Commentary

The Loss Of Apprenticeships Is A Tragedy

by dave.b , Max Kalehoff , November 20, 2009

I had breakfast earlier this week with Bug Labs CEO Peter Semmelhack, a friend who is passionate about empowering others to invent -- and will be speaking on that topic soon. He noted that his recent European travels underscored how apprenticeships remain a bigger part of life there versus the U.S. More important, that contrast highlighted how apprenticeships are gradually declining everywhere. While this trend is not a sudden crisis, it creates a long-term tragedy.

Why? The decline of apprenticeships signals the erosion of an important form of knowledge transfer -- both technical and cultural. It also signals a loss of grassroots enablement and inventiveness. That in turn fuels an imbalance of power, favoring mass manufacturers versus the people. Instead of a society of enterprising individuals who invent solutions to their own problems, this power imbalance fosters an ignorance of the tools we have to innovate. The result is a mindset that knows only how to purchase prefabricated solutions off the shelf, such as from Ikea. If there is no off-the-shelf solution, we're more likely to accept it and move on. It's a more passive, complacent and frustrating way of life.

This conversation with Peter reminded me of a recent video interview I did with Garrett Brown, inventor of the Steadicam. He suggested that invention should be part of every job description. So I asked Garrett how we might make inventiveness ubiquitous. He replied: "[W]e teach kids to do all sorts of things, but we don't teach them to think about things in the inventive way -- and why don't we? It's something you should be alert for from earliest childhood. You should be conscious that when you do devise something, when you fill a gap, you have invented."

He added, "I'd love to see kids thinking in that way, and growing up to be adults that think in that way... that solve their own problems, and [make] stuff for themselves that they want... The process of doing it is absurdly easy... it's ridiculously easy to get a machine shop to build you a gizmo. You sketch it, they'll help you make it, you try it, and if it doesn't work, you make another. You can't imagine how much fun that is."

As a dad of a two toddlers in an imperfect world, I'm realizing that inventiveness must be nurtured as a core value throughout their upbringing. Traditional apprenticeships may not be part of it, but other forms of disciplined, committed mentoring must.

Maybe we should bring back true apprenticeships.

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8 comments about "The Loss Of Apprenticeships Is A Tragedy ".

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Ed Lamoureux from Bradley University, November 20, 2009 at 11:32 a.m.
Max . . . not at all sure where you are coming from here. Students at most every institution of higher education in America, and even at many high schools, do one or more "internships" before (or just after) they finish school. Most schools have job/career centers that are busy, year-round, placing students in internships. Some fields/disciplines use internships a bit more than others. But most have them. Further, many "applied" disciplines feature upper-level education/courses that include client-based projects. Oft-time led by faculty, these projects become equivalent to internships/apprenticeships. I just have NO idea what causes you to see a decline in these sorts of mentoring. In fact, it's often the case that we do TOO much of this stuff do the detriment of students' attention to and time for careful study of conceptual material.
I don't know where Mr. Semmelhack was looking . . . but it looks like you both, somehow, "missed it" on this one.
Reply

Paul Kaye, November 20, 2009 at 11:52 a.m.

I disagree entirely with this article. The evolution of capitalism and free enterprise obviates each of us having to design, build, and sell our own stuff. The writer of this article seems to want to go back in time about 300 years. The stuff that we buy off the shelves is cheaper and more available than it ever could be if created individually by hand, and has allowed the poor to reach middle class status. Going back in time would only result in a re-deepening separation of classes. There is a reason the apprenticeship is going away: it is contrary to economic evolution.

Mark McLaughlin, November 20, 2009 at 11:53 a.m.

Max...your opinion about "lost apprenticeships" seems to be grounded in a narrow and myopic view of the digital media industry. I don't think that the CEO of Bug Labs and the President of Clickable is really a broad enough pool of insight to get to your conclusions.
Apprenticeships at very narrow and specialized digital media and digital advertising companies probably are in decline but that has more to do with the category than any global industry trend regarding apprenticeships.

Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited, November 20, 2009 at noon

Ed, he's looking at inner cities. He's looking in rural areas and small towns. And just because the schools and the students may want it, businesses are laying off, not hiring people to oversee more programs. Then there are other things to consider like increased insurance risks for companies they do not want to pay for and do not want the risk for non-employees. Just one person trips and falls and a small business can collapse. And whose going to be responsible for these invaders and challengers to their own jobs? Max is right and there is a big disconnect that probably does not see a fix in the immediate future. But it doesn't mean people have to stop trying.

