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Transferring knowledge from experts to apprentices is critical for sustaining a company's competitive advantage. Further, existing literature indicates that employees in the Millennial (Y) generation and Generation Z prefer collaboration in the work environment. To address such needs, this research study aims to analyze the factors that enable knowledge collaboration among apprentices and experts in the practice of engineering. Survey data collected from 138 apprentices in the practice of engineering revealed that apprentices are more likely to collaborate with experts within their companies when they can trust the experts and perceive support for collaboration from senior management. This research adds to the body of knowledge by explicitly addressing apprentices' trust, senior management support, intrinsic motivation, and knowledge collaboration with experts. Engineering managers can use this article to utilize trust, support from senior management, and employee's intrinsic motivation to increase knowledge collaboration success among engineering experts and apprentices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing body of research interrogating the discursive construction of ‘rural’ in negative terms – as lacking, in decline or in crisis. This paper contributes to this body of literature by taking as its point of departure skilled trades training in Canada’s most easterly province, Newfoundland and Labrador. To meet the labour demand associated with industrial projects in rural and remote areas, the provincial government has invested in strategies to encourage youth to enrol in certified training programmes in the skilled trades. This paper examines the contradictory and incomplete ways in which individualized labour market subjects are produced through a combination of economic restructuring and government policy initiatives related to training and apprenticeships, and considers what this means for how young people think about and experience the rural. I argue that rural places are largely framed in economic terms, either as in decline and crisis or as industrial sites of resource extraction, and that by discursively linking youth outmigration and skilled labour shortages, the sustainability of rural places and the province is individualized and downloaded onto youth, ignoring the structured inequalities that mediate access to training and employment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Historically in South Africa, apprentice training towards artisanship in the engineering trades has been characterised by a sharp separation between theoretical studies undertaken in a technical and vocational education and training (TVET) college and subsequent practical training undertaken in a workshop or through industry placement. TVET colleges have been critiqued by industry for the lack of practical training that supports theoretical study at the college, resulting in work placements where learners require extensive supervision and mentoring. To mediate this, an external agency, the Access Trust, a non-profit organisation in South Africa, offered students enrolled at TVET colleges in engineering trades, funding for additional practical training as well as in-course and job placement support to improve their chances of employment. Four student cohorts were recruited into college engineering courses in staggered intakes and completed a range of formal accredited theory courses, supplemented by industry-recognised practical training phases. This practical phase training is available at some TVET colleges but is not part of the formally subsidised training programme, is expensive to undertake, and has to be privately funded. This article reports on research conducted to gauge the impact of supplementary practical training on the employability of TVET college engineering graduates. The research focused on the design of the intervention that supported students in obtaining employment; the extent to which industry accords relevance to the theoretical curriculum offered by TVET colleges; and the curriculum enhancements implemented to address what were understood to be industry needs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An appreciative lens has been used to explore the question: what is it in the performance of managers, other employees, vocational educators and apprentices themselves, which enables an apprentice to experience a sense of thriving at work? The apprentice is understood to be involved in a process of continually developing and becoming as their social identity as a tradesperson emerges. Previous researchers have noted how learning to both ask for, and offer, help is a key competence that successful apprentices develop during their training. This helps to focus attention on the social context of the apprentice’s experience. This study suggests that when managers, vocational educators and apprentices engage in behaviours that promote affiliation they have the opportunity to develop not only more meaningful relationships but also to experience a sense of thriving at work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The many Erikson voyage memoirs are assessed as a group to establish their value to the historian, and their limits. The cultural differences between the Anglophone 'adventurer' trainees, and the Ålander/Finnish professional trainees and crew are illuminated, along with working conditions, training, and the experiences of the few women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relentless reform and increased accountability in education in England have led to increasing attention on the effectiveness of teachers’ professional development (PD). A shift away from top-down approaches to PD has led to more emphasis placed on in-house, collaborative models. This paper reports on qualitative research conducted in the south of England, which explored the notion of postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) student teachers on school placements as legitimate peripheral participants in communities of practice. It focuses on the benefits to the “old-timer” of training a “newcomer” rather than the original approach of examining how the community shapes the apprentice. It was found that school stake holders recognized the positive contribution made to teachers’ PD by the student teachers. This paper suggests that schools should be encouraged to build upon communities of practice to realize the benefits to themselves of engaging in training student teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper represents a contribution to the Skills Commission’s call in 2009 for more research into the attitudes of apprentices towards advanced further education and higher education. Understanding of the perspective of apprentices has been argued to be important to informing any policy change aimed at increasing the low progression rate of apprentices to higher level learning. This paper outlines how the issue of apprenticeship progression, particularly progression to higher education, has latterly fitted with the aims of Lifelong Learning Networks, set up to facilitate progression for learners on vocational pathways and to create opportunities for vocational learners to build on their earlier learning. We present two pieces of research into apprentices’ attitudes towards progression to higher levels of learning and show how this forms a contribution to our understanding of the issues around progression from apprenticeships, within the wider context of Lifelong Learning Networks’ endeavour to facilitate greater vocational progression into higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]