Apprenticeships

This encyclopaedia entry defines what an 'apprenticeship' is and briefly outlines the virtues of apprenticeship as a means of training and a way of enabling young people to make the transition from school to work. Two broad theoretical perspectives on employers' decisions about whether or not to offer apprenticeship training are outlined. The first comes from economics, in particular the theory of human capital (under both perfect competition and monopsony). The second is drawn from human resource management. The literature on the importance of the institutional framework within which employers' decisions about how to acquire skilled labour are made for creating incentives to invest in human capital via apprenticeship training is also briefly discussed