In Canada, youth apprenticeships have been promoted as an educational alternative that leads to the development of valuable skills, allows for the opportunity to earn an income while learning and helps youth to gain a head start into lucrative, creative and in-demand careers. Yet, these programmes have remained rather marginal and continue to be…

Completion rates are one measure of the success of apprenticeship training. But little is known about outcomes for youth who begin an apprenticeship in high school. This paper draws primarily on interviews with youth who did not continue training or work in their high school apprenticeship trade in two Canadian provinces. Our analysis focuses on…

Most Canadian provinces offer high-school apprenticeships to facilitate students' transitions to skilled work and address employers' concerns about labour shortages. Using interview data with graduates from high-school apprenticeships in Alberta and Ontario, we analyse the impact participation in these programmes has had on their educational and…

This paper provides a view of the experiences of former high school apprentices in Canada. Conceptually, we draw on the work of Bourdieu with particular attention to vocational habitus, as well as feminist writers who discuss the gendered construction of skill and gender relations in the workplace and family. Empirically, we present our analysis…

This paper explores the value youth place on apprenticeship training and credentials. Our analysis of interview and survey data from former high school apprentices in two trades suggests that there are several influences on their attitudes toward completion of apprenticeship training. These include how they see themselves as learners and workers…

Recent education policies focus on making youth pathways more transparent while addressing skills shortage. However, there appears to be ambivalence about the target audience for "new vocational" programmes in secondary schools and how they should be organized. This paper begins from the observation that Canadian policy-makers, like…

This paper looks critically at partnerships in education and training by presenting a case study of a community-level partnership aimed at promoting high school apprenticeships in Ontario Canada. The analysis maps the field of social relations within this partnership in order to reveal institutionally-based struggles and their implications for…

This paper examines the development of "vocational habitus" as five apprentices in the carpentry trade move from high school to an apprenticeship training centre and then into the workplace. After a year, three students were continuing with the apprenticeship while the other two were not. This paper explores how individual and structural factors…

This article argues that partnerships for vocational education and training (VET) reflect contradictions within capitalism and labour power, and therefore should be analysed within the broader context of industrial and workplace relations. Therefore, in contrast to a consensual model, we posit an understanding of social partnerships as sites of…

This paper examines a high school apprenticeship program with a focus on the opportunities for "expansive" learning within three different contexts: schools, the training centre and worksites. The authors assume that while young people differ in the degree to which they engage in learning within different sites, the institutional…

Interviews with Alberta government, business, and labor representatives examined three school-to-work initiatives using "new vocationalism" discourse: career and technology studies, registered apprenticeships, and tech prep. Results suggest that vocational education remains focused on employer expectations and workplace socialization…

This paper explores the challenges of partnership through an examination of a high school apprenticeship program in carpentry in Ontario, Canada. Focusing on the relationships between schools, trainers, employers and government, challenges relate to the ability to coordinate the program across institutions, achieve agreement on goals, gain…