The authors consider two quality-related aspects of large employers’ apprenticeship programmes. The first is their contribution to national educational objectives, including the creation and strengthening of ladders of vocational attainment. Such ladders already exist in apprenticeship’s traditional domains, but the prospects for their wider development appear unfavourable. Few employers support an increase in the educational contribution of apprenticeship, whether technical or general, even in sectors in which that contribution is currently minimal. The second issue is the extent of the employer’s responsibility for its apprenticeship programme, which is often seen as important for training quality. No simple relationship is present across employers and sectors between the outsourcing of programme components and such attributes as apprentice recruitment, apprentice status and the employer’s investment in each apprentice. Within traditional sectors, however, sponsorship by a large employer means a substantially greater investment in each apprentice than that by a specialist training provider. © 2006 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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