Unpacking the global apprenticeship agenda: a comparative synthesis of literature from international organisations in the education policy field

Abstract

ABSTRACT Apprenticeships are experiencing ascendency as a global policy idea, yet their promotion by international organisations remains underexamined. This article presents a comparative synthesis of publications on apprenticeships from the EU, ILO, OECD, UNESCO, and World Bank. Analysis demonstrates that IOs advance a diversity of discourses, apprenticeships acting as a polysemic policy object made malleable to organisational identities and priorities. Nonetheless, IOs’ significant, sustained and often coordinated efforts to promote apprenticeships support the notion of a ‘global apprenticeship agenda’. The internal complexity of this agenda compels more fine-grained theorisation of IOs’ individual and collective policy activity, accounting for variation and contestation.