IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/20302.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The revival of apprenticeship training in Britain

Author

Listed:
  • Gospel, H.

Abstract

This article examines the attempt to revive apprenticeship training in Britain in the 1990s. Traditionally apprenticeship had been the main formal method of training for manual workers and the principal means whereby intermediate skills were formed. However, from the late 1960s, apprenticeship training had declined. During the 1980s employers did little to sustain apprenticeships, and the Conservative government was suspicious of a form of training which it associated with trade unions. From the early 1980s, there was a growing discussion as to how far Britain lagged behind major competitors in terms of skill formation, especially at the intermediate level. In a significant change in policy in autumn 1993 the then Conservative government announced the Modern Apprenticeship. The first section of the article provides some definitions and a framework of analysis. The second section puts apprenticeship training into an historical and comparative context. In the next two sections the design and operation of the Modern Apprenticeship are considered. Finally conclusions are drawn and policy implications are considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Gospel, H., 1997. "The revival of apprenticeship training in Britain," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 20302, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
  • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:20302
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/20302/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mari Sako, 1991. "Institutional Aspects of Youth Employment and Training Policy: A Comment on Marsden and Ryan," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 29(3), pages 485-490, September.
    2. Stevens, Margaret, 1994. "A Theoretical Model of On-the-Job Training with Imperfect Competition," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 46(4), pages 537-562, October.
    3. Howard Gospel, 1994. "Whatever Happened to Apprenticeship Training," CEP Discussion Papers dp0190, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    4. Stevens, Margaret, 1994. "An Investment Model for the Supply of Training by Employers," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 104(424), pages 556-570, May.
    5. David Marsden & Paul Ryan, 1991. "Institutional Aspects of Youth Employment and Training Policy: Reply," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 29(3), pages 497-505, September.
    6. Soskice, David W, 1993. "Social Skills from Mass Higher Education: Rethinking the Company-Based Initial Training Paradigm," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 9(3), pages 101-113, Autumn.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Andrew Sharpe & James Gibson, 2005. "The Apprenticeship System in Canada: Trends and Issues," CSLS Research Reports 2005-04, Centre for the Study of Living Standards.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Howard Gospel, 1997. "The Revival of Apprenticeship Training in Britain," CEP Discussion Papers dp0372, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    2. Paul Ryan, 2001. "The School-to-Work Transition: A Cross-National Perspective," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(1), pages 34-92, March.
    3. Jonker N. & Grip A. de, 1999. "Do employees with Flexible Contracts receive less Training?," ROA Research Memorandum 001, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    4. Miriam Rinawi & Uschi Backes-Gellner, 2020. "Firms’ method of pay and the retention of apprentices," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 72(1), pages 269-291.
    5. Caliendo, Marco & Cobb-Clark, Deborah A. & Pfeifer, Harald & Uhlendorff, Arne & Wehner, Caroline, 2024. "Managers’ risk preferences and firm training investments," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    6. Conti, Gabriella, 2005. "Training, productivity and wages in Italy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 557-576, August.
    7. Christian Dustmann & Uta Schoenberg, 2007. "Apprenticeship Training and Commitment to Training Provision," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0032, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    8. Stefania Zotteri, 2002. "Heterogeneity in Human Capital and Economic Growth," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 455, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    9. Jens Mohrenweiser & Thomas Zwick & Uschi Backes‐Gellner, 2019. "Poaching and Firm‐Sponsored Training," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 57(1), pages 143-181, March.
    10. Belan, Pascal & Chéron, Arnaud, 2014. "Turbulence, training and unemployment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 16-29.
    11. Yanick Labrie & Claude Montmarquette, 2005. "La formation qualifiante et transférable en milieu de travail," CIRANO Project Reports 2005rp-04, CIRANO.
    12. Jonker, N. & de Grip, A., 1999. "Do employees with flexible contracts receive less training?," ROA Research Memorandum 1E, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    13. Moretti, Luca & Mayerl, Martin & Mühlemann, Samuel & Schlögl, Peter & Wolter, Stefan C., 2017. "So Similar and Yet So Different: A Comparative Analysis of a Firm's Cost and Benefits of Apprenticeship Training in Austria and Switzerland," IZA Discussion Papers 11081, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Ardiana N. Gashi & Geoff Pugh & Nick Adnett, 2008. "Technological change and employer-provided training: Evidence from German establishments," Economics of Education Working Paper Series 0026, University of Zurich, Department of Business Administration (IBW).
    15. Bhaskar, V & Holden, Steinar, 2002. "Wage Differentiation via Subsidised General Training," Economics Discussion Papers 8851, University of Essex, Department of Economics.
    16. Marco Caliendo & Deborah A. Cobb-Clark & Cosima Obst & Helke Seitz & Arne Uhlendorff, 2022. "Locus of Control and Investment in Training," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(4), pages 1311-1349.
    17. Anurag Banerjee & Parantap Basu, 2008. "Who pays for job training?," CDMA Conference Paper Series 0802, Centre for Dynamic Macroeconomic Analysis.
    18. Joe Tharakan & Jean‐Philippe Tropeano, 2009. "On The Impact Of Labor Market Matching On Regional Disparities," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 57-80, February.
    19. Malcomson, James M. & Maw, James W. & McCormick, Barry, 2003. "General training by firms, apprentice contracts, and public policy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 197-227, April.
    20. John S Heywood & Uwe Jirjahn & Annika Pfister, 2020. "Product market competition and employer provided training in Germany," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 29(2), pages 533-556.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:20302. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.