With an apprenticeship, students spend part of their time at school and part of their time on the job.
Apprenticeships are a trendy way of learning these days, but it’s actually one of the most ancient learning techniques! The “apprenticeship promise” is simple: the best way to learn a job is actually… to practice the job!
Where do apprenticeships come from? How are they funded? And how can a school get accreditation to deliver apprenticeships? I’ll do my best to answer to all these questions in this chapter! 😃
Origins
As I said in the introduction, apprenticeships are one of the most ancient learning techniques. The practice dates back to the Middle Ages! It was developed in Europe during these times.
The word “apprentice” appeared around the 12th century. One of the first occurrences can be found in 1175, in a book by Chrétien de Troyes (very old French alert ⚠️) :
“Come hardis et fors et fiers Les encontre trestoz ensamble; Cui il ataint, pas ne li samble Que il soit d'armes aprentis” Chrétien de Troyes – Perceval ou le conte du Graal
You might not understand a word of this, even if you are French. But the last word is actually one of the first times “apprentice” has ever been used. 🤓
Many apprenticeships contracts were oral, but some were written, like this one from the 18th century:
At the beginning, there was no school involved. The apprenticeship contract was just between the employer (also called the “master”) and the student (also called the “apprentice”).
Characteristics of an Apprenticeship
Apprenticeships can be quite different from one country to another, or from one contract type to another. However, we can distinguish a few common characteristics of most apprenticeship contracts today:
The student spends time at work and at school: it depends on the day or on the week. I’ll share some typical schedules below.
It’s free for the student: the apprenticeship isn’t paid by the student, it’s generally paid by the company, by the region or by the state.
The student gets paid by the company: most of the time they get a minimum salary, though it’s usually better pay than internship.
As you can see, it looks pretty interesting! 😃
On the company side, it’s a way to attract new talent and to be sure they will stay during all their apprenticeship contract duration (typically the student is “locked in” from 6 months to 2 years). Also, the company will pay only a minimal salary… but of course it has to acknowledge that the student will not be productive from day 1, and that productivity will increase over time.
Alternating Formal Learning and Working
In the past, there was no formal way of learning. It just… happened, on the job. It was just assumed that you would learn by looking at what an experienced person was doing. As an apprentice, 100% of your time was spent at work.
Today, it’s more structured and students have to spend time doing some formal learning (ie. in a classroom or online with a teacher) and some time on the job. It can vary wildly from one country to another, from one contract to another, but here are some typical apprenticeship schedules:
3 days working – 2 days learning
4 days working – 1 day learning
3 weeks working – 1 week learning
2 weeks working – 1 week learning
1 month working – 1 month learning
etc.
Apprenticeships Are not Just for Manual Jobs!
Originally, apprenticeships were a way to learn manual jobs (like jeweler, blacksmith…) in the Middle Ages. They have evolved a lot since then. You can learn any type of job through an apprenticeship, including service jobs like web developer, designer, sales jobs, and more.
While the public perception has evolved, a lot of people still consider that apprenticeships are just for manual jobs – and that it would be a lesser way of learning. 😒 I clearly disagree, and the data from OpenClassrooms shows that apprentices tend to have more chances at getting a full-time job than others.
In some countries like Switzerland, it’s totally natural to learn through an apprenticeship. In others, it’s now much better and more valued than in the past (France, the UK…). And in other countries (USA) it’s still relatively new… especially tech apprenticeships, but it’s also getting better.
The public perception is still evolving to this day, but the examples above show that you can go very far by starting as an apprentice.
Funding
Apprenticeships cost money to deliver, like any form of learning. Hey, someone has to pay these teachers! 😆
So… who pays? Not the student: we’ve seen that apprenticeships are free for the student. In practice, it can be either:
The company: the company hiring the apprentice could be paying directly the school for the apprenticeship training fees.
The region, the state, or any other 3rd party: it can come from a regional or national budget. In some countries, like France and the UK, companies pay a specific “apprenticeship tax”, whether they have apprentices or not. The tax is due no matter what. In this context, they’d better hire apprentices or their tax would be helping other companies and not them!
The apprenticeship tax is more common in Europe than in the US.
The role of these mandatory taxes is to motivate companies to hire apprentices. Thanks to the tax, hiring an apprentice is less costly for companies: they benefit from tax exemptions in return.
🇺🇳 Country by Country
As I’ve said several times already, each country can be quite different from another. Let’s focus a bit on how it works in a few countries.
🇺🇸 US
In the US, apprenticeships exist but are less developed than in the UK and France. They’re more often used for blue collar jobs (construction jobs…) than white collar jobs (web developers…). You can sometimes hear the words “tech apprenticeships” to refer to apprenticeships for tech jobs, to make it clear that it’s not for a construction job.
Americans, however, are not that used to apprenticeships and often view it as a lesser way of learning. They might confuse apprenticeships with internships.
The good news is that things are changing: new policies, more money to fund apprenticeships, etc. In practice, there is no “apprenticeship tax” or levy like in France or the UK. Funding comes from the Department of Labor (DoL) through grants.
There are usually several entities working together to operate an apprenticeship program (though they can sometimes be combined):
Sponsor: the entity managing the whole training program. In a nutshell, the sponsor is the administrator. The training has to be officially registered by the Department of Labor: we say it’s a RAP (Registered Apprenticeship Program).
Employer: they hire the apprentice, and can work on the training to help design it.
RTI provider: the entity effectively delivering the training. RTI stands for “Related Technical Instruction”. It’s usually 140-200 hours of training.
Facilitator: they can help source apprenticeship candidates, help design the program with their industry knowledge, etc.
The process of a RAP (Registered Apprenticeship Program) in the US can be summed up like this:
The pre-apprenticeship part can help apprentices learn some skills before starting their job.
🇬🇧 UK
In the UK, apprenticeships are traditionally more an upskilling tool, used by employees currently at companies to get better at their job. Apprenticeships can also work as a reskilling tool or as a way to get into the workforce for young people.
Companies pay an “apprenticeship levy”, which is a 0.5% tax on a company’s total pay (only for companies with an annual pay bill of more than £3 million). If you pay £10 million every year in employees' salaries, you will pay £50,000 in apprenticeship levy.
This money then funds apprenticeship training providers, through an entity called ESFA (Education & Skills Funding Agency). The cost of the training is defined in advance: for example a Data Science apprenticeship is always funded at the same level (all providers get paid the same).
🇫🇷 France
In France, there are 3 types of apprenticeship contracts:
Contrat d’apprentissage: the original one. Mostly used to train young people, under 30 years of age, so they can get into the workforce. It can also be used by disabled people, with no age limit, and by people who want to set up a company.
Contrat de professionnalisation: used by people changing jobs, including jobseekers, disabled people, etc. It can also be used by young people, under 25 years of age, to help them get into the workforce.
Pro-A: also called “Reconversion ou promotion par alternance”, used by employees who would like to change jobs, change careers, or get a promotion at their existing company.
The funding scheme is a bit different in each case:
Contrat d’apprentissage is paid through the taxe d’apprentissage. Companies pay roughly 0.68% of taxe d’apprentissage on their total pay bill if they have at least 1 employee. On top of this, bigger companies with more than 250 employees will have to pay an additional tax called contribution supplémentaire à l’apprentissage (CSA) if they have less than 5% apprentices in the company (it’s a punitive tax!).
Contrat de professionnalisation and Pro-A are paid by the company’s OPCO (Opérateur de compétences), which itself is funded by the main training tax called contribution à la formation professionnelle that we covered in the previous chapter.
