Apprenticeship and modern vocational education: the rise of the German “Dual System”

1. Apprenticeship and modern vocational education: the rise of the German “Dual System” Philipp Gonon University of Zurich Switzerland inAp-Conference Turin, 17th of September 2009

2. Introduction • Education and Vocational Education as a Contribution to the Uplifting of the Lower Classes • „A Servant can have no unfeign’d Respect for his Master, as soon as he has Sense enough to find out that he serves a Fool...No Creatures submit contentedly to their Equals, and should a Horse know as much as a Man, I should not desire to be his Rider“ (Mandeville, Fable of the Bees,1723)

3. Adam Smith’s view on education and guild regulations • Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776) • „The education of the common people requires, perhaps in a civilized and commercial society, the attention oft the public more than of people of some rank and fortune“ (Smith 1976, p. 736) • The property which every human being possesses in his labor power is sacred and inviolable. To prevent a poor man whose power (capital) lies in the skill of his hands from using them unhindered is thus a violation of this most sacred of possessions -- and a transgression against the freedom of the worker, and all who are prepared to employ him (ibid., p. 106)

4. Adam Smith and apprenticeships „Long apprenticeships are altogether unnecessary. The arts, which are much superior to common trades, such as those of making clocks and watches, contain no such mystery as to require a long course of instruction“ (ibid., p. 107)

5. The German “Verein für Socialpolitik” (1875) Critique on Smith’s view upon apprenticeship No abolition but modernization of apprenticeships Social partnership Building up a regulated and well-grounded education

6. “Soziale Frage” and Laissez-Faire • Bastiat advocates against “Katheder-Sozialisten” • Friedrich Engels book “Zur Lage der arbeitenden Klassen” • Pedagogical solution: integrating the working class in society

7. Modern vocational education Combination of work-based learning and school Building up schools as continuation schools which complete the education in the work place

8. Georg Kerschensteiner (1854-1932) Conservative Modernization Bringing closer Bildung and work life Reform of the “Fortbildungsschule”: getting a “Berufsschule”

9. Results The concept of modernization of the apprenticeship followed the line of an incremental innovation. The apprenticeships were not abolished like in other countries, but modified and supplemented with school-based elements in order to establish a social and educational welfare. The basis of this approach is an overall consensus of the political and economical actors