Youth apprenticeships have the potential to address simultaneously two national dilemmas: how to prepare U.S. business and its workers for a high skills future and how to upgrade the academic skills of all students. The highly successful German model may require some modification to work well in the United States. The biggest change may have to take place in the attitudes of many people who are suspicious of a system that induces students to make career choices at a young age and requires a large amount of government oversight. Apprenticeships will not succeed unless business considers them a sound investment. The first step is creation of incentives for businesses to become partners with schools, hire young people, provide appropriate training, and assume a portion of the cost. For apprenticeships to succeed, schools will have to change their methods, schedules, and assumptions. Teachers must become more knowledgeable about employment and learn to work as partners with the business community; teaching methods must reinforce what apprenticing students learn on the job; the schedule must become more flexible; and schools must provide information regarding benefits to students and their families. The Federal Government can rewrite federal regulations to spell out how youth apprenticeship fits into existing laws, provide subsidies, and pass a national youth service law. Obstacles to change include tracking, union concerns, and lack of student aid. (YLB)