, in the North of England. The site,comprising an electricity generating plant with vast cooling towers, an enormousturbine maintenance plant, and a large training centre, dates back to the beginningof the 20th century. The site has gone through many changes since the privatizationof electricity generation and supply in the UK in the early 1990s. Company C’soperations include: electricity generation technologies; energy supply (to domesticand commercial customers); and the development of renewable energy sources (e.g.wind power). Part of the site provides maintenance solutions, training and consul-tancy to the wider industry. In terms of electricity generation, the company employsaround 2000 people and has 12 apprentices at each site.


The company’s Technical Support Group (TSG), which organizes and runs theapprenticeship programme (with approximately 56 apprentices currently in trai-ning), also manages apprenticeship programmes for a number of other companiesin the energy supply sector (with 22 apprentices currently in training). The companyoffers a 3 year apprenticeship in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineeringand Control Engineering, and a 4th year for those deemed capable of pursuing aLevel 4 qualification. TSG has three full-time staff and is supported by a networkof workplace supervisors and tutors in the company’s training workshops.


The „profitability“ of in-firm vocational

training to companies and apprentices

Ines Herrmann, Philipp Grollmann, Felix Rauner,

Introduction

The German initial VET system is based on the concept of standardised employ-ment characterised by the notion of „vocationalism” (Berufskonzept/Beruflichkeit)inherent to it. Since the 1980s “vocatio”-nalism of work is a persistent topic withinthe community of VET researchers: A consultation of the appropriate publicationsby VET researcher reveals the ideas that the dual model of Apprenticeship is a relictfrom the middle Ages, which survived the societal changes following industriali-sation, hardly. “Vocationalism” seems not to be an adequate concept anymore tomeet challenges like flexibility and mobility resulting from the changes towardsknowledge society. The debate results in questions whether the “crises” of the Ger-man dual VET-system can be solved: In order to reach that objective, the challengeis to meet the tensions that arise in the interplay between “vocationalism” (Beruf-lichkeit) and work-process oriented training as a form of high-quality and low-costtraining.

The German VET system

Competences and organizational regulations

The Federal Government holds the executive power to the extent defined in theGerman Basic Law. The individual federal states also have legislative power, butthey are constrained by the rule that federal law weighs more than the individualstate’s law. Based on experience made from the past, Article 30 of the German Basic

62 Ines Herrmann, Philipp Grollmann, Felix Rauner,

Law defines that the educational system must not be regulated by a central gover-nmental authority. For this reason, the school system is regulated by the individualfederal states.

Initial vocational education, however, is regulated by the Federal Governmentwhich derives its authority from the Vocational Training Act (BBiG) and the CraftTrades Act. The Vocational Training Act was passed on 14/08/1969 and has beenmodified very little since then (BMB+F 2000: Rechtsgrundlagen 3). The first reformwas in April 2005. The legal frame for professions is defined in the training ordi-nances (§25 BBIG) which concern themselves among others with the correct nameof the profession, the duration of training, the skills and knowledge that should beimparted during training, the technical and temporal structure of the educationalcurriculum and the procedures of examination (BMB+F 2000: Rg. 12f.). At themoment there are about 345 state-approved apprenticeships. Completion is theentrance ticket to the more than 30.000 jobs with different profiles, existing inGermany.

The bilateral nature of the legal and organizational structure of the German VETsystem implicates that it is located between the employment system and the edu-cational system. This means that attributing authorities must consider levels ofcooperation and coordination in order to ensure harmony between the places oftraining, especially regarding the contents and the methods of education: Practicallyseveral institutions are involved in the development of initial vocational training;for example, social partners are represented in the committees of the Federal Insti-tute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), which are responsible fordefining training regulations, and have 25% of the votes. Social partners take inte-rest in apprenticeship, because apprentices have a claim for salary according to theappropriate tariff (BMB+F 2000: Rg 10).

Characteristics and performance of initial VET

After completion of full-time compulsory education school graduates can choosedifferent pathways for their professional career: attend secondary school and con-tinue the scholastic career or enter the first transition phase to work by seekingapprenticeship training position. Whoever decides for the latter option after com-pletion of full-time compulsory school (at least nine years, in four federal states tenyears of school) is obliged to visit vocational school where general and professionalknowledge is imparted: Compulsory part-time education is also valid for initialvocational training up to the age of 18 or the completion of vocational trainingrespectively (BA 2003a: 66). Initial VET takes place in at least two different places:

The „profitability“ of in-firm vocational training tocompanies and apprentices 63

These consist of a state vocational school (under federal regulation) and a firm(regulated by the vocational training act), though trainees often also visit supple-mental joint training establishments.

The average age of apprentices has risen over the last three decades from 16.4 to19.6 years. The quota of apprentices compared to the employed population hasdeclined over the last decades to around 6,4% (BIBB 2005: 123) in average over allsectors – to meet the needs of the skilled labour market, a quota of about 7,5 % isnecessary. Parallel there is a decrease in number of firms willing to participate invocational training. These developments prove the immediate effects of the dimi-nishing attractiveness of vocational education for companies and a coherencebetween supply and demand, since a decrease in relative supply goes hand in handwith a reduction of demand in apprenticeships. There are efforts to increase app-renticeship offers. The adjuration targeted at firms for stronger involvement andcommitment to vocational education is relatively ineffective.

Tab. 1 Participation in apprenticeship training; uptakes

2003 2004 2005

Apprenticeship training 557.634 572.980 550.180

(Source:http://www.bibb.de/de/23491.htm)

The survival of apprenticeship depends not only on its attractiveness for firms butalso on the occupational histories of school leavers. The amount of school leaversinterested in apprenticeship has shrunken from a former seventy percent (1980) toa now forty percent (2003). This number corresponds quite well with the realisticpicture of youths leaving school and getting employed since 32.7 % went into app-renticeship in 2004 (BIBB 2005: 77).

Although the willingness to train apprentices is seen as a social responsibilitytowards youths, any companies state that vocational training is too expensive.Potential firms for training apprentices generally do not have instruments to esti-mate the costs and benefits of vocational training. Often they tend to underestimatethe benefits and overestimate the costs. Over 50% of the questioned companies saidthat they were unhappy or indifferent with the cost-benefit-ratio of their own trai-ning programme. About 45% of the companies said they were satisfied or happywith their cost-benefit-ratio (cp. Beicht 2004: 234 f.). An analysis of the empiricstudies in German speaking countries leads to the assumption that most of the cost-


http://www.bibb.de/de/23491.htm

benefit calculations drastically neglect the benefits, although the cost-benefit-ratiois of extreme importance for vocational training and many companies declare lowbenefits as a main reason not to recruit apprentices.

Abb. 1 Gross costs of vocational training (Source: Beicht 2004: 38.)

According to a survey by the BIBB the average gross costs for on-the-job trainingcome up to around 16.435 € per apprentice per year. Half of these costs are madeup only by the staff costs of the apprentice. The apprentice himself is working sohe is productive: If one considers the average monetary benefits of around 7.730 €,then the net costs of in-company training arise to 8.705 € (Beicht 2004: 16ff.).Empiric studies concerning cost accounts in industry and commerce in West Ger-many from 1991 to 2000 show a rise of training benefits of 35% (compare Beicht2004: 54ff.). This rise in benefits results mainly from the shift of training towardsvalue producing work. This shift also results in higher administration, initial andmaterial costs, especially during the phase of transposition.

Case studies carried out using a guide to calculate costs and benefits can show thata rise in benefits does not automatically mean that the costs must also rise. Thispresumption is based on the idea that focussing training on the work process resultsin improving quality and simultaneously lowering costs in apprenticeship (Rauner,2003).


Case studies in Germany

The list (see table below) shows that the German case studies refer to diverse sectorsand firm sizes in order to cover a wide variety of examples for apprenticeship. Addi-tionally, the profession industrial mechanic has been studied in several examplesto allow a comparison.

Sites were selected with the help of a bundle of selection criteria to raster suitability.The number of contact persons varied, depending on the organisational structureof the enterprise and in all cases at least the responsible on initial VET training wasinterviewed in an in-depth interview. In some cases also the managerial head andthe chief clerks took part in interviews -structured along the contents of the inter-view guideline- on site. In most cases the practice of training was experienced withfollow-up interviews between interviewer and apprentices.

For this paper the apparatus engineering case is chosen. The selection of this enter-prise as best practice example took place as a consequence to an article the ownerof this family business had published. In this article he explained his concept andunderstanding of apprenticeship. In-depth interviews as well as an analysis of thecase study revealed that the in-company VET training focuses on quality aspectswhile the cost-benefit ratio is positive.


Case study No of apprentices relevant to the case study

No of employees

Remarks

1 Laser technology Industrial mechanic 44 1697

2 Hospitality industry Hotel clerk 9 ~40 3 Apparatus engineering Industrial mechanic; specification:

Precision machinist 6 34

4 Manufacturing of bolts Industrial mechanic/ 16 Milling machine operator 9 Tools mechanic 2 Electronics technician 3 Metal finisher 2

~260

5 Steel treatment Industrial clerk 24 Industrial mechanic 117 Electronics technician for industrial engineering 84

~4000, staff reduction to 2300

6 Paper industry Industrial mechanic 19 Milling machine operator; specification: milling machines systems 5 Milling machine operator; specification: lathe systems 6 Construction mechanic; specification: welding and thin sheet construction 2 Engineering draftsman 4 Electronics technician for installations 3 Electronics technician for industrial engineering 1 Mechatronics fitter 6

752

Not usable data

Educational institutions for sme’s in chemical sector

Chemical laboratory technician 94 198 Data incomplete

Scientific institute Chemical laboratory technician 5 290 (in all institutes)

Data incomplete

Market garden Data incomplete

Commercial vehicles Production mechanic 121 9000 Bad practice

Training center Domain of electro 89 Domain of metal 167 Domain of trade and commerce 70

46 (2 locations)

Bad practice

Abb. 2 Basic information on selected case studies


Findings from the Apparatus engineering case study

• Size of company: 34 employees & management

• Training profession: Industrial mechanic

• Number of apprentices: 1 industrial clerk; 6 industrial mechanics (specificati-on: precision machinist)

In 2003 the concept of training in case no. 3 Ltd was modified with the intentionto assume the assigned responsibilities by society and allowing for more high-qua-lity apprenticeship training places. The new concept was adopted in December2003: Because of the good learning progress the apprentices have made, positivefeedback from employees and in-firm cost-benefit calculations a return to the oldconcept is out of the question.

