Apprenticeship Training and Day Release in UK Engineering: Some Cross‐sectional Evidence
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1996.tb00654.x |
| Author | Paul L. Latreille,K. G. Knight |
| Date | 01 June 1996 |
| Published date | 01 June 1996 |
British
Journal
of
Industrial Relations
34:2
June
1996 0007-1080
pp.
307-314
Apprenticeship Training and Day
Release in
UK
Engineering:
Some Cross-sect i on
a
I
Evidence
K.
G.
Knight and Paul
L.
Latreille
Abstract
Cross-sectional evidence
is
presented on the determinants
of
the number
of
apprentices and employees on day release in a sample
of
UK
engineering
firms.
Firm size, unionization, skill levels and turnover appear crucial for
both measures
of
training.
1.
Introduction
Substantial interest currently surrounds vocational education and training in
the UK, where past and present inadequacies and their consequences are
well documented (see e.g. Layard
et al.
1992).
A
particularly disturbing
phenomenon has been the dramatic decline of the apprenticeship system
since the early
1970s
(Gospel
1995),
with the number of craft apprentice-
ships in
1990
at
21
per cent of the level prevailing in
1970.’
In
recognition of its pivotal position
in
the UK economy, a particular emphasis
has been placed on estimating time-series models of apprentice recruitment
in the engineering industry (Lindley
1975;
Merrilees
1983;
Stevens
1994).
The role of either current or future production in determining (positively)
the volume of apprentice training, and of the relative cost of young trainees
compared with adults as a negative factor, are emphasized. In addition,
Stevens (whose sample period ends in
1988)
finds that both skill and capacity
shortage affect apprenticeship numbers. She also reports a role for the real
rate
of
interest, a finding that indicates the extent to which human capital
investment is driven by a similar set of forces to those that impinge on fixed
capital investment. Important as this work is however, decisions on training
provision are ultimately made by individual
firms
on the basis of certain key
characteristics; characteristics obscured by the aggregate nature of the data
employed in these earlier studies. (Although see Booth and Satchel1
1994,
who in the context
of
individuals’ receipt of apprenticeship training include
K.
G.
Knight
is
at the University
of
Warwick. Paul Latreille
is
at the University
of
Wales,
Swansea.
8
Blackwell Publishers Ltdhndon School
of
Economics
1996.
Published by Blackwell Publishers Ltd,
108
Cowley Road, Oxford,
OX4
lJF,
and
238
Main Street, Cambridge, MA
02141,
USA.
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