The joint Cedefop/OECD symposium on apprenticeship brings together policy makers, practitioners and researchers from around the world to consider new research exploring the next steps for apprenticeship provision.
The symposium organisers would welcome contributions on how apprenticeship provision is changing or would need to change in response to external mega trends, such as socio-demographic and socio-economic changes, new technologies and labour market changes, new forms of work organisation, trends in education and training.
If you would like to submit an abstract, please download the Call for papers. Deadline for abstract and CV: 3 June 2019
If you would like to participate without an abstract contribution, please save the date. Registration will open in early June.
Rationale
Apprenticeship provision has a long history of enabling the transitions for young people from education into sustained skilled employment. Dependent on deep employer engagement, apprenticeships have proven to be an effective means of ensuring that the formative education and training of learners is well aligned to actual labour market needs.
In recent years, governments across Europe and the OECD have invested considerable resource in improving apprenticeship provision, introducing and reforming apprenticeships to reach ever more learners, both young people and increasingly adults. The consistent aim has been to ensure that apprenticeships are attractive to learners, to employers and to society, providing apprentices with skills demanded by employers while contributing to societal and economic well-being (OECD 2018). With countries developing apprenticeships within some very different policy approaches and national contexts (Cedefop, 2018), peer-learning opportunities are strong.
It is timely to look at the future of apprenticeship from the perspective of a number of external mega trends - such as socio-demographic changes, new technologies and new forms of work organisation, trends in education and training - and consider how they have affected (or will affect) the design and delivery of apprenticeship and policy approaches towards its provision.
Areas for contributions
Against this backdrop, 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.
Full papers submission, presentation and publication
On the basis of abstracts and CVs (deadline for submission: 3 June 2019), the symposium programme group will select contributions that are eligible for publication and invite their authors to submit a draft full paper.
Deadline for submission of draft full paper for accepted abstracts: 13 September 2019
The full papers for accepted abstracts will be included in a publication that will be finalised following the symposium. Due to programme constraints, not all papers will be presented during the symposium. The authors of the papers selected for presentation will be invited to attend the symposium.
A short symposium report with key findings will also be published.
For more information on how to submit your abstract, please download the Call for papers.
Agenda, participation and registration
The preliminary agenda will be announced in early June on this page and registration will be open.
Participation will be free of charge.