General description of the company

Case no. 3 Ltd belongs to the sme’s in the business area of precision machinery andapparatus engineering and manufactures exclusively in its headquarters in Müns-ter, in the region of Westphalia. The enterprise was established in 1966 as a garageoperation and in 1987 the management was consigned to the second generation ofthe family. In the past years the enterprise has specialized in certain fields and hasaccumulated a pool of expert knowledge: After examination of the world market,the company sees potential for becoming market leader in producing sonotrodesfor ultrasonic welding machines. Due to the amount of expertise already available,the prerequisites for shifting the main focus in production on constructing sono-trodes for ultrasonic welding machines are given. Currently the business volumein this business area alone is rising by 50 to 60 percent per year.

Tab. 2 Level of qualification of employees

unskilled/ semi-skilled Level of skilled work

(incl. apprentices)

university graduate

2 31 1

There are currently 34 employees working for case no. 3 Ltd. 28 of these are trainedor currently training to become industrial mechanics specialized on the construc-tion of precision machinery. A foreman, a technician and a university graduate worktogether in the design engineering and development department. Simple tasks like


packaging are taken care of by two untrained employees. Administrative tasks arehandled by the management and an industrial clerk apprentice. The managingdirector and his sister have not been included in the table because they have beentrained in a different profession and became career changer while taking over thecompany management.

Recruitment for initial vocational training and level of education

The concept of vocational training is based on the conviction that learning is anactive process which cannot be systemized and must be organized according toindividual understanding.

Tab. 3 Importance of criteria in the recruiting process

Not important

Very important

1 2 3 4 5

School grades x

Type of schooling/ prior qualification in VET x

Suitability for occupation and previous knowledge

x

... „apprentice must fit in the company“ x

Soft skills and social competence x

Curiosity and goodwill x

Every applicant has the chance to introduce himself personally in an interview.Special attention is paid to the applicant’s motivation, because every apprentice isresponsible for the configuration of his training himself. Some applicants haveacquired work experience at the enterprise during an internship, so their motivationcan be assessed easier. Others show their enthusiasm in the interview and somebring “homemade” pieces of handiwork to show. A special concern is to allow lowqualified applicants to train for high quality vocations. Accordingly, the level of


school or vocational education is not regarded as a criterion for selection. In fact,applicants with low qualifications are even favoured because the training managerwants to support people whose chances are lower than average in the labour market.Currently, one third of the apprentices have no secondary school qualifications andtwo thirds are secondary school graduates or have comparable qualification.

Graduation and further employment after training

Up to 2003, the number of apprentices recruited depended on the demand of man-power. Because the new training concept aims to help as many youth as possibleto acquire initial vocational training more apprentices have been recruited thanrequired since 2003. Currently, 18% of the employees are apprentices. Fluctuationof employees is extremely low, which means that a) the expertise of individualemployees remains in the company, and b) the quota of apprentices given furtheremployment after training is around 10 to 15%; vacant positions are normally filledby former apprentices so that only few specialists must be recruited from othercompanies.

Tab. 4 Evaluation of training success

low high


Theoretical vocational competence X

Social competence (client relations, etc.) X

Occupational autonomy X

Consciousness of quality X

Professional commitment X

Vocational identity X

Corporate Identity X

Motivation for continous vocational learning X


The main criteria for offering apprentices further employment are above averageexpertise and social skills. The grades of the final exams are not considered, becausethe training is devised to instruct apprentices in vocational reality and is not alignedaccording to general training plans. The high quality of training can be seen fromthe fact that two thirds of the apprentices passed the exams with the grade “good”and the rest with “excellent”. The theoretical exams were passed similarly, but onegrade lower on the scale (1/3 of examinees = „good“; 2/3 of examinees = „satisfac-tory“)

Level and functioning of on-the-job training

From day one, apprentices are confronted with real projects and are involved inthem to an extent depending on their individual skills.

Abb. 3 Temporal structure of vocational training

As one can gather from the illustration, more than half of the 237 available days fortraining per year are spent on work-order related training within the company. Inthe first year apprentices already spend averagely 156 days in work-order relatedtraining. In the first days the apprentice receives a general introduction to the func-tionality of the machines, precautions for occupational safety and environmentalsafety measures. Because the training does not follow a generalized plan, prepara-tion for exams is very time-consuming. Before the exams, ten to twenty days are


reserved for the apprentices to work on standardized projects (the results of whichare of no value to the company) and to “make them stupefied” as quotes the mana-ging director.

In 2003 the employees were prepared for the new training concept. In order to trainapprentices on-the-job the master craftsman who obdurately stuck to the four-stagetraining method had to leave the company. The management believes that appren-tices can only acquire the status of co-workers if they are no longer regarded assimple apprentice boys. Thus, the method of in-company training concentrates onreal work procedures: From the very beginning, apprentices are involved in workprocedures of skilled workers and at least 85% of the training time in the firm isspent on real projects or customer orders respectively. The projects are selectedcarefully so that the apprentices are not overwhelmed by the level of work. In cohe-rence with the principle of self-qualification, apprentices choose among a variety ofpre-selected projects themselves and work independently. This means that learningprocess occurs at individual speeds and every apprentice has the possibility to influ-ence the speed and level of learning progress. For example, apprentices can choseto learn CAD even though it is not a skill required in the training plan. All employees-including the peer apprenticesare encouraged to help each other and show interestin questions apprentices may have. Additionally, a network of competences hasbeen developed, in which a pool of experts with a multitude of specialized skillssupports apprentices when they have specific questions. Each apprentice choosesa mentor from this pool who would be his main contact person and takes care thatthe apprentice reflects on his learning progresses, fulfils his training plan and evenhelps to prepare for exams.

The enterprise has its own apprenticeship workshop but it should not be confusedwith a general training facility. Rather, it is more concepted like an in-group-roomand opportunity for apprentices to prepare for exams or venture on new tasks. Themachines in the apprenticeship workshop are identical to the ones used in the pro-duction area and are used solely by apprentices or interns which means that theyalways are available to them. Apprentices can decide to work on their work-taskshere or in the production area.

The quality of training is rated using an instrument developed by the management.Every three months the mentors fill in personnel development sheets determiningthe progress of eleven different soft skills. The individual progress is discussed witheach apprentice. The enterprise is also very active in preparing people for choosingtheir profession and offers numerous opportunities to gather work experience inform of internships. Another indication for the functioning of the apprenticeshipconcept is the fact that apprentices are selected without reference to their school


qualification and still the number of dropouts is practically zero. In contrast, theaverage number of apprenticeship dropouts in Germany is about 20%.

Costs and benefits of vocational training

In the first year of apprenticeship, the yields of training are stated to be 50% of thoseof a skilled worker which is above average. Development of productivity and com-petence are interlaced. According to the management, “simple” tasks can be solvedfrom day one of training. In this case, the maximal productivity is stated to be 80%,because apprentices are not flexible for assignments at customers due to having tovisit vocational school. Also, apprentices do not have much experience or routine,meaning that they need more time to complete tasks than a skilled worker.

Following methods of the BIBB for an empiric investigation of „benefits and netcosts of vocational training for companies“ (cp. Beicht: 2004) the gross costs of thein-company training were calculated.

Abb. 4 Cost-benefit of vocational training

Following costs were included in the gross costs: The personnel costs for appren-tices (salary, social contribution and other personnel costs), the additional costs ofthe mentors, investment costs, expendable items and other costs. These add up to


an average of 12.316€ per apprentice per year. The personnel costs account for thegreater part of the costs, because the training mostly takes place on-the-job andmentors who support and help apprentices are paid 100€ per month.

Apprentices also work value productively and these yields are calculated reckoningup the amount of time apprentices spend productively, the level of performancecompared to a skilled worker and the expenses for a skilled worker. At the enterprise,the current salary for a skilled worker is set at 15,72€ per hour (including socialcontributions). One can see in the table that the apprenticeship yields are higherthan its gross costs. The yields are averagely 12.798€ per year which means anaverage profit of 482€ per year for the company or about 1.814€ over the course ofthe apprenticeship. Already in the first year of apprenticeship the yields exceed10.000€. In the second year the salary rises and apprentices take time to preparefor exams so that the costs outweigh the benefits. In the third year, in which thereare no exams, the benefits outweigh the gross costs. In the final fourth year, theexpenses are quite high, because external courses are attended to complete the pro-file of a skilled worker and apprentices enter the phase of preparation for the finalexams.

Abb. 5 cost-benefit of in-company training for one apprentice per year in average (Sources: Beicht

2003; Beicht 2004)

The results in the BIBB study on the average costs of in-company training per oneindustrial mechanic per year vary from those of the case study. The challengingprofession of industrial mechanic requires high quality training. This does not


necessarily mean that it must be expensive, as shows bar graph no. 3. becausereflected value producing work can be advantageous for both the learning appren-tice and the employer.

Conclusion

Skilled work is changing and apprentices can meet the new requirements if inte-grated into operational procedures. In order to be able to work as a skilled workerafter apprenticeship it is vital that in-company training takes place within work-order related training and specialist knowledge is imparted as well as general softskills whilst growing into the community of practice. The assignments are chosencarefully, so that the apprentice is able to accomplish them. Difficulty and comple-xity of work-orders vary depending on the competence and capacity of individualapprentice.

The training concept at the enterprise is based on encouragement and trust, becausethe responsibility of learning is in the hands of the apprentices themselves. Thismodel, in which apprentices are incorporated in the real work environment andexperience situated learning attributes apprentices rather the status as co-workersand implicates changes in the way apprentices and employees think and behave.

Upon this example it becomes adjacent that if training occurs in a reflective work-oriented atmosphere and the company takes responsibility for qualification bycarefully choosing training methods and times, then the quality of vocational trai-ning is enhanced and potentials for self-financing of apprenticeship can be takenadvantage of.

Literatur

Beicht, Walden (2003): Kosten der betrieblichen Berufsausbildung in technischen Berufen. In:Beicht/Troltsch et al.: Technische Berufe im dualen System der Berufsausbildung – Stel-lenwert und Entwicklungstendenzen. Bonn: BIBB.

Beicht, Walden/Herget (2004): Kosten und Nutzen der betrieblichen Berufsausbildung inDeutschland. Bonn: BIBB.


BIBB (2005): Neu abgeschlossene Ausbildungsverträge. Ausgewählte Ergebnisse der BIBB-Erhebung zum 30. September 2005.http://www.bibb.de/de/23491.htm.

BMB+F (2000)29: Ausbildung & Beruf. Rechte und Pflichten während der Berufsausbildung.Für Jugendliche, Eltern, Ausbilder und Lehrer.

BMBF, Hrsg. (2003): Berufsbildungsbericht. Berlin.

