Study On Western Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship is widely deemed as the oldest form of vocational education with its amazing vitality. Although it had once been marginalized due to the development of school vocational education, currently it has been chosen as a new vocational education strategy by many western developed countries such as Germany, UK, Ireland, Switzerland, and Denmark. On the other hand, the "work-study combination", which is somewhat similar to the western modern apprenticeship, is also taken as a key way for developing the vocational education in China. In spite of the great achievements, the "work-study combination" is challenged by some typical problems currently, such as the low commitment of the companies to school-company cooperation, no quality assurance to the delivery, and the low level of the "work-study combination". Being curious to the survival of apprenticeship in western countries and seeking possible ways to improve the vocational education in China, the study takes western apprenticeship as the research topic. The key questions that the study tries to address include what rules can be drawn from the experience of western apprenticeship and what we can learn from it.The dissertation is consisted of six chapters.Chapterâ… is "Introduction", which includes the background, literature review and research approaches. The comparative framework for the evolution of western apprenticeship and the international comparative framework for western modern apprenticeship are also constructed in this chapter, based on the needs for longitudinal comparison and for horizontal comparison respectively.Chapterâ…¡is "The History of Western Apprenticeship and its Lessons". Judged by the changes of the forms of apprenticeship, the history of western apprenticeship is divided into the pre-apprenticeship, the craft guild apprenticeship, the state-intervening guild apprenticeship, the collective bargaining industry apprenticeship, and the modern apprenticeship. The background, features, challenges and trends of the modern apprenticeship are particularly discussed in detail. By applying the comparative framework for the evolution of western apprenticeship, the characters and drives for the evolution of western apprenticeship and the values that bring it through the history are concluded. Chapter III is "Apprenticeship in Germany". The history of apprenticeship in Germany is presented first. Then the dual system is described in detail from the respects of background, development, legislative framework, administration, delivery, challenges and reforms. The features of the apprenticeship in Germany are concluded as "Berufsprinzip", interest-balanced consensus mechanism, high commitment of companies, relatively rounded regulations, supportive three-track education system and the favorable historical and cultural tradition.Chapterâ…£is "Apprenticeship in UK". The history of apprenticeship in UK is presented first. Then the current apprenticeship in UK is described in detail from the respects of background, development, legislative framework, administration, delivery, challenges and reforms. The features of the apprenticeship in UK are concluded as quasi-market mechanism, employer-led system, laddered apprenticeship system, competence outcome based training and evaluation, and lifelong learning society philosophy.Chapterâ…¤is "Comparison and Lessons of Modern Apprenticeships in Germany and UK". By applying the international comparative framework for western modern apprenticeship, the similarities and differences of modern apprenticeships in Germany and UK are concluded. Then based on the experience of Germany and UK, issues such as the influence factors for modern apprenticeship, the stakeholder mechanisms, the reasons and incentives for industry participation, the reasons and incentives for youth participation, the training quality control, and the roles for government, are argued.Chapterâ…¥is "Lessons for the Vocational Education in China:from the perspective of work-study combination". The history of vocational education forms similar to apprenticeship in China is presented first. Then the work-study combination is described in detail from the respects of background, development, legislative framework, administration and delivery. The features of work-study combination in China are concluded as school-led system, atypical market mechanism, diversity of the forms, inter-regional difference and cooperation. The blocks for the development of work-study combination include incomplete legislations, low level school-company cooperation, improper funding mechanism, low commitment of company, un-assured instruction quality. The suggestions for improvement are proposed in the end, which includes to develop an interest-balanced state-province-region cooperative mechanism, to assure the instruction quality by combination of standard control and process control, to reform the funding mechanism so as to promote both the equity and efficiency, to improve the legislations by specifying operation rules, to promote the programs in public so as to make desirable interaction of the culture and the institutions.