[ Ref. "Player Piano Apprentice Program" in 130607 MMDigest.
 [ I asked Jurgen Goering to tell of his apprenticeship.  -- Robbie

"Apprentice" can mean different things, depending on the context.
I was an apprentice in Germany in the 1980s, studying under an old
craftsman to become a piano maker.

Apprenticeships in Germany are federally regulated.  As an apprentice,
you commit to putting in the three and one half years (in my case) of
work in exchange for training and mentoring.

There is an apprentice salary which starts low in year one and
progressively gets better every year.  The idea is that you work
for the employer and help him run his business and make money,
while you learn the trade in exchange.  A certain amount of time is
reserved/allocated for classroom instruction, in a local or regional
trade school.

In the industry, apprentices are trained in factories for the
purposes of recruitment of skilled labor for the company.  At the end
of the apprenticeship, state exams are taken, and you get the coveted
Journeyman Papers -- "Free at last!"

This kind of a system does not exist in North America, and cannot be
implemented as such, of course.  The problem with training someone
is that often the apprentices will think they know enough after six
months to strike out on their own, and this can cause problems...

Every situation should be looked at in a case-by-case basis.  It has
to work for both parties; if it is not mutually beneficial, then it
simply won't work.  Given the time and planning that goes into decent
training -- time taken away from productive work -- I can't see how
the employer can pay an apprentice a living wage and train him at the
same time; the numbers simply don't add up, in most cases.

There are a number of lutherie (guitar building) schools which give
seminars over a number of weeks.  Participants pay good money to learn
skills and techniques to build a guitar.  Perhaps something along those
lines could be an example of what can be done.

Regards from Vancouver Island,

Jurgen Goering
British Columbia, Canada

 [ About 20 years ago I visited an old-time knifemaker's shop in
 [ Waiblingen, Germany, where I talked with the young apprentice.
 [ The lad explained that he spends several hours each week at the
 [ technical school, learning how to manage a business, and how to
 [ use a computer, of course.  The master commented, "Yeah, he's
 [ even teaching me!"  -- Robbie