BMBF, Hrsg. (2005): Berufsbildungsbericht. Berlin.

Rauner, F. (2003): Expertise „Schaffung neuer Ausbildungsplätze“. ITB. Bremen.


http://www.bibb.de/de/23491.htm

The Danish VET system as a framework

of case descriptions and analyses

Jette Harrebye

The Danish VET system

The Danish VET system is part of the overall youth education system, and aims atdeveloping both the general, personal and vocational skills of young people. Theoverall objectives of VET are laid down in the Act on Vocational Education andTraining. According to these, the aim of the programmes is not only to provide thetrainees with vocational qualifications, which are formally recognised and indemand by the labour market, but also to provide them with general and personalqualifications that open up the trainees’ possibilities for lifelong learning and foractive citizenship.

The system is based on three main principles:

1. the dual training principle, i.e. periods in school alternating with periods oftraining in an enterprise. This principle ensures that the trainees acquiretheoretical, practical, general and personal skills which are in demand by thelabour market;

2. the principle of social partner involvement, whereby the social partners takepart directly in the overall decision-making and daily running of the VET sys-tem;

3. the principle of lifelong learning, i.e. the system is extremely flexible, andoffers learners the possibility of taking part of a qualification now, and laterreturning to the VET system and adding to their VET qualifications in orderto access further and higher education. Furthermore, VET and continuingVET (CVET) are integrated, in order to ensure coherence between differentqualifications and competence levels.

The Danish VET system as a framework of case des-criptions and analyses 77

A definition

The terms VET, initial VET (IVET), and continuing VET (CVET) are often used indifferent ways in different EU Member States. In our report, the term VET is usedabout the system and the programmes providing recognised vocational qualificati-ons for practice within a certain trade or profession. The system is part of the Danishyouth education system, and as such, is primarily targeted at young people (16+).However, the average age of trainees in VET is 22, and the VET system also offersa wide range of possibilities for adults (25+). Furthermore, the trend is towards anintegration of IVET and CVET in one system, in order to make the provision of VETtransparent, flexible and attractive. People who have completed a VET programmehave an employment rate of approximately 80% one year after completion of theirtraining (AER, 2004), which seems to be a strong indicator of a well-functioningsystem.

VET – an involving system

The Danish VET system is characterised by a high degree of stakeholder involve-ment. Not only the social partners, but also colleges, enterprises, teachers andtrainees are involved in a continuous dialogue about, and development of, theDanish VET system. The cooperation between the Ministry of Education and thesocial partners is very well developed, and the vocational colleges and the enterprisesalso share responsibility for the training of each individual trainee – all of whichensures that the qualifications obtained are well-known, and generally recognisedin the labour market. The involvement of stakeholders creates a system which isbased on consensus, and in which responsibilities are shared within clearly definedboundaries.

The active participation of the social partners at all levels of the system intend toguarantee that the content of the individual VET programmes meets the demandsof the labour market, and that the qualifications are recognised by business andindustry. The social partners are represented in a number of councils and commit-tees acting at local, sectorial and national level. Employers and employees areequally represented in the trade committees. Each committee is responsible for oneor more VET qualifications. In 2005, there were 58 trade committees. The tradecommittees are responsible for the continuous adaptation and development of theVET programmes. The local training committees (de lokale uddannelsesudvalg) assistthe vocational colleges in the local planning of the programmes. They provide advice

78 Jette Harrebye

on all matters concerning training, and are responsible for strengthening the con-tact between colleges and the local labour market.

Flexible structures

There are two access routes to the VET programmes: the school pathway and thecompany pathway. Trainees can either enrol on a basic course, or start in an enter-prise with which they have a training contract. In both cases, school periods (1/3 ofthe entire training programme) will alternate with periods of in-company training(2/3). The VET programmes are divided into two parts: a basic course, which isbroad in its scope, and a main course in which the trainee specialises within a craftor a trade. There are seven basic courses:

• building and construction;

• crafts and engineering trades;

• mechanical engineering, transport and logistics;

• service industries;

• technology and communication;

• food production and catering;

• commerce, clerical education and finance.

The basic course

The basic course, particularly for the technical training programmes, is highly fle-xible in terms of both time and contents. The basic course consists of bothcompulsory and optional subjects. The optional subjects provide the individualtrainee with the possibility of acquiring additional qualifications in regard to eitherthe main course, or to access to further or higher education. The length of the basiccourse in the technical training programmes may vary from programme to pro-gramme, and from one trainee to the next, depending on their qualifications,desires and needs. The basic courses typically last 20 weeks.

The main course

The main course (technical training) normally lasts between 3 and 3 1⁄2 years, ofwhich the school-based part constitutes approximately 40 weeks. Most main cour-


ses are divided into fixed periods of school-based and work-based training. The aimis to ensure progression in the programmes, and coherence between the learningtaking place in school and the learning taking place in the enterprise. During theschool periods, the trainees meet with other trainees at the same competence level,and take part in learning activities at a vocational college. Normally, the periods inschool last from one to five weeks. The programme is concluded with either ajourneyman’s test (technical training) or a final project-based examination (com-mercial training) in which the trainee shows that he or she has acquired the skillsnecessary to work as a skilled worker within his/her trade.

Flexible in time and content

When a trainee enters a VET programme, he or she has to have a personal educationplan drawn up. In the education plan, the trainee has to describe his/her pathwayfrom unskilled to skilled worker: the objectives, how to achieve the objectives, lear-ning activities, etc. The education plan is drawn up together with a teacher from avocational college, and the teacher is also responsible for assessing the trainee’sprior learning and taking the trainee’s “real” qualifications into consideration.

EUD+

In 2005, it became possible for trainees under the age of 25 to complete a VETprogramme as part of the EUD+ scheme. This possibility means that the traineehas to complete a basic course and the first part of a main course, either in a com-pany, or in the compensatory practical training scheme. The trainee then has to beemployed in a company, and have at least six months of ordinary employment, inorder to obtain relevant qualifications. If the trainee then wants to continue on thenext part of the VET programme, he or she has to have his/her qualifications asses-sed at a vocational college, and a personal education plan drawn up, describing thelearning activities, employment and/or practical training he/she has had at schoolor in the company. The EUD+ scheme is completed without any educational con-tract, and is provided by those colleges that are approved to provide the maincourses. The EUD+ scheme is targeted at the practically-oriented young people, andprovides them with the possibility of acquiring a full qualification at a later stage.

80 Jette Harrebye

How do we understand the concept of innovation?

Education and working life are in a process of change as globalisation and techno-logical developments make new demands, challenging both the individual andsociety. Global competition opens up new opportunities and markets for employ-ment, but also requires that people think proactively about the development ofproducts, production, education and skills.

Innovation is about renewal, new thinking and creativity. For something to be con-sidered innovative, it must not only represent something new, but also be usefuland create increased value (normally economic value, but it could have other dimen-sions, e.g. increased social value). In Denmark at the moment there is a lot of focuson innovation, and vocational education has undergone significant reforms aimedat pointing educational programmes and teaching at the future skill requirementsof the labour market. The main reason for this is that developments generally makegreater demands for new thinking and capacity for renewal1 in companies as wellas improved education for apprentices.

This project focuses on “innovative apprenticeships” in connection with the basicvocational education programmes in Denmark. So it would be appropriate to tryand define what is understood by “innovative apprenticeship” within the frameworkof this project. This is done in the following sections.

Selection criteria for innovative apprenticeship companies in theDanish case studies

How does one find a company that has an innovative apprenticeship scheme andis representative of “best practice”? This section looks at the criteria in general andthen we give the criteria on which each of the four Danish companies interviewedwere chosen.

The project group used the criteria set out in the project proposal from ITB Bremenas its starting point. These criteria are supplemented with quality criteria from theDanish project report “Apprentice job skills and the attractive vocational trainingcompany”2 together with the Danish project group’s own additional criteria. The

1 The Danish Government: “Denmark and globalisation – Debate booklet on globalisation’s challenge for

Denmark”, Regeringen, 2005, www.globalisering.dk.

2 Jakobsen, Jane, Del-Syd; Anne Holm Sjøberg, HVR: Elevens jobkompetencer og den attraktive praktikvirk-

somhed. Forsøgs- og udviklingsrapport, UVM 2005.


http://www.globalisering.dk/

additional criteria arose from the group’s own considerations and professionalexperience with the training part of the Danish vocational education system. Thesupplementary criteria from the project report and additional criteria have beenused as inspiration and not as definitive requirements, when selecting companies.

Criteria from ITB Bremen’s project proposal

The project proposal’s basic quality requirements contain both the outer frameworkconditions and state indicators of quality:

• The starting point is the quantifiable and professional performance of the app-rentices, i.e. that the company’s apprentices/trainees have achieved goodresults in tests and/or competitions.

• It is a requirement that at least one apprentice/trainee is taken on annually andthat the dropout rate during the apprenticeship is minimal.

• The company takes on some of the apprentices at the end of the apprenticeship.

• The selection criteria are supplemented with the factor that a good reputationin the industry and/or with the educational institution will be considered a plus.

• The size of the company is limited to small and medium-sized companies withno more than 250 employees.

Criteria specified in the Danish project “Apprentice job skills andthe attractive vocational training company”

The Danish project “Apprentice job skills and the attractive vocational trainingcompany” was based on young apprentices/trainees who nominated their vocatio-nal training company for an award. The following indicators were used as a sign ofquality in vocational training:

• Training should provide professional challenges and variation in jobs, wherethe apprentices can try out their knowledge and skills in practice.

• The atmosphere among colleagues in the training environment, summed upin the expression “being seen and heard”, is crucial. The apprentices wantrespect from their colleagues, from their trainers and manager, and support/help in their training.

• Being given responsibility for work and customer contact are highlighted ascriteria, because they promote the apprentice’s progress and also benefit thecompany.

82 Jette Harrebye

The Danish project group’s additional criteria

The Danish project group suggested quality requirements that would support thebasic ideas in the Danish sandwich course system. The system works best when itsvarious parts work together in unity.

• One indicator of support and quality development in the system is thecompany’s interaction with the Professional Committee, with the Local Edu-cational Committee and/or any other form of active committee work forimproving quality in vocational training.

• The Danish Ministry of Education wants companies to use tools that assistinteraction between the college and the company. Examples of this are ElevplanPraktik, consistent use of educational material, integration of vocational trai-ning aims into the practical training, etc. So consistent use of these tools canbe another factor in selecting companies.

• New thinking around teaching quality and systematic training of the company’strainers can be an indicator of quality that can be used when selecting compa-nies. In Denmark, it is a relatively new idea to think in terms of upgrading theteaching qualifications of company trainers.

