ARCHITECTURES FOR APPRENTICESHIP Achieving Economic and Social Goals (original) (raw)

This volume contains the papers of the 6th International Conference of the International Network on Innovative Apprenticeship: Architectures for apprenticeship: Achieving economic and social goals, which was held on the campus of Federation University Australia, on September 1-2, 2015. The papers and keynote speeches offer many aspects for discussion and reflection. This was also the case at the conference itself, which provided two days of topical debates and fruitful deliberations. The papers covered the themes of Governance, Didactics, Quality of Apprenticeships, School-to-Work-Transition, The Status of Apprenticeships, and Apprenticeships and Social justice. Apprenticeship today is seen as a promising option for policy makers for providing a training and education opportunity for young people. But also for young people it is appealing to find access to the workplace and to a way of learning which is not just bound or restricted to school. An apprenticeship offers a tremendous chance to find a place in society and workplace. In an increasing number of countries, apprenticeship is also available to mature-aged workers, providing a chance for a career change or re-entry to the workforce. Apprenticeship is, at its core, a learning concept through practice and solving problems in real life, supported by supplementary schooling and education. Thus it is more than providing people with affordances for learning in the workplace. The apprenticeship model is most firmly rooted in the German speaking countries and regions and is closely bound to history and culture. Out of this tradition two attitudes towards the expansion of apprenticeships have emerged. One idea is to “export” such a model in other countries. Like German cars, which are renowned in Europe and in the home market, it was taken for granted to bring such goods to other countries. This ‘cut and paste’ attitude, often also demanded by countries who needed to find a quick answer to reforming their Vocational Education and Training systems, was all in all not always successful in the last 40 years, as several evaluations found out. The idea of exporting such a system without being aware of local needs is problematic. On the other hand it is wrong to think that such a model is not feasible outside the countries with such a home-grown tradition. This sceptical attitude, held by some commentators, is perhaps based on disappointments in the past, and on an over-estimation of nation-specific conditions of education. For sure, in other countries same ideas and concepts have developed differently. On the other hand it is the nature of human mankind that people try to refer to convincing ideas and experiences and are confronted with results, which differ from 12 the original blueprint. So the very old model of apprenticeship is still alive and will inspire new reforms. It is still an interesting mode of getting qualified for the workplace and the society of today and the future. The conference itself is a proof of how multifaceted this model works in practice. It is widespread and exists in a lot of variations as a lot of papers reflect. They point out that the need of mutual knowledge of country-specific developments and research and exchange of experiences is important, and that the learning process and knowledge base of apprenticeship is still developing today and in the future. We would like to thank our major sponsors: the Department of Education and Training, Australia, and Federation University Australia. We also thank our other sponsors: the National Centre for Vocational Education and Training, and Group Training Australia. Thanks also to Bremen University’s TVET Research Group (I:BB) and the University of Zurich. We would also like to thank members of the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association for providing assistance to authors with polishing their English language.