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Apprenticeships are a systemized form of on-the-job training that can be traced back to the medieval craft guilds in the Middle Ages.

Apprenticeships are the opposite of school learning.

"I cannot teach anyone anything. I can only make them think." Socrates 

The apprenticeship system is often referred to as "pear to pear learning" which is all about learning by doing and learning from your mistakes. 

Apprenticeships are a form of mentoring. Each apprentice has one or more qualified tradesmen (or mentors) that they work alongside each day. Learning a trade is a lot like learning a sport. Both are very physical, both require lots of practice and both require learning by doing increasingly more difficult tasks little by little over a number of years.

"People never learn anything by being told, they have to find out for themselves." Paulo Coelho

The apprenticeship system has been successfully used for hundreds of years. This training system has proven that the best person to learn from is the person that is one step ahead of you. It is an age-old system of tradesman and apprentice working together. Most tradesmen love having an apprentice because they know it is a win-win, and they gain a lot from the mentoring process.

"We remember only 10% of what we read but 95% of what we teach others." Edgar Dale

From my experience teaching or mentoring an apprentice benefits the teacher as much as the student. It forces the teacher to question what they have previously learnt. Pear to pear teaching reinforces the teachers knowledge and allows their practical skills to become automatic.

I am a huge believer in this form of on the job learning and over the last 30+ years of building I have benefited from having dozens of apprentices. The consistent feedback I get is "the best thing about being an apprentice is that every day you get to practice what you have learnt, little by little, it's as if you are not learning anything. It just happens like magic".

The obvious criticism of apprenticeships is that they are a form of cheap labour designed to exploit young naive workers. My answer to this, is that it is not about the money because "low wages are the point". The apprentice does not get paid much money, but they get paid in skills, knowledge and experience, which is ultimately considerably more valuable.

Apprentices are investing time and effort now for income and rewards in the future.

Whilst writing this email I realized that I am doing a form of apprenticeship myself, "a writing apprenticeship". I am writing each week, learning by doing, and I have a couple of online writing mentors that I am constantly following and using as a referencing point. This is the best way for me to learn and to hone my writing skills. Each week I am improving my trade.

"You know you are learning when criticism from someone better than you don’t trigger a negative reaction." Kunal Shah

An apprentice learns by making little mistakes. This method shows them that you can try, fail, and try again. If they fail to learn from a mistake, that is when it becomes a mistake.

Thanks for reading,
Stay safe and learn from your mistakes.
David