At the overall level the four companies represent the four areas of education: Trade& clerical, Craftsman, Industrial production and Service industries.

Selection of the Danish companies

The four Danish companies were chosen so as to represent 4 different kinds ofindustry and for the following reasons:

Company no. 1 - Conditori & Café Hans Christian Andersen, Copenhagen(Craft)

The company has 28 employees and 4 students and was chosen because it has anotably good reputation within the baker/confectioner industry, which otherwisesuffers from large dropout rates and recruiting problems.

The owner is known for her extensive involvement in the training of youngsters,and also for her active participation in a number of committees involved with edu-cational issues.


The owner puts great emphasis on training: she finds it personally inspiring andshe is also conscious of the importance of securing a qualified workforce so theindustry can survive in the future. The youngsters’ different way of doing things isseen as a strength (rather than a weakness), which is of vital importance for thedevelopment of the company. It is obvious that the owner is focused on the potentialof the youngsters rather than the problems.

Company no. 2 – CenterSalonen, Odense (Service)

The company is a unisex hairdressing salon with 18 employees including 6 app-rentices. The salon was chosen because of the chief hairdresser’s many years ofinnovative work with the many sides of apprentice training. The chief hairdresserhimself does the training at the salon and keeps up with the apprentices’ collegework. Today he is an inspecting master at the final apprentice exams and for anumber of years has been active on various educational committees. Several formerapprentices have carried on taking part in competitions as trained hairdressers, bothat national and international level, with good results. Some have also gone on toopen their own salons at the end of their apprenticeship. When taking on appren-tices, it is their ability to think in pictures and their flair for the profession thatcounts, not the high marks. About half of the apprentices get a job in the companyat the end of the apprenticeship. A total of 2 apprentices have ended the apprenti-ceship during the first year, by mutual agreement.

Company no. 3 – Ejde Nielsen Toolmaking factory, Svendborg (Industrialproduction)

The company, which has 26 employees and 4 apprentices at the moment, was pri-marily chosen on the recommendation of the trade committee of which the ownerhimself is a member. The trade committee secretariat emphasised the owner’sactive role in educational politics in general and toolmaker training in particular.

The company also has a good reputation in the local area for its recruitment ofapprentices and the way they can stay on after their apprenticeship if they wish.

Finally the company’s comprehensive production equipment and the fact that veryfew drop out of the apprenticeships are powerful arguments for the company’sselection.

84 Jette Harrebye

Company no. 4 – Road haulage company Frode Laursen A/S, Hinnerup(Trade & clerical)

The company has 135 employees and apprentices doing trade and clerical work andwas chosen because if fulfils the basic criteria. Several apprentices are taken on eachyear and so far only one apprentice has dropped out over the many years. Almosthalf of the apprentices are taken on the permanent staff at the end of the apprenti-ceship. Most of the company’s apprentices/trainees achieve good or excellentresults in the final apprenticeship exams.

The head of department at Århus Business College where the apprentices do theircollege study recommended the company. The head of department describes FrodeLaursen as a very committed company that takes an active part in improving thecollege/company relationship and works to constructively systematise the appren-ticeship.

Another significant factor in the selection process was that Frode Laursen’s app-rentices work alongside the regular office employees and carry out operational taskson their own almost from the start of the apprenticeship period.

Description of 3 discourses

The 4 companies in DEL’s analysis represent different industrial areas. So we star-ted by investigating whether we were dealing with different discourses3 that mightexplain a difference in the companies’ attitude towards job training and conse-quently towards what good job training is. This resulted in the description of 3discourses:

• the creative enthusiasts

• the traditionalist

• the growth company

These discourses structure the subsequent exposition.

3 Discourse is understood here as a network of meaning that functions as opinion-forming for objects of

knowledge, social relations and social identities.


a. The creative enthusiasts (Confectioner and Hairdresser)

The two companies offering apprenticeships in the areas respectively of crafts andservice are characterised by being small owner-managed companies in which bothapprentice and production are close to the customer, and thus close to thecustomer’s evaluation of quality, time, price, etc. Both owners are responsible forjob training and trainers, and both company cultures are characterised by strongcraft tradition, professional pride, and a demand for development and quality. Bothindustries live by being creative, getting into close relationships with their custo-mers, listening to their needs, supplying good workmanship, and achieving uniqueresults time and again.

These requirements determine the job training environment in both companies,where the youngsters get the opportunity to develop a broad range of competences(personal, social, creative and professional) connected with the requirements of thejob and its execution. It is a matter of developing both technique in the narrow senseand other skills, quality, self-discipline, responsibility, curiosity, intuition, ability towork together, communication, and the courage to try things for oneself. Bothcompanies also supplement in-house, on-the-job training with opportunities to takecourses, go to trade fairs and information meetings, and take part in competitions,etc. At the confectioner’s, training consists simply of participation in production.The apprentices are quickly given responsibility for their own work, which has amotivating effect. At the hairdresser’s the degree of participation in production isconditioned by the need to ensure the quality of the product the customer is buying.Quality is a key feature in the work of both trainers and the youngsters learn toevaluate and describe the quality of their own work all through the apprenticeship.In both places the training includes on-the-job training, rotation and individual jobswhere apprentices work on their own with support from the trainer.

b. The traditionalist (Industrial production)

The company offering apprenticeships in industrial production is characterised bytraditional industrial production and a mixture of conventional and hi-tech equip-ment. A small owner-managed company, it makes a living from its ability to supplyspecial tools and job lot production with precision and quality at the right price ina market under pressure. All the work done is skilled and there is a strong profes-sional commitment among the employees. The atmosphere is informal, but theculture is dominated by traditional thinking on economic production with the com-pany requiring that an apprentice is hard working, whole-hearted about the app-renticeship, and conscientious at work, avoiding mistakes that cost money. The

86 Jette Harrebye

apprentices have to learn everything from the bottom. This means that working onjobs using manually controlled machinery gives them the “feel” for materials andways of machining that will later enable them to carry out production using thecomputer-operated machinery, so they have the insight to adjust and set the machi-nery correctly. The apprentice takes part 100% in ordinary production from thestart. There is no apprentice department and they do not give apprentices practicejobs. The apprentice typically carries out production work together with a skilledworker, but sometimes with older apprentices. The training includes both on-the-job training and the apprentice’s own work on parts of complete project. Thestructure of the job training is informal and conditioned by production and thetrainer and work manager’s knowledge of the individual apprentice’s technicallevel. The apprentices learn what they should, but they are not challenged to act ontheir own initiative. College and practical work are viewed as two separate spheres,each with their function, and there is no time for courses and theory during thetraining. The involvement in educational politics is focused on getting more youngpeople into the industry.

c. The growth company (Transport company)

This company is a medium-sized, road-haulage company with apprentices in admi-nistration and office work. The company both supplies and coordinates nation-widestorage and transport solutions, and is now a public limited company with the for-mer sole owner as managing director.

The transport industry is a hectic environment with a lot of “here and now” chal-lenges that put special demands on the employees’ flexibility, negotiating ability,and requires good systems and documentation. The business is dynamic, requiringcollaboration both internally and with customers. So the company needs employeesand apprentices with the right professional knowledge and spirit. They have to beable to see the whole picture in the workflow as well as have department specificskills. The company is going through a period of powerful growth yet retains theculture of a small company with a flat structure and delegation where the workflowis determined by the nature of the job and the individual’s expertise, not the hier-archy. At the same time this approach is strategically underpinned with the activecultivation of a company spirit and a series of company values.

The expansion has led to a systematising of both internal and external procedures,including those of apprentices. There are fixed procedures for the recruitment ofapprentices (with a profile test) and for their training. The introductory test empha-sises personal competences, and using that as a tool has made the approach to


training more goal-oriented, ensuring that apprentices acquire the necessary exper-tise aimed at in the training. The owner wants to train apprentices in the companyspirit and thus ensure the recruitment of employees with the right values, but healso sees it as his social responsibility in society. The person responsible for trainingin the company both gives guidance to the individual apprentice and the trainershe meets and makes sure the aims of the apprenticeship are fulfilled. He followsprogress made by the youngsters and the trainers’ impressions of them by meansof regular status interviews.

The comparative perspective

Our starting point was to collect examples of good apprenticeships. We knew befo-rehand that the differences in the form of training have no noticeable effect onresults achieved, because the companies were chosen on the basis amongst otherthings that their apprentices typically achieved good results in exams and compe-titions. On the other hand, the material does show connections between thedominant discourse in the company, the aim of the training, and the way it is tack-led. Moreover the interview material shows that across the different discourses thereare a series of competences that all 4 companies prioritise in training. This suggeststhat there are some general, fundamental and central competences that are requiredfor an employee to be fully qualified in a Danish work place.

We have collected these common traits, which are implicitly or explicitly prioritisedin the weighting given by the companies to the job skills young people should have/acquire to meet the conditions and demands of the labour market: professionalknowledge, responsibility, quality in their work, self-discipline, able to work underpressure, able to maintain an overview of parts and of the whole, flexibility, a senseof order, able to work with others and able to listen and learn. These are the traitswe will take as our starting point when we subsequently highlight examples of goodtraining practice.

In summary, we are talking about the skills of knowledge, will and ability, and aboutinner motivation factors which can be activated externally. So good training shouldalso be seen as interaction between the company and the young person. It is aboutmeeting youngsters on their terms, but the youngsters must also want to be met.Just as they need role models. But they are looking for different role models. Thisis seen in the light of the discursive field together with a company’s good apprenticeresults. For creative enthusiasts, personal commitment and talent are important forthe apprentice to get the most out of the training process. For traditionalists, the

88 Jette Harrebye

ability to see themselves as part of the whole flow of production is important forwhat the apprentice gets out of the training process. In the growth company, theability to identify with the company and its values is decisive for benefit from thetraining process.

Good training focuses on professional development during the apprenticeship andin all 4 companies we have seen examples of how the youngsters’ skills are deve-loped through on-the-job training, a high degree of participation in production,responsibility in accord with their level, and challenges that are above their level.Plus the reflection that takes place in the social environment of the company.

Good training supports the development of the apprentice’s current strengthsregarding flexibility and change. Apprentices must learn to learn, learn to try thingsout, formulate ideas and acquire skills, etc. The individual apprentice needs disci-pline to become really good and the basis for this ability and willingness to try comesfrom professional competence. The innovation aspect, in the form of challengingand responsible work that develops the individual beyond the goals set by the app-renticeship, is focused on by the creative enthusiasts in various ways such as thechance to take part in competitions and extra courses. It is toned down by the tra-ditionalist where there is rarely time for anything beyond production, but thepotential is there with the incipient focus on young people who are fascinated byand skilled at IT. In the growth company, it is put in a fixed framework of workdelegation across the lines of hierarchy and focus on training the trainers.

