Unlocking the barriers: a regional perspective of apprenticeship and traineeships

Abstract

There is a striking parallel between the poverty experienced by many workers denied opportunities to work, but kept in the workforce, and the failure experienced by many students denied opportunities to achieve, but kept on at school. The economic system should create real chances to earn; the education system should create real chances to learn. But today the institutions through which wealth is produced plunge large numbers of workers into poverty every year, and the institutions that create academic success condemn large numbers of students to failure. Each system, it seems, sets limits on the diffusion of economic and cultural benefits so as to prevent the dilution of quality and protect a narrow social enjoyment, which amounts to the same thing. (Teese 2000)