Organizations and Markets

Always Two, There Are: A Master, and an Apprentice

30 October 2008 at 9:09 am Peter G. Klein Leave a comment

| Peter Klein |

Here are the proceedings of a conference on apprenticeship, the much-maligned, but frequently valuable, practice of learning a trade through experience, rather than formal classroom education. 

Paul Ryan notes in his EH.Net review:

Its publication responds to the extensive contemporary interest in apprenticeship — among historians, as part of discussions of the role of guilds, proto-industrialization and social change; and among policy analysts, reflecting the benefits of apprenticeship for school-to-work transitions, notably in Germany. . . .

Most contributors subscribe to a revisionist historical view of apprenticeship, as less monolithic, standardized and guild-regulated, and more determined by economic factors, than in traditional interpretations, notably the ganze Haus perspective of the German historical school. Both individually and collectively, the papers document the heterogeneity of apprenticeship. Thus contract durations and completion rates are shown to have varied considerably, even within particular occupations in particular towns in particular periods, despite clear guild prescriptions. 

Entry filed under: - Klein -, Business/Economic History, Institutions.