Good training is also about helping the apprentice to become integrated socially.All 4 companies create the framework for this, but the apprentice has the respon-sibility to fill it out. The creative enthusiasts are very aware of working together asan entry point to social acceptance and they create opportunities via interdiscipli-nary collaboration, their intuition and their views on human nature. The traditio-nalist views social acceptance as something that happens in the course of thetraining, where a skilled worker or older apprentice is always there, while the growthcompany steers the process of social integration with its systematic procedures androutines, and with ongoing and regular interviews with the person responsible fortraining. It is also clear that if an apprentice can live up to the norms and work ethicof the company, and can establish good relationships with the skilled workers andboss, he achieves social acceptance and an active share in the network of knowledgethat the boss and skilled workers represent.

Good training also looks towards the future. Society has shifted dramatically overthe past 20-25 years and young people have increasingly adopted the changes. Thetransformation has influenced their expectations and behavioural patterns. For


most of the generation that is on its way on to the labour market today, the socialaspect and personal confirmation are very important. At the same time, in Danishsociety we can see a tendency towards creativity that in time will require reeducationand further education in the work force and innovation in business. In a company,innovation will typically be based on developing current strengths in relation to themarket. This might be new ways of doing things, new products, new organisationalforms, etc.

These developments may in time cause problems for the traditionalist, whose com-pany does not supplement its narrow eceonomic strategy with the development ofwider skills. The growth company gives an idea as to how the direction of develop-ment can be successfully managed through motivation, targeted training and thetraining of trainers. The creative enthusiasts will always be exponents of good indi-vidual training, but this ability is in part related to the size of the company, aninformal style and a creative environment.

We think that the strength that good vocational training companies have in commonlies in their recognition that the investment of time in training and active engage-ment in educational policy is worthwhile – benefiting society, the company andyoung people. The ability to think innovatively is sharpened by a methodicalapproach. Ideas and creativity do not come out of thin air and are not airy-fairyconcepts, but goals we must work for. So it is essential to ensure the interactionbetween the technical/professional elements of the apprenticeships and the gene-ral, personal and not least social skills that are also involved in encouraging theability to dare to think new thoughts.

90 Jette Harrebye

Value adding to apprenticeships: How

an Australian construction company

invests in apprentices to produce future

senior managers

Erica Smith

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the Australian apprenticeship and traineeshipsystem followed by a case study of a large construction company that re-concep-tualised its apprenticeship system in the State of Victoria to produce future seniormanagers for the company. A number of features of the apprentice systems in thecompany combined to produce good outcomes, but the paper also identifies someareas that needed improvement.

Introduction

Australia has a strong apprenticeship and traineeship system, with the numbers ofyoung people and adults engaged in such training rising rapidly over the past tenyears, supported by funding and infrastructure initiatives. In 2000, 275,000 app-rentices and trainees were in training (Robinson, 2001) and by 2005 there werealmost 400,000 (NCVER 2006). This is from a total Australian population of 21million, with a labour force of around 10.5 million. In this respect Australia differsfrom other developed countries such as the United States where apprenticeshipshave never been an important part of skill formation (Capelli, 1996), or the UnitedKingdom where Modern Apprenticeships in the 1990s did not achieve the hoped-for success in the rebuilding of the all-but-extinct traditional apprenticeship system

Value adding to apprenticeships: How an Australianconstruction company invests in apprentices to pro-duce future senior managers 91

(Gray & Morgan, 1998). While there have been some difficulties associated withthe recent rapid expansion in Australia, mainly to do with irregularities relating tofunding and subsidies in traineeships (eg Schofield 1999), these difficulties arebeing addressed in various recent policy changes. It is likely therefore that the sys-tem will continue in its present or similar form for the foreseeable future, and willcontinue to provide a useful site for the study of formal training for entry-levelworkers in both on and off the job settings.

Context

Before the mid-1980s, in Australia, contracted entry-level training was only availa-ble in traditional craft apprenticeships in a limited range of occupations. These weremainly ‘male’ occupations with significant numbers of female apprentices only inhairdressing and the training period lasted for three to four years with either twoor three years spent attending a TAFE college for one day a week. The remainderof the time was spent in on-the-job training and in productive work. In some casesindustrial relations legislation determined the nature of the training and the ratioof apprentices to skilled workers; such provisions are becoming much less commonand with new federal IR legislation called ‘WorkChoices’, introduced in April 2006,it will no longer be possible to include such provision in industrial ‘awards’ as theyare known in Australia.

The Kirby report (1985) on entry-level training highlighted such issues as the ine-quitable access of minority groups to apprenticeships, the need to provide long-termemployment rather than short-term subsidised jobs for unemployed people, andgeneral changes in employment conditions. As a result, one-year traineeships in‘non-trade’ occupations for 16 and 17 year olds, which involve part-time off the jobtraining for 20% of the time, reflected in pay rates set at 80% of normal wages. In1996/7 the numbers of trainee commencements exceeded apprentice commence-ments for the first time (Robinson, 2001:9)1 . Traineeships have also expandedoutside their ‘traditional’ industries, which were mainly clerical, retail and hospi-tality (Bush, 1992), into a wide range of industries. Currently around 125,000under-19 year olds are in contracted training (as apprenticeships and traineeshipsare often known) (NCVER 2006), although only 93,000 are in full-time apprenti-ceships or traineeships. This is compared with total 15-19 year old full-time employ-ment of around 240,0002 .

1 The total number of apprentices in training is unlikely to be overtaken by the number of trainees in training

in the foreseeable future, since apprentices generally stay in training for three or four years while traineeships

are almost all one-year programs.

92 Erica Smith

Together with, and linked to, the rise of traineeships, changes have been made tothe Australian apprentice system. These have included various alterations to thesubsidy arrangements for employers (eg Fooks, 1997)3 and the removal of agerestrictions for employment of apprentices. These have been designed to improveaccess to apprenticeships and to extend coverage to other industries. There havealso been attempts to amalgamate apprenticeships and traineeships under threesimilar, successive, schemes: the AVTS, MAATS and New Apprenticeships, thecurrent umbrella term. These changes of title have been difficult for employers,training providers and potential trainees and apprentices to understand (eg Houseof Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training,1997) and have made collection of statistics difficult. The National Centre for Voca-tional Education Research (NCVER), which collects national VET statistics, isrequired to combine apprentices and trainees and can only estimate the separatenumbers for apprentices and trainees by assuming that those in contracted trainingfor over two years are apprentices (NCVER, 1999:10).

In Australia, many apprentices and trainees are not employed directly by theiremployers. Group Training Organisations (GTOs) employ large numbers of app-rentices and trainees and arrange their off-the-job training, sending them to hostemployers who ‘lease’ them for a weekly fee. Sometimes the apprentices and trai-nees experience a number of host employers, but in some cases they stay with oneemployer for the complete period of their contract (Smith, 1998). Although GTOshave been in existence for several decades, the numbers of apprentices and traineesemployed by GTOs rose rapidly in the mid-1990s, having been granted increasedprominence and funding under various training reform measures, and now employapproximately 20% of all Australian apprentices in the traditional trades (http://www.gtaltd.com.au.). GTOs play an important role in achieving equitable access toapprenticeships and traineeships, and also provide important social support, espe-cially to apprentices and trainees from disadvantaged backgrounds (Smith &Comyn, 2003). Some GTOs, through their training ‘arms’, offer pre-apprenticeshipprograms, which are off-the-job training courses, lasting three to six months, cove-ring off-the-job component of the first year of an apprenticeship (Dumbrell, 2003).They have some similarities to the courses offered at full-time vocational schools(‘berufskollegs’) in Germany (Deissinger & Ruf, 2006).

Two further developments in apprenticeships and traineeships are important: userchoice and 100% on-the-job training. ‘User choice’ was introduced in 1997 by the

2 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 6202.0 - Labour Force, Australia, Jan 2006.

3 Over the years various subsidies have existed to encourage employers to recruit and retain apprentices and

trainees. Larger subsidies are in place for young people belonging to various disadvantaged groups.


http://www.gtaltd.com.au/

http://www.gtaltd.com.au/

Australian National Training Authority as a mechanism for allowing enterprises(supposedly in consultation with their apprentices and trainees) to select their pre-ferred provider for the off-the-job portion of training, and the method of trainingdelivery (Ball, 2005). ‘User choice’ means that apprentices and trainees no longerneeded to attend the local college of the public provider, TAFE; they can attend anytraining provider (‘Registered Training Organisation’) registered to deliver the rele-vant qualification. Government funding for this part of the training flows directlyto the selected training provider (Noble et al, 1997). User choice policy has beenextensively critiqued on many grounds. In on-the-job apprenticeships and trai-neeships, the ‘off-the-job’ (government funded) portion of the training is deliveredon the job. While there has long been a tradition of in-company off-job training inapprenticeships (eg Venables, 1967; Murphy et al, 1998) in addition to training atcollege, typically in large companies which have been able to afford workshops withdedicated apprentice training staff, on-the job delivery is different. In an on-the-jobapprenticeship or traineeship, no training takes place outside the company. Anominated external provider must be responsible for monitoring the on-the-jobtraining; but with the transient nature of some non-TAFE training providers (Smithet al, 1996) this may not be a sufficient control to ensure quality. The ‘on-the-job’mode of delivery is confined mainly to traineeships rather than traditional appren-ticeships. On-the-job traineeships have been the subject of considerable govern-ment scrutiny, firstly in Queensland where two research reports (Brandi, 1999;Schofield, 1999) highlighted financial improprieties in the system, such as com-panies identifying people as trainees that did not need or receive the training, inorder to gain access to government subsidies. Such problems are not unique toAustralia. Capelli (1996), for instance, in a discussion of the British Youth Trainingscheme, highlights both the difficulty of ensuring sound training practices amongstemployers of youth trainees, and the necessity of paying close attention to the man-ner of administering government subsidies. What is known as the ‘work-basedroute’ is still seen as particularly problematic in England (Spielhofer & Sims, 2004).

Some important changes to the Australian system have been proposed recently.The growth of traineeships has been part of a wider process of ‘training reform’during the past twenty years which has also included the advent of competency-based training and the establishment of Training Packages for around 80 industryareas, each containing a range of qualifications (Smith & Keating 2003). Whileapprenticeships and traineeships remain to some extent ‘time-served’, there areconstant challenges particularly from employer associations to this, as one way ofaddressing skill shortages. The changes proposed include fast-tracking apprenticesthrough the system (eg WA DET, 2005), different programs for mature-aged wor-kers and competency-based progression (Australian Industry Group, 2005). The

94 Erica Smith

February 2006 Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting, of the federalPrime Minister and State Premiers, gathered together some of these proposedchanges and others in a strategy to address skills shortage as part of a wider nationalhuman capital approach. http://www.coag.gov.au/meetings/100206/index.htm.

