Apprenticeship in the `Golden Age': Were Youth Transitions Really Smooth and Unproblematic Back Then?

(2003) - Sarah A. Vickerstaff

Journal: Work, Employment and Society
Link:: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017003017002003
DOI:: 10.1177/0950017003017002003
Links::
Tags:: #paper #Transition #school-to-work
Cite Key:: [@vickerstaffApprenticeshipGoldenAge2003]

Abstract

This article challenges the taken-for-granted orthodoxy of contemporary youth studies that young people’s transitions from school to work have become extended and fragmented in comparison to those of people who left school in the period 1945–75. It is argued that the characterization of the earlier period as a ‘golden age’ of smooth, unproblematic, one-step transitions from school into the labour market misrepresents the experiences of people in that period and in particular, fails to understand the specificity of the apprenticeship model of transition which was experienced by around 35 percent of the male school-leaving age cohort.The discussion examines the experience of people in the period 1945–75 by reference to 30 interviews undertaken by the author with people who did apprenticeships in a variety of trades.

Notes

“t is argued that the characterization of the earlier period as a ‘golden age’ of smooth, unproblematic, one-step transitions from school into the labour market misrepresents the experiences of people in that period and in particular,” (Vickerstaff, 2003, p. 269)

“understand the specificity of the apprenticeship model of transition which was experienced by around 35 percent of the male school-leaving age cohort.” (Vickerstaff, 2003, p. 269)

“Take, for example, the argument that young people today have more extended transitions. The apprentices in the study had an extended transition, most of them assuming that adult status and its related effects (adult wages, marriage, independent living) would not be achieved until their early 20s.” (Vickerstaff, 2003, p. 281)