How History Explains America’s Struggle to Revive Apprenticeships

Brookings

This article provides a brief narrative of the historical tension in the United States concerning the role of vocational education and apprenticeships in job preparation versus the role of four-year colleges and professional degrees in job preparation. It concludes with the observation that shifting the relative prioritization of these two types of preparation for the labor market necessitate substantial changes in the structures, systems, and beliefs in place that incentivize full-time academic degrees.

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