The Australian research

Six case studies were carried out in Australian companies in two States to cover arange of industry areas which was prescribed by the international project managers.For reasons of international comparability, only apprenticeships/traineeships thatincluded some off the job training were researched; there were no fully on-the-jobtrainees included. Four were in a regional city and two were in a metropolitan area.Suitable sites were located through the researcher’s contacts in Industry SkillsCouncils, Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) and other intermediarybodies. In each case study, an in-depth interview of 40-90 minutes was carried outon-site with the most senior manager with direct responsibility for apprenticerecruitment and training. In some cases this was a first-line manager; in other casesa more senior manager. The interviews were structured around a detailed ques-tionnaire prepared by the international project managers and adapted for theAustralian context. The Australian case studies are listed in Table 1 (all companynames are pseudonyms). Case studies were undertaken between August andNovember 2005.


http://www.coag.gov.au/meetings/100206/index.htm

Tab. 1 Details of case study sites

Company Industry

Sector

No of

staff

Metro/

regiona

l

Apprentice-

ship/

traineeship

Interviewee

Truck

Repairs

Automotive-

heavy vehicle

600 Metro Apprentice-

ship

Technical

Training &

Development

Co-ordinator

Big

Builders

Construction 200 Metro Apprentice-

ship

General foreman

Motel Inc

(catering)

Hospitality 50 Regiona

l

Apprentice-

ship

Executive Chef

Retirement

Home

Aged Care 130 Regiona

l

Traineeship General

manager

Farming

Supplies

Retail 31 Regiona

l

Traineeship Business &

marketing

manager

Physio

Firm

Medical

reception

6 Regiona

l

Traineeship Practice

principal

Big Builders is chosen as the case study for this paper, which focuses on the way inwhich the company used the apprenticeship system to develop future senior mana-gers.

Findings from Big Builders case study

‘Big Builders’ was one of the largest construction companies in Australia and wasstructured so that there was a regional management structure in each State. Thecompany managed many large commercial projects, and the site visited was an

96 Erica Smith

apartment and leisure complex in a redeveloped area in Melbourne’s Docklands.Melbourne is the capital of the State of Victoria and has a population of approxi-mately 4 million. Big Builders' sites in Victoria varied greatly, with some sites onlyhaving four or five workers at any time but some major projects having up to 600people on site. Big Builders overall employed about 200 people in Victoria of whomaround 60 were construction workers, ie skilled tradesmen or sometimes semis-killed people driving forklifts and so on. The Docklands site visited had employed370 people at its peak, and was now in its fit out and finish stage. In the constructionindustry there is a large amount of sub-contracting. The way a project was handledwas that a Big Builders project manager was in overall charge of the project inclu-ding the finances, with a general foreman who managed the routine building workincluding managing all the sub-contractors who carried out work such as plastering,electrical work and plumbing. The project manager was generally a university engi-neering graduate while the general foreman generally had a background in thebuilding trades, although sometimes general foreman did ‘move over’ to becomeproject managers. In fact apprentices had in the past become State Managers forthe company.

On the Docklands project site there were 20 Big Builders staff only; the remainderwere sub-contractors and their staff. As the general foreman put it:

We have a staff of about 6 or 7 construction workers (CWs), one who maintains theoffice and the sheds for the guys, the amenities, and then there's another guy who doesall the materials handling, he might be a forklift driver and then we have a gatemanand a couple of CW’s on the floor and others that drive the lift so we manage the logisticsI suppose so when the sub-contractor brings his tiles we get them unloaded take themto the lift our lift driver takes them up and the contractor then puts them on the floor.

Big Builders were very clear about what the company wanted from their apprentices.Because Big Builders did not employ large numbers of workers directly, their mainneed was for people who would be able to work with and manage sub-contractors.They only took on carpentry apprentices as carpentry was the broadest constructiontrade and the one most needed by those employed directly by Big Builders (as oppo-sed to sub-contractors). The first step up the promotion ladder was ‘leading hand’who was ‘50% on the tools’. The leading hand might, for example, manage a sub-section of a building such as a toilet block. He or she would spend some of his timeworking in his or her trade and spend the rest of the time programming the workand managing the sub-contractors. The general foreman said:

People in my role and the foremen that are under me who work their way up have allstarted as apprentices so at the very outset when we're looking for apprentices we tell


them (the Group Training Organisation) that we're looking for managers or foremento work their way up through the ranks. What ends up happening is they come and dotheir 4 year apprenticeship and probably towards the end of their last year we startbreaking them up and start giving them areas to look after. Because it's such a broadtraining (they) get to see everything so they usually make the best supervisors. Duringtheir apprenticeship we ask them, we look at their structure and we give them out tosub-contractors and they get the whole aspect of building and so at the end of their timethey become leading hands and moving on to supervisors.

This system had been instituted recently because there were problems with findinggood staff to become foremen. The company had only quite recently moved frombeing a large direct employer to using a lot of sub-contractors. The general foremansaid:

Years ago the company when they had their own employees in formwork and electri-cians and so on, we probably had anywhere up to 30 or 40 apprentices working for thecompany then, and (at that time) they valued it as in this is where our future leadersof the company are going to come from, come from the work floor and lead that companyinto the next generation … so that did drop off and there was a gap where we had noforemen and they didn’t understand the company, we were getting people in off thestreet but they just didn’t understand the company and how it operates so that’s howwe decided and we went to senior management and said we need to start putting onapprentices again.

As a result of these problems, in the state of Victoria three interested Big Builderssenior staff formed an apprentice committee and decided that the company neededto be more strategic in its employment of apprentices. Two or three apprenticeswere now taken on each year, and they were employed through a Group TrainingOrganisation (GTO) but spent all their time with Big Builders. The company pre-ferred to employ through a GTO because then the GTO handled all the paperworkand also provided a screening service, presenting Big Builders only with a short-listof people to interview. Also, they knew that if Big Builders did not suit them, theGTO would find them another host employer; this might be in the residential con-struction industry (house-building). Moreover, the apprentices all completed a 16-week pre-apprenticeship course before joining Big Builders so that they had someinitial trade skills. Initially on joining Big Builders the apprentices were placed withsubcontractors in the simpler trades such as plastering or form work and then theywere progressively rotated onto more complex tasks. At the end of three or threeand half years of their four year apprenticeship they had been ‘lent’ to subcontrac-tors in every trade so that they were intimately familiar with all jobs that might be

98 Erica Smith

done in a project. The subcontractors got the labour of the apprentice free, whichwas a huge investment on the part of Big Builders. If Big Builders wanted the app-rentice to spend time on ‘odd jobs’ needed for the site, such as building a shed orcovered walkway, the company would actually pay the apprentice overtime to dothat after hours or at the weekend.

Each apprentice had a regular monthly meeting with his4 supervisor and the com-mittee met every three months to review the progress of all of the apprentices. Forthis meeting, the current supervisor of the apprentice had to fill out a one-pagereport on the apprentice’s work attitude, his trade skills and how his TAFE off-the-job study was proceeding. The apprentice had to keep a daily ‘diary’ of what theyhad done for the day in which they might record drawings or anything they hadbuilt and general observations. This was described as being a preparation for thedaily diary that a foreman had to fill in on his worksite. The general foreman des-cribed it as being rather like a ‘ship’s log’. The apprentice had to show his diary tohis supervisor for the supervisor to note on the report.

Because the apprentices had all completed a pre-apprenticeship course before joi-ning Big Builders, they had already gained many of the competencies required fortheir TAFE apprenticeship training. So in fact they completed their TAFE trainingin their first year with Big Builders, attending through six weeks of block releaserather than day release. They then went straight onto a Diploma of Building whichthey were required to complete through evening attendance at TAFE. Therefore bythe end of their apprenticeship they had not only completed the apprenticeshipqualification, a Corticate III in Construction, but also a Diploma which is a level 5qualification on the Australian Qualifications Framework. It was not essential thatan apprentice completed this qualification, but it was expected.

Because of the type of work the company expected the apprentices to end up doing,and the level of study they had to complete, Big Builders looked for 18-year oldsrecruits rather than taking on young people who had chosen to leave school earlyaged 16. They wanted them to be mature and also they wanted them to have adriver’s licence as they needed to be able to access the various sites independently.Also literacy skills were important because of their future management roles. Thecompany rated the criteria for selecting apprentices as follows:

4 Please note that the terms ‘he’ and ‘his’ and ‘foreman’ are used in this case study to refer to the apprentices

and supervisors as they were almost all male. There had however been occasional female apprentices and

the general foreman remarked that they tended to be very successful.


not

important

very

important

1 2 3 4 5

school marks X

occupational aptitude and previous

knowledge

X

existing vocational qualifications X

... „the apprentice has to suit the

company”…

X

soft skills X

others (please specify): management

suitability

X

The ‘existing vocational qualifications’ referred to the pre-apprenticeship course.

While with the company the apprentices attended a number of company trainingcourses including an induction program, a First Aid Certificate Level II, an explosivepower tools course, scaffold and harnesses training, industrial relations programsand on-site training in specific skills associated with equipment at that particularsite, such as scissor lifts. In addition, Big Builders had an internal ‘licence to prac-tice’ which required all staff to undertake 16 hours each year of continuing formaltraining within the company.

When asked about the main quality features of the apprenticeships that Big Buildersoffered, the general foreman replied that the main feature was the all-round natureof the training. This provided the apprentices with an all-round picture of how abuilding was put together, which was essential if they were to move up to becomeforemen and managers:

I suppose it's given them training in the whole aspect of building. One of the things weencourage them to do if they're on the floor and they see the electrician doing somethingwe say go and ask and find out or the mechanical contractor who's running the airconditioning go and ask him what that unit is. (We say) “Don’t be shy!”, because it's

100 Erica Smith

all part of their learning and they're getting, I suppose, the whole aspect of building.One of my jobs when I was an apprentice was to come down at the end of each dayand fill out the foreman’s diary and part of that task is writing down all the activitiesthat the electrician did and the mechanical did so then I knew that at the end of eachday I had to write that, so I'd go and ask questions and find out. I'd be looking at, ohyeah, that guy’s putting in that, what's he doing that of? And then at the end of eachday I'd go back and write ‘The electrical contractor was running skirting duct to level15 for the workstation’, or whatever, like that.

