Not Your Grandfather’s Apprenticeship: Why Young People Looking Forward Are Wise to Look Back

Abstract

I never knew my paternal grandfather, but growing up I heard a lot about his job. He worked as a pressman in New York City in the years preceding and following World War II. With no previous experience in machining, my grandfather learned and was trained on the job. I don't know how much his job changed over the years, but as the presses became more sophisticated he had to keep current with the changing technology. He worked in the lithography field for thirty-seven years, from age seventeen to fifty-nine, and moved from apprentice to operator, and ultimately to senior pressman. I believe that he brought to that position a set of core competencies, what we today call foundational skills. From there, his education and training were done through the company’s apprenticeship and training programs.

In the seventy-five years since my grandfather started at Queens Lithography Company much has changed about the way young people start their careers and conceptualize their career paths. Our educational systems have grown and changed, and post-secondary education is most often emphasized as the path to opportunity. I’m not here to disagree with the value of post-secondary education or to glorify the labor market or jobs of the past. However, in our counseling of young people away from apprenticeships and toward post-secondary education we’ve done them a great disservice by reinforcing an old idea that you must choose between work and education. What a host of evidence-based education and training programs has taught us is that work and education can be thoughtfully combined to great benefit for the learner.