From the Workshop to the Classroom - Examining Apprentice Perceptions

From the Workplace to the Classroom – Examining Apprentice Perceptions The Irish government has reiterated its commitment to apprenticeships and how these form a central plank of the Further Education and Training Strategy. One of the main goals of the Action Plan for Education is to ‘create a greater diversity of learning opportunities beyond school’. Indeed, an increase of 19% in apprenticeship registrations took place between 2015 and 2016, and it is planned that this will grow by more than 30% by the year 2020. This paper aims to identify both positive and negative perceptions of apprentices’ experiences as they engage in modules (workshop and classroom based) in the Technological University Dublin (DIT). Much research has been done on the First Year Experience of Whole Time students, and on the experience of students articulating from level 7 to level 8 degrees within DIT, yet relatively little seems to be published on the experience of apprentices. In order to explore these perceptions, we interview apprentices from several apprentice areas, at phase 4 stage in their apprentice programme. Based on the information coming from these interviews, we draw up a large scale survey to be administered to apprentices across different craft areas in the DIT. The preliminary results of this survey are also presented here