It was interesting to note, from this statement, that although the system that BigBuilders used for apprentice training was new, the general foreman had evidentlycalled on something he had experienced as an apprentice himself (completing thediary) in setting up the new system. Referring back to one’s own apprenticeship isa common feature with apprentice training (eg Smith, forthcoming).

In the building trade there are a number of quality systems and Big Builders hadmany that the apprentices needed to implement. For example there were qualitycontrol processes for checking concrete pours before they were done, for erectingstructural steel and for checking service connections before walls were close up.The apprentice learned to be part of these systems and eventually to manage them.

Since the new system had been implemented at Big Builders, which was in 1999or 2000, five apprentices had become foremen with the company. So the schemewas paying off. Not all apprentices stayed with the company; some went to traveloverseas, as is common among young Australians, and some decided they preferredto be ‘on the tools’ and went to work for sub-contractors, and thus remained connec-ted with Big Builders in that way. The apprentice system was highly valued and thecompany had an 'apprentice of the year’ award that was named in memory of aformer apprentice supervisor who had died about four years previously. The import-ance the company attached to their apprentice is reflected in the following tablewhich illustrates to the value they attached to the long-term objectives of apprenti-ceships. The ratings compared with the other five Australian case studies wherethere was far more of a spread across the whole range of responses.


low high

1 2 3 4 5


theoretical vocational competence X

social competence (client relations,

etc.) X

occupational autonomy X

consciousness of quality X

professional commitment X

vocational identity X

corporate identity X

motivation for continuous

vocational learning X

While regarding apprentice training as of the utmost importance, the companyrecognised it was not performing as well as it might with its apprentices. The generalforeman thought that the company fell short on the following three objectives:

• experience on the job

• occupational autonomy

• vocational identity

Explicit recognition of the problems by the general foreman suggested that theywould be addressed. It was certainly the case that compared with the other five casestudies, Big Builders showed more capacity for critical self-reflection on its app-rentice training. It should be noted that there was an inherent risk in delegatingmuch of the on-the-job training to contractors, in that day-to-day quality control ofthe standard of training could not be assured, although the regular meetings couldbe expected to identify serious problems.

102 Erica Smith

The general foreman summed up the benefits of apprenticeships as follows:

If they’ve come up with a company, they know the company systems, they know thecompany values, they understand how the company works and we just felt that they'remore loyal and more understanding with how the company than outsiders coming in.

He also said that apprentices generally produced higher quality work than sub-contractors:

When it comes down to finishing off jobs I think the apprentices are very valued becausethey can take that time in getting it right where a contractor will come in and he justwants to get in and out and is sort of slap happy. Because the apprentice knows thequality that we're looking for he usually takes a bit more time with the lock on the dooror whatever, he knows what the architect is going to pick and what the client is goingto pick… (because of his training) he is understanding what the architect is pickingand the client is picking and he wants these screws to line up and he doesn’t want amess you know. A lot of the contractors come in to fix something and they probablycreate 2 or 3 defects because they don’t care, it's not their problem; who cares if I walkin with paint on my shoes and ruin the carpet as long as the wall’s painted?

Conclusions

While Australia’s apprenticeship system never faltered seriously as it did in othercountries, there has certainly been a strong revival in the past ten years. This hasbeen the direct result of careful government attention to the system including sha-ping subsidies and controls to ensure quality and growth. The Big Builders casestudy shows that added value can be gained by companies considering carefullyhow the apprenticeships system can best suit the strategic needs of their companies.While Big Builders could have continued to recruit apprentices only to meet itslimited need for tradespeople, it chose to use the system to develop future seniormanagers. Along the way it gained benefits through the apprentices’ high qualityworkmanship compared with sub-contractors.

Several features of the Big Builders case study have potential for wider applicability:

• The consistent use only of apprentices that have completed pre-apprenticeshipprogram;

• The addition of an extra, higher-level, qualification during the apprenticeshipperiod;

• The use of sub-contractors to provide wider working experience;


• The apprenticeship committee which monitors progress and considers app-rentices as a cohort; and

• The lack of concern about the immediate cost for apprentice training in the fullrealisation of the eventual benefits.

It needs to be recognised however that the Big Builders success story is at least inpart the result of the work of the three members of the State apprentice committeeand their commitment to apprenticeships. Therefore the system could not necessa-rily be transferred to other industries where there is not such a strong traditionalcommitment to apprenticeships, nor to other companies even in the same industry,in the absence of individuals with such passion for the institution.

References

Australian Industry Group (2005): Contemporary apprenticeships for the 21st century, AIG.,Melbourne.

Ball, K. (2005): Overview. In Funding and financing vocational education and training: Rese-arch readings, NCVER, Adelaide.

Brandi, A. (1999): User choice contractual compliance audits: Contract audit issues, Paper no.1, Qld Department of Employment, Training and Industrial Relations, Division of Training,Training Quality and Regulation Group, Brisbane.

Bush, A. (1992): Perspectives on labour market programs and the Australian traineeship sche-me. TAFE Journal of Research and Development, 7:2, 26-35.

Capelli, P. (1996): Youth apprenticeship in Britain: Lessons for the United States, IndustrialRelations, 35:1, 1-31.

Deissinger, T./Ruf, M. (2006): Übungsfirmen am Kaufmännischen Berufskolleg in Baden-Württemberg, Praxisorientierte vollzeitschulische Berufsausbildung zwischen Anspruchund Wirklichkeit, Eusl, Paderborn.

Dumbrell, T. (2003): Pathways to apprenticeships, NCVER, Adelaide.

Fooks, D. (1997): VET and the 1997-98 budget, Training Agenda, 5:3, 15.

Gray, D./Morgan, M. (1998): Modern apprenticeships: Filling the skills gap? Journal of Voca-tional Education and Training, vol. 50, no. 1, pp.123-136.

House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training

(1997): Youth employment: A working solution. AGPS, Canberra.

104 Erica Smith

Kirby, P./Chair (1985): Report of the Committee of Inquiry into Labour Market Programs.AGPS: Canberra.

Murphy, T./Brown, R./Hicks, J./Bradbery, P./Presland, C./Logan, M./Guest, C./Smith, E./Smith,

A. (1998): An economic evaluation of alternative methods of delivering employer-providedelectrical trade and mechanical engineering trade apprenticeship training. Charles SturtUniversity, Regional Economics Research Unit, Bathurst, NSW.

National Centre for Vocational Education Research, NCVER (2006): Australian vocational edu-cation and training statistics, 2005, NCVER, Adelaide.

NCVER (1999): Australian apprentices and trainees, recent trends: At a glance. NCVER, Ade-laide.

Noble, C./Hill, D./Smith, E./Smith, A. (1997): Analysis of training markets in NSW: The impli-cations of user choice. Wagga Wagga: Charles Sturt University, Report to the NSW Boardof Vocational Education and Training.

Robinson, C., Ed. (2001): Australian apprenticeships: Facts, fiction and future, NCVER, Ade-laide.

Schofield, K. (1999): Independent investigation into the quality of training in Queensland’straineeship system, Department of Employment, Training and Industrial Relations, Voca-tional Education, Training and Employment Commission, Brisbane.

Smith, E. (2006): forthcoming, The experiences of apprentices and trainees in small Australianbusinesses: Some qualitative research findings. Socially responsive, socially responsibleapproaches to employment and work conference, Australian Centre for Research in Employ-ment and Work, Monash University Prato Centre, Tuscany, Italy 1-4 July.

Smith, E. (1998a): How apprentices learn to work. Australian Bulletin of Labour, 24:2, 127-140.

Smith, E./Hill, D./Smith, A./Perry, P./Roberts, P./Bush, A. (1994): The availability of compe-tency-based training in TAFE and non-TAFE settings in 1994. AGPS, Canberra.

Smith, E./Comyn, P. (2003): The development of employability skills in novice workers throughemployment, NCVER, Adelaide.

Smith, E./Keating, J. (2003): From training reform to Training Packages. Tuggerah Lakes, NSW,Social Science Press.

Spielhofer, T./Sims, D. (2004): Modern Apprenticeships in the Retail Sector: Stresses, strainsand support, Journal of Vocational Education and Training, vol. 56, no. 4, pp. 539-558.

Venables, E. (1967): The young worker at college: A study of a local Tech, Faber & Faber, London.

Western Australia Dept of Education & Training (2005): Investing in Western Australia’s future,WA DET, Perth.


Rediscovering Apprenticeship!? The

Austrian Perspective

Peter Schlögl

Background

After compulsory school, some 80% of all young people who continue their edu-cational career opt for a VET pathway. The Austrian VET system at upper secondarylevel features two branches with nearly the same number of students. Apart fromthe company-based training programmes, which are attended by slightly less than40% of every age group, there exist two full-time school-based VET pathways, oneof which leads to the Reifeprüfung certificate (25% of every age cohort); it grantsaccess to postsecondary and tertiary education pathways by providing the generalhigher-education entrance qualification and attracts more young people than thegeneral-education secondary academic branch, the primary objective of which ispreparation for higher education. One major difference between company-basedtraining and full-time schools is the fact that the schools are not committed to an‘occupational concept’ in the narrower sense of the word but rather aim to qualifyfor specific occupational fields (for instance for commercial and administrativeoccupations, occupations in construction, etc.). Hence, at the point of transitionfrom lower to upper secondary level, graduates have many different educationalcareer options to choose from.

One political objective of Austrian VET policy-makers, particularly of the socialpartner organisations, is that none of these educational pathways should be dead-end streets. Therefore, legal possibilities have been created also for graduates ofcompany-based training programmes and VET schools (berufsbildende mittlereSchulen), for instance, to gain access to higher education via the so-called Berufs-reifeprüfung (Higher Education Entrance Examination for Graduates of Apprenti-ceships and VET Schools).

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Within the framework of company-based training, about 120,000 young Austriansare currently trained in some 40,000 accredited training enterprises. This equalsa share of 4.5% of the workforce in the private sector. Almost all sectors of industryprovide training, albeit to a varying extent. The duration of training programmesdiffers between the individual occupations and ranges from two to four years. Inthe majority of apprenticeship occupations, the typical length of training is threeyears.

The Qualification Structure in Austria

Vocational education and training and, in particular, company-based training are amajor pillar of the Austrian qualification structure. In the following, the shares ofindividual qualification levels in the adult Austrian residential population (Census2001) are presented. Even though the share of apprenticeship graduates in theyounger age categories is slightly declining, they still make up the largest group ofpeople.

