Tag: Mentee

DISCLAIMER: In this article, the terms, “apprenticeship” and “internship” are used interchangeably and simultaneously. I have chosen to intertwine these expressions because the system I am proposing in this article combines features of both. For example, apprenticeship is often tied to a curriculum, which is true in this case. However, unlike internships, apprenticeships tend to be paid and generally lead into a full-time job which may or may not be true in this hypothetical system. I’m still working out the kinks.

The only thing students leave high school capable of doing is being students. Think about it. They spend years buried in books, submitting assignments and cramming for tests. When they leave high school, the only thing they are trained to do is to study (and even that is questionable)!

The only natural funnel then is into university and, after university, many students still have very few employable skills and so, the next best thing is for them to become a graduate student. The next thing you know, they are in a second Masters or a PhD programme. Many times, we praise such students. “Look at her go! She’s rising straight to the top!” “Look at him; he’s so ambitious. He never stops upping his game!” Admittedly, many students are simply trying to stay ahead of relentless educational inflation. However, the sad truth is: ambitious and self-aware as they may seem, many of these students are simply insecure. They are fearful, confused as to how they will find their place in the world and convinced that they are not capable of functioning in the working world—and, in many cases, they’re right!

The only thing students leave high school capable of doing is being students.

We often complain that employers are unreasonable in asking candidates applying for an entry level job to have 3-5 years of work experience. With indignation, we ask, “Where are they supposed to get work experience from?” But think about it from the employer’s perspective. Often, these demands for work experience are borne out from past disappointments with candidates who were highly qualified on paper but were unskilled, incompetent and difficult to work with, despite being “high achievers.”

Employers know that time is money. They want to know that you can hit the ground running and immediately start adding value to their company. To an extent, this is still an unreasonable expectation, as each company is different and the new employee will at least need some training in the company culture, company policies and the specifics of this particular position to which they are being assigned. Many companies do not put enough thought and resources into succession planning and training of new employees and then blame it on poor schooling or inept applicants. But I digress. The point is that, despite all this, a company rightly concerned about their bottom line has every reason to expect that the candidate they are employing has some experience in doing the job that they are being hired to do.

So again, we ask, “Where are they supposed to get work experience from?” Well, couldn’t they get it from school?

Level with me for a minute. What if schools partnered with public and private sector companies to have apprenticeship and internship programmes each year? What if that was a foundational part of a student’s learning experience from the time they enter high school? What if, instead of summer schools, we normalised national summer work programmes for teenagers that are integrated into their schooling? Students would shadow a professional in a particular field, see how they work and even get a chance to do some of the work.

Apprenticeship is a rudimentary facet of human society. It was once the only way anyone learned anything. However, for one reason or another, this useful tool has been relegated almost to invisibility. Still, it holds some distinct advantages for our modern world.

• It better aligns with the way the modern student learns. Today’s students learn by watching and doing. With online video tutorials and increased access and exposure to tools and software, students are learning anything and everything right at home! They like to watch, learn, try things on their own and produce results that they can show. Sitting in a classroom talking about the thing instead of doing the thing is becoming less and less appealing. Give us something to see, something to touch, something to do.

• It adds to productivity in the labour force in the short-term. Duh! Free labour! In an apprenticeship or internship programme, students can initially learn valuable low-level skills and gain experience working as a small part of a larger entity. This is invaluable training for the working world. At the same time, relegating these low-level skills to trained interns and apprentices frees up time and energy for the rest of the work force to do the more meaningful big-ticket items on their agenda. For example, someone apprenticing at a law firm can take care of the menial secretarial aspects at the office, such as filing. This would allow the lawyer and the paralegal more time to do the work of preparing cases and drafting communications.

• In the long-term, it leads to a more competent, more confident and more productive labour force. If children get even a small feel for what it is like to be employed in an organisation from the time they are in school, then naturally, when it is really their turn to step out into the world as full-fledged working adults, they won’t be as intimidated. They will also have developed many hard and soft skills that they can immediately utilise in the working world.

• It helps students to build up their professional network. Children get to build relationships with adults who can help them access the opportunities that they will need when it is time to enter the world of work. Not to mention, the organisations get to scout out young and upcoming talent!

• It can lead to entrepreneurship opportunities. Skills that students learn in an apprenticeship can be honed to the point where students can even begin offering these services as temps, freelancers or full-fledged entrepreneurs.

• Students get to use their education in real-time. An apprenticeship programme that is integrated into the school curriculum would allow students to use content and skills as they learn them, instead of several years later. This would make their education more relevant, meaningful and long-lasting.

• Students will make better career decisions when the time comes. Students today are so confused. Even the most brilliant and capable students often find themselves leaving school with a lot of uncertainty regarding what career to choose because studying something in school is one thing but actually doing it is another. Having had a taste of apprenticeship in different industries though and hearing the experiences of their schoolmates who have apprenticed in industries different from theirs, students will get a better sense of what different careers involve, what they really enjoy, what they don’t enjoy, what they excel at and what their weaknesses are.

