Apprenticeship Training in Upper Secondary School: Motives and Possibilities from a Swedish and European Perspective

Apprenticeship training is a form of education that arouses a great deal of interest as regards the challenges that characterise conditions for young people on the current labour market. This is obvious both in Sweden and in other comparable countries. This chapter begin by illustrating the changed conditions for establishment of young people, a factor that may help to enhance understanding of why issues of apprenticeship training are so high on the political agenda. After that, we will look at relevant experiences linked with vocational education and training (VET) and apprenticeship training in Sweden as well as at the European Union (EU) level. Our main issue relates to what basic requirements that have to be in place for establishing an apprenticeship training model and what challenges a country like Sweden – with its tradition of school-based VET – will face when aiming to initiate more of a classical apprenticeship training approach.