Abb. 1 qualification levels in the adult Austrian residential population (Source: Census 2001)

Rediscovering Apprenticeship!? The Austrian Per-spective 107

Company-based VET in Austria

Young people who have concluded an apprenticeship training-agreement with acompany authorised to train apprentices are obliged to attend part-time vocationalschools. This type of vocational education and training is called ‘dual vocationaltraining system’ (or ‘dual system’ for short), as the training has two bases: the com-pany and part-time vocational school.

It is an essential feature of the system that apprentices have the status of school-children (or ‘students’) only in the second place. First and foremost they areconsidered employees of the company providing the training. After concluding theapprenticeship contract, however, they are obliged to attend part-time vocationalschool, which forms an integral part of the training. The employment relationshipis thus based on several pillars provided for by law. First of all the apprenticeshipcontract, the Vocational Training Act as well as collective bargaining agreements,which are valid for entire sectors of industry and also lay down the income as wellas the framework conditions in terms of labour and social legislation. Collectivebargaining agreements also specify the level of earnings, which rises as the durationof the training progresses, as it is assumed that apprentices increasingly take overproductive activities in the day-to-day business of their company as their compe-tence level increases. Whereas wages at the beginning of the training may total some30% of what a semiskilled or fully qualified skilled worker earns, they can be ashigh as 80% – e.g. in the fourth year of the training.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Labour is responsible for the respec-tive company-based training profiles and the Federal Ministry for Education,Science and Culture for pedagogical matters at part-time vocational school. Thetraining at the enterprise is financed by the training company, the vocational part-time school is financed by the public, with the federal government and stategovernments sharing costs. Federal states are responsible for the construction andequipment of vocational schools. Half of the financing of vocational school teacherscomes from the federal and state governments each.

In three-year apprenticeship occupations, training at part-time vocational school forapprentices totals about 1,200 lessons, thus amounting to approximately 20% ofthe duration of training.

The apprenticeship-leave examination is taken after completion of the apprenti-ceship period to establish whether the apprentice has acquired the necessary skillsand knowledge for the apprenticeship trade and is able to carry out the activityparticular to that trade in a proper manner. The apprenticeship-leave examination

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is divided into a practical and a theoretical section, and consists of a written and anoral part. If the student has fulfilled requirements according to the teaching objec-tive of the final year of part-time vocational school, the examination will consist ofthe practical section only.

Youth Employment and Company-based Training

The situation of young people on the labour market has been fairly positive for along time. At present, however, public discussions about VET are frequently limitedexclusively to the precarious situation prevailing on the apprenticeship post market.And truly – since the mid-1990s, this marks the third time in the Second Republicthat the situation is very tense. On previous occasions, responses were varied: Theresponse by the legislator in the 1950s was the adoption of the Youth EmploymentAct, in the early 1980s (as a result of the baby-boom generation) policy-makersreacted with wide-ranging grants for the recruitment of apprentices within the fra-mework of active labour market policy. The declining share of dual training in theparticipation of compulsory school leavers in education and training was outweig-hed by the expansion of the intermediate and higher VET school system in the late1970s. These developments occur against the background of demographic changes(size of age groups, immigration) as well as in connection with structural effects inthe world of work. The concepts of tertiarisation, regionalisation, globalisation, newproduction and manufacturing methods, information technologies, etc. describethe processes in which the VET sector has to prove its worth – now and in the future.

By launching comprehensive initiatives in the field of active labour market policyand introducing significant grants for companies it is now being attempted tocounteract the declining offer of corporate training places. In some regions, howe-ver, already one fourth of apprenticeship post seekers take part in measures by thePublic Employment Service Austria (Arbeitsmarktservice). These measures are eit-her preparatory courses for the world of work or simple, short-term activationmeasures.

Social Background of Educational Career Choices

Research findings regarding the background of educational career choices revealclear concentrations of the parents’ households’ sociodemographic features on spe-cific education and training pathways. Thus, for instance, there is a concentrationof households with comparatively low financial and educational resources on upper


secondary tracks that lead to intermediate qualifications (company-based trainingand full-time school education). In this respect, educational career choice can clearlybe described as unequal, and against the background of these differing resourcesat the disposal of students it cannot be assumed that there exists a structural equalityof opportunities in Austria.

2042

1932

4259

47

35

42

32

4337

3129

44

16

4925 21

1124

0%

50%

100%

AHS 4Klasse

HS 4.Kasse

AHS 5.Klasse

BHS 1.Klasse

BMS 1.Klasse

POLY BPS

more than 2.400.- net1.501-2.400.-up to 1.500.-

Abb. 2 Net income of parents’ households before and after the change from lower to upper secon-

dary level (Source: öibf)

Parents and their children have considerably differing views about whether pay-ment of the apprenticeship remuneration is one reason for deciding in favour ofan apprenticeship. Nearly one quarter (24%) of parents state that remuneration isa motive, which stands in stark contrast to the young people’s view (46%). A shareof 82% of affected parents consider the apprenticeship remuneration to be moremoney directly available to the children, at the same time 42% of the parents reduceor stop paying them pocket money. A percentage of 15% of interviewees express theview that payment of boarding wages together with the apprenticeship remunera-tion is a relief of the parents’ budget, another 10% see it as a contribution to familyincome. An amazing share of one quarter of interviewed parents state that otherforms of training would result in too high expenses for them. Over two thirds (67%)of young people express their wish of becoming independent quickly, against ashare of 57% of parents who assign their children into this category.

Broken down by gender of schoolchildren, higher educational aspirations are statedfor female students (32% intermediate qualification, 45% Reifeprüfung, 23% higher

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education) than for male adolescents (40% intermediate qualification, 39% Reife-prüfung, 21% higher education). Also the analysis of social categories (‘strata’)renders a clear result: Educational aspirations have a highly significant correlationwith the category the parent household belongs to – aspirations rise towards highereducation as the category increases. The two trends regarding social category andgender of schoolchildren can be proven also in the combination of the two variables.

Another apparent finding are the respondents’ differing views, not only regardingtheir desired formal educational level, but also of the overall appraisal of the signi-ficance of formal education: The lower the social category of the parents’ household,the more strongly they put into question the importance of formal educational qua-lifications. In a parallel development, as the category increases (which does takeaccount of the highest formal attainment in the parents’ household), also the neces-sity of an advanced school education is increasingly mentioned when asking for asuccessful career (from the perspective of parents). It is evident that this has a con-siderable impact on educational career choice – not least when, in principle, severalalternatives are open to them due to school achievements.

A clearly educationally expansionist tendency can be observed among parents who-se highest educational attainment is compulsory schooling. The largest group, morethan half of them, aims towards an intermediate qualification for their own child.In all the other three groups, those with an educational objective at the level of theirparents’ qualification form the largest group in each case. This is most pronouncedamong university graduates (61.6%). When comparing the desired qualificationsone level below and above the parents’ qualifications, it comes to light that amongparents with intermediate qualifications there exists a comparatively higher educa-tionally expansive tendency (40% towards Reifeprüfung vs. 4.5% below own qua-lification). Also among parents who boast the Reifeprüfung certificate, a similarpicture can be found, however not as clearly (32% university degree vs. 17% inter-mediate qualification). It comes as a surprise that relatively more parents who havecompleted compulsory schooling want their children to acquire a higher educationdegree than parents with intermediate qualifications. The Reifeprüfung certificateseems to be of key importance. It is mentioned in three cases as the second mostfrequent aim and in one case as the most frequent aim. Intermediate qualificationsare ranked most frequently in two cases, in the other cases they come in on the thirdplace. University degrees, however, which are widespread among parents who haveattended higher education institutions, tops the list only among this group, whereasit ranks second among parents with the Reifeprüfung certificate, and third in allthe other groups.


Abb. 3 Educational aspirations of parents for their own children, broken down by the parents’ level

of qualification (Source: öibf)

Case Studies on Company-based Training

Within the framework of the INAP project (Innovative Apprenticeship), the öibfcarried out nine case studies in training enterprises. Companies were identified byway of an analysis of national and regional quality awards and nomination of com-panies by stakeholders such as social partner establishments. The selected enter-prises trained between 3 and 150 apprentices and were from the sectors: chemicalindustry, electronics and telecommunications, administration, and construction.

As expected, findings regarding the themes: organisation of training, significanceof company-based training in staff development, and costs differed between thesectors as well as between companies. In the following, two companies will exem-plify the relationship between on the job training training and supra-companytraining in the form of courses and part-time vocational school.

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Abb. 4 Case study “Administration Companies”, relation of on the job training and course-form/

school qualification (Source: öibf)

Abb. 5 Case study “Audio- and Video-electronics Companies”, relation of on the job training and

course-form/school qualification (Source: öibf)

The different form of representation reflects the respective response behaviour ofinterview partners in companies at two levels: First of all, differing patterns regar-ding the issue under investigation can be identified depending on the sector. Onthe one hand, stable relations across the entire duration of the training in admi-nistration, as against progressive on the job training qualification in electronics. Onthe other hand, the high importance of non-job-matching but company-based qua-lification in selected electronics enterprises – within the framework of thecompany’s own training workshop.


Perspectives and Tendencies

For the Austrian dual training system and its future development, specific perspec-tives and tendencies can be identified and challenges formulated. These are thefollowing:

• An unfortunate interconnection of the political fields of youth employment andVET can be identified, which has a negative impact on quality requirements ofcompanies. Under the pressure of creating additional company training places,pedagogical and economic quality commitments are coming under pressure.

• Increasing competition for high-performing young people with interest in VETcan be observed between full-time school-based and company-based trainingproviders.

• The social background has a decisive impact on the interest in company-basedtraining, as this is where immediate income is achieved and an unproblematiclater transition into the world of work is assumed.

• Legal framework conditions in Austria (one-time accreditation of trainingenterprises, etc.) as well as structural problems (employers’ organisations areresponsible for the regular quality control of company-based training) do notensure that quality of training is safeguarded.

• Arguments expressed by employers’ organisations about ten years ago, whichstated that company-based training causes too high costs and necessitatespublic subsidies are today not used in the same form, but have establishedthemselves firmly among entrepreneurs and tend to lead to reservations vis-à-vis apprenticeship training.

• To find an enterprise providing high-quality training from the perspective ofyoung people depends on the region, the sector of industry, the selected occu-pation, and good luck. The quality of training depends more on the respectivecorporate culture than on framework conditions.

• The pedagogical concept of dual training enjoys widespread reputation in Aus-tria. Therefore it has been integrated into the field of higher education (theUniversities of Applied Sciences) as well as into the promotion schemes fordisadvantaged people.

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Ines Herrmann (Hrsg.)

Documents

Transcript of Ines Herrmann (Hrsg.)