The Lost Importance of Apprenticeship

The naive dilettantism of the millennial workforce and the steady increase of long-term unemployment are proof of the failure of modern education. Universities tout the benefits of ‘liberal education’, while pre-professional companies advertise themselves as surefire paths to ‘career advancement’. However, these problems seem to be growing ever worse. Apprenticeship constitutes an historically proven education system that may offer us some clues as to how to improve our situation.

The foundation of apprenticeship, in its original mode, is the master-apprentice relationship. The apprentice would approach a particular master and agree to indenture themselves for a period, often five to ten years. During this time they would work solely for the master in return for living expenses and a small income, maybe enough to ensure their clothes didn’t fall apart. However, what they were seeking and what they gained was not the employment but the chance to study and learn from the master. If the apprenticeship ended successfully, the apprentice could themselves ascend to the position of a master: They would leave to begin their life in the profession, find work at the side of another master, set up a shop to sell the products of their craft, or even take over their teacher’s store.

One of the most famous examples of apprenticeship is Benjamin Franklin. His case makes clear some of the important aspects of this form of education that are often lacking in the modern academic and work environments.

1. Apprenticeship leads to lifelong, transferable, improvable skills
Franklin worked in his brother’s printing shop from the age of 10 to 17 and during that time he learned everything there was to know about the printing trade. The skills he gained allowed him to find employment wherever he went: Boston, Philadelphia, and even London. This substructure of competence also gave him the ability to adapt quickly to the newest techniques. In his professional career, although he began with newspapers and books, Franklin eventually ran shops printing everything from stamps to money.

The lesson is that if you can develop skills that are truly irreplaceable and require serious investment, then not only will you always be in high demand, you will also have a ready schema for constant adaptation and improvement.

In the current U.S. university system, however, instead of building an infrastructure of knowledge and skills, rigorously tested over time, students are encouraged to scratch the surface of many disciplines. A liberal arts student’s transcript will often be a nearly incomprehensible listing of courses: introductory geology, acting, classic philosophy, and a set of language classes, entirely replaceable by a few hours working on a computer. Not only does this fail to elicit the time and effort required to cultivate a single craft with an aim of achieving mastery, it is the exact opposite of irreplaceable. In an ideal world, a student would build up relationships with their professors and use those connections to gain insights unavailable to anyone else. Instead, they often receive the material equivalent of a month spent watching Khan Academy videos or reading a few books. With this “groundwork” it is questionable whether a student out of a U.S. university would ever be able to move quickly and find employment purely by their skill.

Unfortunately, this situation is not improved by entry into the job market. Many people upon leaving university enter the nebulous job market of ‘business’. Once there, the game seems to become one of either sticking it out and riding a promotion ladder at a single company or hopping from ladder to ladder to try and skip ahead, like a game of Super Mario. What both games have in common is that the career they entail does not come as a result of recognisable skills. Instead, it is built out of an indistinct measure of “experience” that boils down to a list of names on a piece of paper.

Unlike other forms of education, an apprenticeship model allows for the building of specific, deliberate skills, alongside the proof that comes from the master’s seal of approval. In our modern system, we have replaced this with an institutionalised education system and corporate employer-based seal of approval without any of the underlying merits formerly insured.

2. Apprenticeship lays the groundwork for entrepreneurship
With the skills that apprenticeship afforded him, Franklin became knowledgeable about his industry in ways that most outsiders couldn’t be. These unique insights meant that he was able to make the decisions needed to excel as an entrepreneur. Knowing the ins-and-outs of the printing trade and navigating them with ease, Franklin was able to start publishing numerous newspapers and books.

With a clear grasp of fundamentals, one can see the areas where an industry is most ripe for innovation.

In our current system, it is an oft-repeated refrain that both our schools and our businesses are not conducive to creative thought. Beyond the sin of stifling creative thought, however, there seem to be deeper issues. The enthusiasm that we do have for innovation appears to be spent buoying wantrepreneurs that have learned the patter of entrepreneurship without any of the skills needed to create effectively. This state of affairs can be seen through the glut of apps that provide people with things they never asked for, in ways that no common sense should allow. What we need to change the world is a set of experienced industry insiders who want to build a better system. Yet, we seem to be inundated by twenty-somethings with an idea that they feel good about, lacking any of the hard won knowledge required to execute.

Unlike an outside observer who may have a random chance of guessing pain points, an apprentice will have already dealt with them on a daily basis. Mastery of the fundamentals provides the freedom to break from them.

3. Apprenticeship leads to the best careers
At first glance, an apprenticeship may seem like a limiting form of education. Indenturing oneself for such an extended period and becoming devoted to a single craft appears to be a kind of pigeonholing. In fact, it is quite the opposite.

With his printing skills secured, and with the economic freedom that the use of these skills afforded him, Benjamin Franklin went on to explore the whole gamut of human achievement. By the end of his career, he had produced numerous inventions, advanced scientific inquiry, been a key figure in American politics, and become a notable author (which he remains to this day). The takeaway is that mastery in any field, instead of leading to confinement, allows for a flowering of human potential. The higher a tree can grow its trunk, the wider it can spread its branches.

In some ways, all of these points are variations on a theme. Apprenticeship provides a base for a career unequalled by any other form of education. Apprenticeship leads to steady employment, financial stability, and personal freedom. From its hands-on experience, you can avoid the pitfall of an ‘academic’ knowledge. By its nature of prolonged, deliberate training at the hands of a skilled teacher, you can achieve true mastery. And, by virtue of that mastery, you can discover that which is original in your craft and through it change the world for the better.

It is about time that we brought back apprenticeship as a regular and enduring form of education.