Background Of Modern Apprenticeships

Modern Apprenticeships- The History

Carla George- Researcher University Of Warwick October 2020

Modern Apprenticeships- The History Introduction Apprenticeships began in the period of the Sixteenth and Eighteenth century. Wallis P (2008) described the standard of apprenticeship within England, considered as an instructional development or known as system training where the majority of young men entered into a contract than women to work for professional craftsmen and merchants over a period of time without pay. The Labour force in England represented 7.5% to 10% of non agricultural apprentices. Apprenticeships were considered an important route in Europe towards occupations in manufacturing, service and trading as they relied on skilled persons in order to enforce the terms of the contract. However, the Author argues that there is little emphasis on the structure and quality of Pre-Modern apprenticeships.

Moving to modern times Aldrich (1999) looked at apprenticeships as the industrial revolution got underway in Britain. He saw the system as undermined by the factory system, and noted that it became less usual for apprentices to be under the direct supervision of Masters or be lodging with them and that there were a growing number of occupations that required only basic skills and rudimentary training. Apprenticeship could be a system of abuse. For example, in the early nineteenth century child labourers were transported from parishes so as to avoid additional rate charges and sent to work as apprentices within the factories, mills, mines and workshops. Apprentices were being ‘bought’ by employers who had no intention of teaching them a trade they were used only as cheap labour. They were fed and clothed but worked extremely hard without training and progression. When the apprenticeship ended they would be left unskilled and often found worse situations.

Over time labour was governed by legislation rather than traditional apprenticeship conditions.

As an early example, in 1802 legislation was implemented to protect apprentices especially within the mills and cotton factories and other industries, to ensure that they were instructed within their everyday work during four years of their apprenticeship this included instruction in reading, writing and basic math’s regardless of age and ability. This would be carried out by appropriate persons appointed and paid by their masters. During the second half of the nineteenth century education legislation was brought forward and a teaching profession emerged with teachers receiving structured training in training centres and education of young people conducted in separate schools.

However, some traditional apprenticeships continued for example in engineering, ironshipbuilding, building, woodworking and printing. Here Aldrich found problems going into the twentieth century in the quality of instruction and access to resources. He compared the situation to trade schools in France where a combination of practical and theoretical teachings was provided. Aldrich argued that the failure of apprenticeships within England was a lack of adaptation to new demands, complacency from entrepreneurs who could claim success by relying on older workers passing down skills while ignoring intervention from government. A divide between European sectors and England opened up and Aldrich argued that there were repeated failings in the apprenticeship system throughout the recent past.

This sceptical view of the apprenticeship system in the twentieth century is picked up in Unwin who argued that the recurring popularity of the term apprenticeship was based on the following concepts surrounding employers. â—? An employer should support and be willing to teach the entirety of the job. â—? The job should have the provisions to support you with your qualification that is recognisable by other employers.

(Unwin, 1996) suggested the apprenticeship system continued to be in control of employers and trade guild systems referring to an employer led system that defines vocational education and training policies.

Unwin further explains that within the 1990s the introduction of NVQs wasn't highly favoured with employers, especially those that were part of the TEC board due to their commitment to their local communities and managing labour, less emphasis on reforming the vocational education system and national training at local and national level. The craft unions preferred the restrictive apprenticeships as they had control over labour and wages. The divide between apprenticeships continued into the Twentieth Century However she found that there were deep rooted problems in apprenticeship in the last century and used sample cases from companies in different industries to explain this clearly. The core problem was that workers were poorly trained and that while apprenticeships were regarded as a way to train new workers in practice they were low wage, with a low level of training and took place over an unnecessarily long time. Britain had a large number of workers with limited skills or no training.

Apprentices had doubts that their training would be recognised by other employers, only few were able to progress and receive an increase in salary and further training opportunities. Trade unions were often implicated in this in that they saw apprenticeships as a means to restrict entry to semi and skilled occupations and so protect their wages. Unions had preference for training through on the job training rather than through educational institutions. Unwin argues that in spite of this there were rising numbers of apprentices in institutions especially attending evening sessions to suit their employers.