Nelson Yuen from Stereotypical Mid Sized Services Corp., November 20, 2009 at 12:01 p.m.

I disagree entirely with the commentators. People that promote the evolution of capitalism sit comfortable complacent because their definition of "capitalism" is an enterprise that promotes incumbents succeeding small start-ups and preventing innovation. The stuff we buy off the shelves is cheaper and more available, but they do not address problems in granular. (And for the record, that's not what the author was trying to address in the first place.) Since no one seems to be an economist in here, I'll not go into the details. If you call companies like Google a product of capitalism, you're sorely mistaken from a ECONOMIC point of view. Google innovates first and profits second - addressing the needs of the consumer on an individual level with a BROAD solution that is flexible and distributable. Capitalism as WE know it SUPPORTS the separation of classes because it provides individuals who are NOT the most innovative or intelligent to control the means to production, there by stifling innovation by creating barriers to entry for competition. Economic evolution...????.... um yeah.... just.... oww.... my head hurts... I won't bother.

John Jainschigg from World2Worlds, Inc., November 20, 2009 at 12:44 p.m.

I agree with Max in principle: institutions appear incapable of teaching people to be productive hackers -- which is what we're really talking about here when we speak of inventiveness at every level of the organization. So we need better ways of training and encouraging the desired behavior. I've always been a fan of money, myself -- prefably given in chunks reflecting the near-term (or other reasonable timespan-based) value to the organization of each innovation produced, and awarded in a way that makes public the rationale behind that ROI calculation.

I'm not sure apprenticeships help solve this particular problem -- except perhaps in the sense that the Master/Apprentice relationship offers a possible structure for incentivizing invention and calculating and proffering rewards: i.e., inventive Apprentices help further the Master's career, so the Master is incented to cultivate that behavior by insuring that worthy Apprentices are taken care of. It's not the only way to manage this, however - and in today's crazed job market, with people plugging in and out of jobs in an atmosphere of upheaval and a general sense of 'Okay, who's my boss _today?_,' I wonder if this model is even attainable any more at the level of institutional culture. Certainly, very high-value individuals will always have the option of moving through business culture with an entourage of prospectively-very-high-value hands -- you see this all the time in executive ranks, on programming teams and elsewhere -- but that's not exactly the same thing.

To me, apprenticeship is more a solution for loss of institutional knowledge -- but again, in an atmosphere of constant upheaval, I'm not sure how these relationships can be maintained routinely.

I do disagree with the folks waving the flag of capitalism in the support of manufactured culture. The trouble with that vision -- at least as pertains to online media today -- is that you often can't buy or download what you need to stay in business and operate efficiently. That worked super-great in the climax ecosystem of print publishing, 15 years or so ago, where any yutz with a pile of yellow foolscap could go to Quad Graphics, pay a lot of money, and watch their scribbles turned into a glossy magazine. But it doesn't work at all in online, today, when every client shows up and says: show me something I've never seen before. Sadly, the usual response is some variation on the theme of: "Okay ... how about a microsite or a webinar?" Which is why ... y'know ... we need the innovation.

Rodney Brooks from ToTouch One, Inc, November 20, 2009 at 1:11 p.m.

If you can learn from a mentor and you will lead by being a mentor.

Patricia Philbin from Architect of Communication, November 21, 2009 at 7:40 a.m.

In France, the internships are a mixed bag. The intern or stagiaire gets hands-on work experience in a company. Since a lot of French students don't have summer jobs like their American counterparts, they come out of school with academic training yet fairly limited work experience.

Downside is that companies can misuse the intern process, profiting from young enthusiastic help while avoiding to hire permanent or more experienced workers. I met a stagiaire working at a famous ad agency who had significant responsibilities on a web site project, direct client contact, her own phone and biz card, etc. She said that at the end of the project, the agency would find another young person to replace her, never actually hiring someone.

CDDs (limited work contracts of usually 3 months) are another way out for companies to avoid permanent hires. After 2 CDDs they are supposed to stop the contract or hire the person, but they can get around this by changing the job description to make it seem like a 'new' CDD. This helps them to avoid France's complex labor laws. I know people who are 'serial CDD'ers' but it's tough to plan for the future with this kind of job arrangement or qualify for apartments, loans, etc.

How can young people work that way, considering the cost of living in Paris, or to gain a sense of stability and dedication to their career? Sorry for the long posting but I hope these thoughts are welcome in the discussion.

Patricia