The Apprenticeship Tradition in Further Education

Abstract

Using Andy Green and Norman Lucas’s (1999) depiction of Further and Adult Education as encompassing two distinct traditions (The apprenticeship tradition and the self-help tradition), Chap. 4, makes the case of showing how the apprenticeship tradition can provide the necessary perspective and insight to support a reappraisal of vocational education and training in England. By looking back at the historical roots of apprenticeships (such as the example of the medieval guilds), we have seen how induction into a trade or profession was usually involved an appreciation of the social and ethical aspects of the vocation as well as a rigorous training in the practical skills. The work of Alasdair MacIntyre ((1985 [1981]). After virtue. London: Duckworth) and Richard Sennett ((2009). The craftsman. London: Penguin) has been used to illuminate the discussion around vocational education and the concept of practices. Whilst Sennett offers an inspiring yet unsentimental portrayal of the guilds workshop in reality, MacIntyre gives philosophical underpinning to the concept of ‘citizenship-within-practices’ I have been advocating for vocational courses in Further Education and apprenticeship programmes in the workplace. I have linked the idea of ‘citizenship-within-practice’ to Further Education because I believe citizenship education would work most effectively when embedded into particular vocational studies. I have attempted to show how this might work in a variety of vocational programmes (such as Hair, Sport, Construction and Business) because I am not convinced that citizenship education as a separate area of study would be effective on most courses in Further Education (the example of where Key Skills were studied separately from the vocational programmes is a case-in-point of how such arrangements do not work). Not only would the incorporation of citizenship into the actual vocational courses give these courses a wider, more rounded view of the craft, trade or profession that I have been advocated throughout this thesis, but it would also ensure that the elements of citizenship education studied would be practical and relevant for the students. Although MacIntyre’s evocation of stable historical communities is problematic (in terms of contemporary democracies where pluralism is inevitable), his linking of practices to their social and ethical concerns (alongside Sennett’s depiction of the medieval workshop) is an interesting philosophical platform from which to promote the concept of ‘citizenship-within-practices’ as part of vocational education in England.