Unwin (2004) noticed a separation had grown between the apprenticeship system and public education by the middle of the twentieth century. Over 150 years there had been debates as to whether academic and vocational education should be separate, or integrated activities and that different answers have been given at different times and in different countries. She argues that authorities in England were very complacent about education and there was a great deal of policy neglect causing technical education to decline in quality. Academics tended to look down on vocational training arguing that those with a higher level of education could adapt to the changing economy whereas those with only vocational skills may find those skills quickly outdated, education was more general, training narrower.

Yet academic education was itself criticised for being remote from learners needs and interests and no preparation for the world for young leavers to enter the world of work. A key event in the education debate was Prime Minister Jim Callaghan’s 1976 speech at Ruskin which asked schools to do more to make a proper contribution to and support for school leavers. This led to a wider vocational offer in school.

Of course there were attempts to inject academic learning into vocational education, too. For example in the 1950s General/Liberal studies were introduced in colleges and schools and it was intended that apprentices would have day release from work for discussion of politics, society and art, but Unwin found the quality of teaching was quite poor this was replaced with early competence based education with emphasis on communication skills. Later GNVQs was developed to involve both experiential and topic knowledge, though a danger here was that learners were left on their own towards developing their own self learning skills and finding out the answers for themselves. Unwin argues that the government knew little about what really went on behind the scenes surrounding apprenticeships.

The gaps in apprenticeship training hit home in the 1970s as the close relationship between the apprenticeship system and certain sections of the manufacturing and construction industries had broken. Apprenticeships dramatically declined as those industries themselves declined and new technology-based industries emerged without a tradition of apprenticeship.

How are modern apprenticeships working?

According to Foley (2020) there were 742,400 people participating in an apprenticeship in England out of a workforce of over 27 million. In 2018/19, 393,400 of these were new apprenticeship starts and there were 185,100 apprenticeship achievements. (figures subject to change based on current situation)

The number of new apprenticeships has been influenced by the available financial support. The number of starts fell in 2017/18 following the introduction of a new apprenticeship funding system in May 2017, but increased from 2017/18 to 2018/ when the new industry levy was introduced. However, the numbers are still below before the new funding system was introduced. In 2018-2019 there were 72,400 less people involved in apprenticeships than in 2017-2018 below government target level.

Breaking down the figures, the report shows that the gender profile has been more or less even over the last eight years though often with slightly more women than men taking the apprenticeship, as in 2018-2019. There were more apprenticeship starts from apprentices 24 yrs and above in 2018-2019 as well as those that were between 35yrs and 44yrs old compared to 2017-2018.

Apprentices with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, in 2018/19, 12% (46,000) of apprenticeship starts were learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. The proportion of starts by apprentices with learning difficulties or disabilities increased slightly, from 11.2% in 2017/18 to 11.8% in 2018/19 and the proportion of starts by apprentices with learning difficulties or disabilities has increased each year since 2011/12.

The overwhelming majority (86%) of all learners starting an apprenticeship were white in 2018/19. The proportion of starters from BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) backgrounds was 12.3%, its highest level. This was an increase from 11.2% in 2017/18. This is slightly less than an estimated figure of 13 per cent for the population who identified themselves as ethnic minorities.

The number of apprentices in 2018-2019 were 41% started at advanced level and 19% of apprentices commenced at higher level. This represented 22,500 that started Level 6 and Level 7 compared to 2017-2018 at 11,000. However that started Intermediate level were 36% comparing this to 2011-2012 has shown a huge decrease in numbers at 63%

By employment sector. The main employment sectors for apprenticeships were Business, Administration and Law; Health, Public Services and Care; Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies and Retail & Commercial Enterprise. Between 2011/12 and 2018/19 the Retail and Commercial Enterprise sector saw the biggest fall in the proportion of apprenticeship starts while The Health, Public Services and Care sector had the largest increase.

I note that over recent years, there has been a large increase in the number of apprenticeship starts on standard and a fall in the number of framework apprenticeships.

Overall based on the above the quality of modern apprenticeships declined in numbers before the introduction of the funding system and this shows that there is constand room for improvement to address the issues as mentioned above to retain the numbers.

Summary There is scope for further improvements especially within the current apprenticeship system overall the biggest challenge is whether apprenticeships can be adaptable for all skill levels that will meet the employer’s requirements and during this current climate the Government has introduced new initiatives to combat the issues to support the back to work scheme this will be further researched.

References Foley (2020) Modern apprenticeships Unwin (2014) Apprenticeship policies