Whatever Happened to Apprenticeship Training

This paper examines the development of apprenticeship training in three English-speaking countries where apprenticeship has fared very differently. It declined at an early date in the US in most sectors of the economy; it survived intact in Britain well into the post-Second World War period; and it has survived relatively strongly in Australia up to the present day, though it is now under some pressure. The reasons for this decline are examined and an explanation is preferred in terms of the interaction between institutional supports and the ability and need felt by employers to sustain the system. Where apprentice training survives in these English-speaking countries, there is much to commend its continued existence. However, to survive in the future or to be revived, it needs significant institutional and government support and incentives or compulsions for employers.