
Youth-apprenticeship program in Colorado mirrors a successful Swiss model - adamnemecek
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2018/09/apprenticeships-america/567640/?single_page=true
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m_mueller
In Switzerland this is an important part of our lifestyle. There is a whole
branch of higher level education programs up to Bologna master level ready for
those graduating from apprenticeship. There are also bridges across to
academic path, so you can start working at 16 and yet still go on e.g. to ETH
Zurich (a top 20 ranked university) at 20, although you‘re statistically less
likely to succeed there.

But for me as a dad it mainly means I don’t have to worry too much. I can send
my kids to free public school (which is most desireable anyway) and if they
don’t have good grades they can still succeed later in life. Almost noone gets
left behind that goes through the Swiss system, they almost all earn median-
or-above salaries at 25 (~72k).

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sonnyblarney
" they almost all earn median-or-above salaries at 25 (~72k)."

So you do realize that that most people cannot earn median or above salaries'
by definition, right?

The number of toilets that need cleaning per capita, in Switzerland is
probably similar to that metric in the USA ...

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m_mueller
as someone else pointed out, I distinguished between workers from inside and
outside the system, i.e. first generation migrants, thst make up at least 15%
of population. Total number of inhabitants without citizenship is somewhere
around 30-35%. Then there’s also those who drop out of, or cannot find,
apprenticeships. That’s the dark side of the system, around 25% of
apprenticeships are dropped, which often leads to below median wages. For
those cases there‘s also colprehensive social services though. It‘s much
cheaper to invest right at the source of poverty (children of people far below
median) than to deal with long term effects such as prisons, poor health etc.

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Bucephalus355
I had a couple of plumbers come over a few days ago. I asked them, out of
curiosity, how apprenticeships worked these days. Do you apply to some
organization? Some school?

They looked at me like the huge, suburban house-husband idiot I felt like at
that moment.

Apparently, apprentice electrician is a title that means as much “junior
software engineer”. It’s just a word for entry level. Any company can
“apprentice” you. All it means is that they are willing to train an entry
level person.

Personally, I think any company not dedicating at least 5%, preferably 10% of
their hiring budget to finding and training entry level talent is something of
a parasite on the economy. This would ideally be force implemented through
moral shame or promoting it as some new “best practice”, just like Google’s
old stupid hiring strategies were, rather than regulation.

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whatshisface
If nobody trained junior level people, it would become so hard to find new
people that the risk of taking on a junior would become worth it. You could
argue that that's the equilibrium that we have already reached.

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nickthemagicman
Not knocking this but why does it always have to be youth apprenticeships?

Why can't there be adult apprenticeships?

Job Corps is the same way.

Sort of age discrimination by default.

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slavik81
The 17-year-old in the story is legally barred from working quite a few jobs
due to his age. That's one reason, at least, why there may be differences
between a program for youths and a program for older people.

