Apprenticeship for our Future

Man has been working wood since the genesis of time. Working wood is
one of the inherent occupations of man, a living trade; whereby, a man
may do well by applying common sense and manual dexterity to the basic
materials found at hand.
Working with wood, metal and soil are fundamental to living trade; yet,
no two men have ever had the same set of tools or the same set of
experiences; therefore, no two men will ever have the same knowledge or
understanding of living trade; the material remains infinite as each
man must find his own way; thus, we are apprentices all of our lives.

Apprenticeship for our Future

In the fourth century BC, Plato recognized that the majority of any
population needed to be working class citizens contributing to the
tangible product of their nation; and that the decay of that nation
could be gauged by the percentage of people who are essentially
contributing nothing. We are a nation in distress.
Education has failed in its fundamental responsibility to provide the
working class with marketable skills. Serving only the higher
motivations, education has become an obtuse bureaucracy that many
cannot and will not respond to. With higher education costing tens of
thousands of dollars, the working class is excluded, left to the mercy
of an ownership society. Apprenticeship is the missing ingredient, and
only apprenticeship can fulfill the responsibility and our obligation
to future generations.
Apprenticeship must overcome the conventional wisdoms of academia,
while becoming part of the academic woodwork. A program of
apprenticeship must contain the same integrity systems of higher
education, but requires much more participation than just listing tools
available in a tool chest. Apprenticeship must involve each individual
in practical, financially responsible activities.
Conventional apprenticeships are negative and narrow, concentrated only
upon the needs of a particular trade or industry. True apprenticeship
is a lifelong, intellectual pursuit; that endows the 'journeyman'
with an immutable purpose, and creates equanimity between the
'artisan' and his material. In discussing apprenticeship, we are
talking about the individual and the entire concept of apprenticeship
is oriented towards that thought.
Apprenticeship is not geared exclusively to preparing the individual
for paid employment but to contribute to a more enterprising work
force. Apprenticeship encourages the development of skills and
attributes that employers are looking for, such as teamwork, commitment
and flexibility, but also develops a realistic knowledge and
understanding of business and the working life. Apprenticeship sets
the standard for quality.
The survival and competitiveness of all companies, small and large,
depend increasingly upon the quality of their workforces. Employees
need to be able to work autonomously, to take responsibility and make
decisions; to work in small teams and units, to be flexible and
creative, and to update their skills continually. Employees need to be
enterprising, and qualities like planning and decision making are ones
that count.
The labor market is changing. Apprenticeship takes the initiative to
help the working class to deal proactively with an unpredictable world.
Apprenticeship develops in the individual the necessary enterprise
skills and an awareness of how their community, including business and
industry in a global economy, works. The individual and the whole
working class needs to be 'opportunity ready'.
The need for apprenticeship in this scenario is clear. People need to
be able to package skills and knowledge into working livelihoods;
become contractors rather than employees; see opportunity in job
change, override periods of unemployment; recognize the ongoing need
for learning and training; be creative rather than passive; capable of
self-initiated action rather than dependent; know how to learn rather
than expect to be taught; and they need to be enterprising, not think
or act like an 'employee' or a 'client'.
This I sincerely believe; apprenticeship is the key to our future
prosperity, and the only key available to unlock a new age of
renaissance.

JB

Joe Bemier