Apprenticeships & Education

• #UKEdChat session 589
• The idea of learning alongside a skilled master has a history going back millennia.
• Apprenticeships Week occurs every year in February
• Click here to view the tweet archive.

Apprenticeships in many parts of the world are prestigious and much sought after. Indeed, when I lived in China, many school leavers were keen to become an apprentice in a whole range of areas. The seeming importance of apprenticeships by societies seems largely based on the focus of the society’s economy, with countries like the UK with a large service economy placing less emphasis on developing and maintaining formal apprenticeship schemes historically.

It could be argued that many aspects of the modern educational system are based on an apprenticeship model. The skilled teacher shows, guides and elicits ideas and skills that they wish to foster in their learners. While (inexplicably) not all learners wish to become teachers, many of the skills and ideas that they are asked to acquire are the basics that a teacher requires to teach that subject area.

In this #UKEdChat session, which took place on Thursday 10th February 2022 at 8pm(UK) which coincides with Apprenticeships Week, we discussed what impact education can have on apprenticeships, what education can learn from apprenticeships from the working world, and explore how apprenticeships and formal education can build upon and support each other.

Questions

1. What is your understanding of an apprenticeship?
2. What is your own experience of apprenticeships? For example, classroom based teaching practice.
3. What aspects of your teaching and classroom practice have apprenticeship elements to them?
4. How can schools best support learners in getting experience of the working world?
5. How can technology bring formal education and apprenticeships closer?
6. What can schools learn from apprenticeship programmes?
7. Should schools work closer with employers to develop the curriculum? If so, how?
8. If you could become an apprentice to anyone in history, what would you want to learn and from whom?

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