On the Job or in the Classroom? The apprenticeship in Finland from the 17th century to the 1990s

This article examines the attitudes of Finnish employers, employees and the State (authorities) in different times towards the various pathways of acquiring vocational competences that are needed in working life. Our focus is on two opposing models: the apprentice‐journeyman‐master model and the model of acquiring vocational skill in the classroom. We will study the apprenticeship systems in certain European countries and compare the Finnish model with the German and British ones in particular. Consequently, we will debate an always current question of how much do we need schooling and to what extent vocational competences should be acquired on the work itself. The dual‐type training‐‐common in Central Europe and in most Nordic Countries‐‐that combines both the practical (on‐the‐job) training and the general classroom‐based education has never taken root in Finland. Along with the strengthening of the Nordic welfare state's growing demands for equal opportunities to education and the industry's need for skilled workforce, have contributed for their part to the institutionalisation of schooling and in its centralisation under the public sector. Educational institutions have grown away from work and life itself and become independent empires ruled by teachers and experts of pedagogy. However, the recent changes both in the labour market and in working life have made it necessary to reassess the forms and content of vocational training. At the moment, the German‐style workplace‐centred master‐apprentice system seems to be experiencing a revival in the Finnish debate on developing the education system. Reorganisation of the interrelations between work and education has become a topical issue because the one‐dimensional ‘educational pipeline’ from school to work does no longer work. The tasks of schooling have to be rethought in an unbiased way. It must be settled what competences‐‐that are needed in (working) life‐‐ canbe learned in the classroom and which of them are worth teaching. In the final section we open a couple of future alternatives under the title of ‘The entrepreneurial worker on glocalising labour markets’.