Figure 1: The Expansive–Restrictive Continuum Expansive

Apprenticeship is a vehicle for aligning goals of individual development and organisational capability

Workplace, training provider and (where present) trade union share post-apprenticeship vision: progression for career

Apprentice has dual status as learner and employee

Apprentice makes gradual transition to productive worker, gaining expertise in occupational field

Apprentice treated as member of occupational and workplace community with access to community’s rules, history, knowledge and expertise

Apprentice participates in different communities of practice inside and outside the workplace

Workplace maps everyday work tasks against qualification requirements – qualification valued as extending beyond immediate job requirements

Qualifications develop knowledge for progression to next level and platform for further education

Apprentice has time off-the-job for study and to gain wider perspective

Apprentice’s existing skills and knowledge recognised, valued and used as platform for new learning

Apprentice’s progress closely monitored – regular constructive feedback from range of employer and provider personnel who take a holistic approach

Restrictive

Apprenticeship is used to tailor individual capability to immediate organisational need

Post-apprenticeship vision: static for job

Status as employee dominates: status as learner restricted to minimum required to meet statutory ‘apprenticeship framework’

Fast transition to productive worker with limited knowledge of occupational field; existing productive workers given minimal development

Apprentice treated as extra pair of hands who only needs access to limited knowledge and skills to perform job

Participation restricted to narrowly defined job role and work station

Weak relationship between workplace tasks and qualifications – no recognition for skills and knowledge acquired beyond immediate work tasks

Qualifications accredit limited range of on-the-job competence

Off-the-job simply a minor extension of on-the-job

Apprentices regarded as ‘blank sheets’ or ‘empty vessels’

Apprentice’s progress monitored for job performance with limited feedback – provider involvement restricted to formal assessments for qualifications

Far too much apprenticeship in England is

located at the restrictive end of the continuum. A key reason is that the majority of apprentices are what is known as ‘conversions’. The practice of converting existing

employees into apprentices to support the attainment of the government’s numerical targets is grossly undermining the concept of apprenticeship as a model of learning.

In 2008 it was revealed for the first time, in the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee’s scrutiny of the draft Apprenticeships Bill, that approximately 70 per cent of apprentice starts were conversions. The key problem for quality is that conversions are associated with employees gaining qualifications that accredit their existing rather than new skills. The emergence of

SPRING 2012 ADULTS LEARNING

9