In anearlier article, we discussed the historical background of apprenticeships; theway they have gone from being a structuring, institutional cornerstone of theprofessional world to a marginal, vestigial remnant in many countries would beremarkable, if not for the fact it happened over quite a long span of time.

We alsopointed out the overwhelmingly negative image of this particular type ofdegree: since it is seen as a mark of low academic achievement, vocationaltraining is something most parents do not want for their children; in Austria,the better students will go on to a „Gymnasium“... those who receive vocationaltraining will be typically seen as the worst performers, with the poorest linguisticand mathematical skills.

Althoughit is quite obvious that children do have different capacities to learn atdifferent ages, keeping the worst students for a certain number of professionsimplies judging both these youths and these fields as inferior in a similarway. Which is altogether quite stupid: irrespective of a child’s ability toabsorb grammatical rules and the usage of tenses and modes, of division andfractions, the simple truth of the matter is that while the system does not aimto create underrated citizens and professions, it heavily implies such aclassification.

And ofcourse, as we mentioned earlier, many of the current apprenticeship schemes donot actually lead to professional successful integration; this is a bit of achicken-and-egg issue: with educational systems already designed to discriminateagainst them, many of the youths who learn in an apprenticeship scheme aresimply taught job skills; not social skills, not social competency, despite thesimple fact that they need it more than anyone else.

Apprenticesenter the professional world at a very young age;  in Vienna ,and the broader German world, they may begin their professional practice aroundthe age of 15 (although most do so a little later), whereas by comparison thelegal driving age in Austria is 18. A telling distinction! At an age which is characterized by rebellionagainst authority figures, by an overwhelming interest in shallow issues, theseyoung people often find themselves immersed in a mature environment, demandingin the field of personal competencies and communication skills, the likes ofwhich they have never before encountered, and may even have seen as boring orunpleasant courtesy of their parents‘ experiences. This is bad for thetrainees and apprentices, because the cornerstone of the program is hands-onexperience in a business, whereas businesses would not have a great interest intaking on non-qualified workers lacking even a fundamental knowledge of how oneinteracts in the workplace.

Andyet, painting apprenticeships in such bleak colours does not truly reflect thesituation, either. Certainly, the Dual Training System(Duales Ausbildungssystem) of the Austrian, German and Swiss world isinsufficient in teaching students communication skills and competencies. Butthe various chambers of commerce do sponsor this career model; in practice,this means fund apprenticeships and encourage member organisations to offerthem. It also means that the push, through various financial means and incentives,students to attend extra programs such as the ECo-C, which by its nature canmake up for that missing store of knowledge.

Butonce again, that is a story for a third article.