It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge that reintegrating apprenticeship into the modern world has some attendant drawbacks.

• It can decrease productivity in the short term. Apprentices and interns are not skilled at the outset and will make mistakes which cost time and money. Skilled professionals have to take time to train these apprentices which detracts from the time these workers spend doing their actual jobs. They also often have to spend time fixing the mistakes that apprentices make or teaching apprentices how to fix their own mistakes.

• It seems like an idea more suited for developed countries. In a developing nation where wages are low and people are eager to earn, will apprentices be willing to work for free, especially when they have to find money for food and transportation to access these apprenticeship opportunities? If they are not willing to work for free, where will the money come from to pay all these apprentices? What if, to address the productivity problem addressed above, we appointed skilled professionals in each company whose sole job was to train apprentices and interns? How would these trainers get paid?

• It is currently perceived as an avenue for low-income professions. Yes, it is just a perception but sometimes perception matters more than fact. Currently, the only people who seem to work as apprentices are manual labourers and artisans. Teachers also participate in a kind of apprenticeship programme when they complete their practicum for their degree or diploma in education. All these careers have one thing in common. They are low-wage professions that lack prestige. Apprenticeship can be valuable for all professional classes but people just haven’t started seeing it yet. On the far end of the spectrum, one prestigious high-paying career that has always benefitted from apprentices and interns is medicine. Focusing on that angle would be a great avenue to market apprenticeship as a valuable tool and to offer it some prestige.

• If not correctly balanced, it can be perceived as child labour or even become a cover for child labour. Proper supervisory and accountability systems would need to be put in place to prevent this. Perceptions would also have to be cleared up with good public education. Clearly, there is value in exposing children to good hard work but to what extent is it helpful and at what point does it become abusive?

• It is not a popular idea right now. It would take a lot of selling to the relevant stakeholders because it’s an investment but once the benefits become apparent, even the sky would be no limit.

• It may be perceived as a distraction from school work. Parents and other stakeholders may say, “When children spend all this time and energy working, what will they have left to spend on school work?” They would have to be convinced that this too is school work. It is a valuable learning opportunity that will be just as beneficial and even more beneficial to a child than sitting passively, taking notes in a classroom.

Many of these drawbacks are easily solvable. For example, my idea of the ideal apprenticeship programme is one that is integrated into the school curriculum. Students learn concepts in school and then they enter into an apprenticeship field where they can immediately apply the things they have learned. That way, students and parents are incentivised by the fact that these apprenticeship opportunities will not be detracting from their educational process but rather will be adding to it and intertwined with it. Moreover, it will not be putting a strain on their budgets which may already be stretched thin, as the apprenticeship opportunities will occur during school time so whatever money they would have spent on food and transportation for school would be simply be redirected to take them to their apprenticeship jobs.

Whether there would be one day each week, one week each month, one month each semester or one semester each year when students would be allowed to pursue these apprenticeship opportunities is left to be decided. How students will be assigned to the industries and companies in which they will apprentice is also a factor to consider. Will students apprentice in one or two industries for their whole high school experience or will they get to intern in a different industry each year? What incentives would the government offer to companies that participate in these internship and apprenticeship programmes? How would the syllabus be shaped to accommodate these apprenticeship opportunities? What would classroom teachers do during the time students are away interning? Would they maybe have apprentices of their own? They too are professionals with transferable skills after all. These and many other questions are left to be answered.

The system I am proposing is a radical shift from the way education is currently structured. It may never be realised and, if it is, it may not be realised in our lifetime. However, we can still reap the benefits of apprenticeship and internship opportunities even now, as they are still an invaluable and heavily under-utilised resource.

If you are a student, seek out opportunities to get a foot into an industry that you are interested in. Just ask. Hardly anyone will turn down free labour and some may even pay you. Whether you do it on the weekends, after school, between classes (if that’s an option for you) or during the summer and other holiday breaks is something you can negotiate with your teacher or company but there is much more to gain than you will ever lose. Whether it’s a professional white-collar job or a manual skilled job, you will learn a lot. Whether you actually end up entering this field or you decide you’re no longer interested, you would have learned something about the industry, about the world and about yourself.

For parents in particular, this is a good avenue to consider if your child seems really driven towards one particular career field or maybe does not seem particularly academically inclined. Academia is not for everyone so give your child an opportunity to explore a more practical hands-on field. On the other hand, maybe your child does have the potential to do well in school but they, like many children, just need to see the relevance of it, the real-life application. Where is this school thing going? they may ask. Show them. Show them where it is all going. It may make all the difference.

If you are an employer or anyone with teachable skills (which is everyone), seek out opportunities to share your knowledge and experience and don’t reject someone who asks for such an opportunity to learn from you. It will sharpen your own skills and you will be making a small but significant impact on the future of your work force and a palpable impact in the life of your apprentice, mentee, intern or whatever you like to call them.