The Youth Unemployment Crisis: A Fix that Works and Pays for Itself
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2013/02/the-youth-unemployment-crisis.html
Apprenticeship can be a great idea. However, it is not very different in concept from indentured servitude and that is subject to a lot of potential for abuse. If there were regulations put in place to ensure that the apprentices were paid a living wage (it doesn’t all have to be cash, I recall stories from a German friend of mine who worked as an apprentice as a youth that he got room and board as part of his compensation) and had the ability to seek assistance when they felt they were being taken advantage of, then I could get wholly behind the idea. I think for lots and lots of trades (even a lot of ‘cerebral’ ones such as engineering) could greatly benefit from on the job training. After all, isn’t that what co-ops are supposed to be in a lot of programs? Why not formalize that and put the horse before the cart? Instead of letting lazy students avoid co-ops and play all summer, make that the key point of the educational process and ensure that they have practical real-world experience before they graduate.
When I first got into engineering a fellow took me under his wing. Whether you call that mentorship on his part or practical apprenticeship on my part is immaterial. It was worth more in the long run than a lot of academic brain-injection of “facts.”