Everybody knows America is suffering economically. Experts say one of the reasons is that workers are transitioning out of old manufacturing jobs (where they've worked for, say, 30 years) and looking for jobs in our new information economy. Problem is, many of these workers get laid off but don't have the skills needed for a new job. Ask the average 50-year-old how often they tweet and many will look at you dumbfounded. That's the problem. Many people have not improved their job skills in a decade or more. Could the solution be apprenticeships? Back in the day, apprentices were attached to highly skilled mentors to learn a trade or skill. The mentor would teach them the technical skills needed and in return, the mentor would gain a highly-motivated assistant. Is this needed in our information economy? Should programmers, information architects, designers and others take on apprentices? Should a new era of "information craftsmanship" begin?
Great idea. Is this different than an internship? Longer term I suppose.
I also see apprenticeships as a deeper relationship between "master" and apprentice. The apprentice carries the torch of the master - and his or her techniques - forward. Not only are internships shorter term, they normally involve working for lots of different people in an organization. Apprenticeships are a tighter one-to-one bond.
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