The joint Cedefop/OECD symposium on apprenticeship (7 October 2019) brings together policy makers, practitioners and researchers from around the world to consider new research exploring the next steps for apprenticeship provision.


Areas for contributions

The symposium organisers would welcome contributions on how apprenticeship provision is changing or would need to change in response to the following areas:

1 - Socio-demographic and socio-economic long-term structural trends: The potential demand for apprenticeships is affected by several factors, including: ageing population, increasing diversity, migration trends, growing employment in areas of the economy traditionally not served by apprenticeships.

2 - New technologies and labour market changes: Technological advancements produce profound changes in the labour market, affecting the purpose and content of apprenticeship provision. Artificial intelligence, robotics, overall digitalisation lead to radical changes related to the demand of skills and the need for retraining against the risks of jobs polarisation and social exclusion.

3 - New forms of work organisation: Relevance of apprenticeships is affected by the transformations in the way people work and the concept of the workplace. Several trends emerge, including the rise of gig economy and self-employment, remote working, jobs across borders.

4 - Trends in education and training: Function and purpose of apprenticeships in VET national systems is challenged by several policy trends, including: rebalance between generic/transversal skills and occupation specific skills, the use of learning-outcomes based approaches, diffusion of new learning modes and technologies, expansion of work-based learning beyond traditional areas and of vocationally oriented education and training at higher levels.

Contributions referring to other mega trends are also welcome, as long as they remain relevant to understanding possible implications for apprenticeship policies and provision. As well as considering research findings, the symposium organisers seek out examples of innovative practice responding to the changing character of apprenticeship provision.