Context: Danish VET programmes face recruitment challenges and high dropout rates, particularly in the transition from school to workplace-based training. Approach: This article explores how 18 training workplaces support apprentices’ learning, drawing on interviews with apprentices, supervisors, and directors. Findings: The empirical study shows that three dimensions are central to productive training environments: inclusive social communities, structured training programmes, and diverse, practice-based training methods. Findings highlight a need for workplaces to make implicit training practices explicit and to address how access to learning is shaped by the workplaces’ perceptions of the “ideal apprentice.” Conclusion: Training workplaces play a vital role in shaping apprentices’ development. By deliberately working with social inclusion, structure, and pedagogy, workplaces can foster environments where all apprentices access meaningful learning and professional growth.
Juul‐Wiese et al. (Thu,) studied this question.