Apprenticeship-Related Instruction: Some Basic Issues

"Related instruction" in school, for several hours each week, is required by most apprenticeship programs in the United States. A northern California study suggests that apprentices by and large have little desire to return to formal classroom education, and they feel that many of the subjects covered (particularly mathematics) provide little help on the job. Teaching techniques, which emphasize self-directed study from workbooks, seem inappropriate for students with a negative attitude toward "book learning." And yet the heterogeneous nature of most classes makes "up-front" teaching difficult. With important exceptions, good teachers and teaching material are hard to find. Nevertheless, with the increasing specialization of the training offered by individual employers, related instruction should play an ever more important role in apprenticeship. Two major questions are: (1) Should apprentices be required to take pre-apprenticeship training before going on the job, and (2) to what extent should "manipulative" training be provided in class?