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By contrast, other cultures still celebrate the dignity and value of working
in mid-level occupations—and enjoy considerable economic benefits from
them when they institutionalize their values. In Germany, Austria, Switzerland,
Scandinavia, and elsewhere, 40-70 percent of each age cohort goes into
some sort of “dual system” featuring apprenticeship in economically vibrant
industries. Cooperation is strong between educators, companies, parents,
and civil society. The value placed on skilled work is reflected in some of the
pillars of European culture like Wagner’s opera “The Master Singers” which
celebrates the labor guilds and master craftsmen tradition. In Switzerland,
among students finishing primary school in the year 2000, 42 percent of those
who attained the highest scores (4 or 5) on the Program for International
Student Assessment (PISA) exam
chose
to go into vocational education.
In addition to the inherent human value of doing productive work, the outcomes
of vocational education in Central Europe are compelling: students are paid in
their apprenticeships and receive ample guidance on meeting the transition to
adulthood, productive careers, and a place in civil society. Higher proportions
(86 percent in Austria and 78 percent in Germany) complete the programs and
high proportions get jobs in their fields of specialization. Majorities stay with
the company which trained them and even those who switch usually remain
in the same or related fields. High wage premiums are associated with those
who complete apprenticeships (even in the United States). Companies have a
steady pipeline of appropriately skilled workers and get value from their trainees
from the day they start work, and much more when the young employees are
certified in their fields. Youth unemployment is uniformly lower in countries with
established dual system models. For the age group 16-24, in the current year,
unemployment in Germany is below 8 percent and around 9 percent in Austria.
It reached 15 percent in the United States, 43 percent in Italy, and around
24 percent in France, all countries with minimal apprenticeship programs.
Success is not limited to Germanic cultures: the United Kingdom, Australia,
and Canada have all expanded apprenticeships in recent decades.
Longtime education scholar and leader in educational reform Nancy Hoffman
summarizes the case for vocational education as follows:
... the smartest and quickest route to a wide variety of occupations for the
majority of young people in the successful countries is a vocational program
that integrates work and learning. The countries doing the best by their young
people have a different mindset than we do about education. The purpose is
not “college for all,” as in the United States today, but rather to provide the
education and training young people need to prepare for a career or calling.
Longstanding and deeply embedded cultural, social, and institutional differences
between Central European countries and the United States precludes wholesale
adoption of the dual system as organized in these countries. Yet the success of
those systems, and the increasing visibility of apprenticeships in Anglo-Saxon
cultures, coupled with the recognized need to do a better job of preparing
our own students for careers that exist in the modern economy, argues for
taking a serious look at ways to adopt whatever parts of those systems can
be grafted onto U.S. institutions. While it will definitely require a long-term
adjustment in cultural expectations about work, many companies and clusters
of firms in industrialized areas in North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan,
Kentucky, Tennessee, and Wisconsin are already experimenting in crafting local
solutions to skills shortages. Their success is measured by providing good jobs
and fulfilling careers for our young people. Oftentimes, German, Swiss, and
Austrian companies, working to take advantage of the friendly and competitive
environment in the United States, take the lead in working with local schools and
governments to create new apprenticeship programs.
The Obama administration is now touting new programs to encourage
apprenticeships. It has committed $2 billion to double apprenticeships (albeit
from a low level) over the next four years. But these efforts will flounder if we
do not rebalance our “mindset” as Hoffman puts it, or our culture, to recognize
the dignity, value, and sense of fulfillment that is a part of skilled labor.
HR
Tom is Executive Director of the Manufacturing and Society in the 21st
Century program at the Aspen Institute. He recently retired as President
and CEO of the Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, an economic research and
executive education organization based in Arlington, Virginia, with more
than 500 manufacturing firms as members. Previous positions include:
Director of the Washington Office of The Hudson Institute, Assistant
Secretary for International Economic Policy at the U.S. Department of Commerce, chief of staff
to two members of Congress, and associate instructor at Stanford University. His commentary
and analysis on manufacturing, economic performance, globalization, and related policy issues
can be found in major news outlets. He holds a B.A. degree from Princeton and M.A. and Ph.D.
degrees from Indiana University.
