Apprenticeship

Since prehistoric times the jobs of adults have been taught to children to prepare them for adulthood. Throughout the centuries societies have changed, have become more complex. The kinds of work to be done, the skills needed, and the tools used to do the work have also changed. In order to manage these changes in the complexity, volume, and content of work, job training also evolved. This paper describes how and why job training changed as work changed.

When humans created artifacts, the need for teaching others how to use those artifacts became necessary. Teaching others to use a tool to perform a task was one of the first goals of training. "As man invented tools, weapons, clothing, shelter, and language, the need for training became an essential ingredient in the march of civilization" (Steinmetz, 1976, p. 1-3). As the artifacts became more complex, different ways of training were developed to be more effective and efficient. "Instructional practices were developed that served the needs of the times, evolving into accepted instructional paradigms" (Brethower and Smalley, 1992, p. 26). These different practices were developed at different times, and some of them changed through the years, but all of them are used today, depending on the training need and situation.

Training is different from education. Training teaches the learner how to do a specific task, such as running a machine, or making a shirt. Education is instruction in the more general knowledge of the society, such as the history of the society, or knowledge of mathematics. As societies developed, there accumulated more knowledge than people could pick up on their own or learn informally from others. At some point it became necessary to formally educate young people in the amassed knowledge of their society in order to help them function in that society.

Antiquity: On-The-Job Training

On-the-job training, sometimes called direct instruction (or sit-by-me training in England; King, 1964, p. xvii), is the earliest kind of training. On-the-job training (OJT) is a face-to-face, one-on-one kind of training at the job site, where someone who knows how to do a task shows another how to do it. In antiquity, the kind of work that people did was mainly unskilled or semiskilled work not requiring specialized knowledge. Parents or other members of the group usually knew how to do all the jobs necessary for survival, and could pass their knowledge on to the children through direct instruction.

OJT was used in antiquity because it did not require learners to be able to read or write. Even after writing systems were developed, most peasants and craftsmen could not read or write. Therefore a type of training where one person showed another how to do a task was necessary. The type of work most people did was farming or making crafts, and the tools used were fairly simple. In addition, the volume of production was low, so that only a few artisans at a time needed to be trained in order to handle the work.

On-the-job training is still used today. In fact, it is probably the most popular method of training because at its minimal level it requires only a person who knows how to do the task, and the tools the person uses to do the task. The company doesn't have to arrange for special training other than to assign an experienced worker to train an inexperienced one. It may not be the most effective or the most efficient method, but it is the easiest to arrange.

The advantages of on-the-job training include instant feedback about what the learner is doing right or wrong, allowing correction of the erroneous action immediately. Because the training takes place on the job, it is realistic, therefore no transfer of learning is required. It is inexpensive because no special equipment is needed other than what is normally used on the job.

On the other hand, on-the-job training takes the trainer and materials out of production for the duration of the training time, and requires many experienced trainers--depending on the number of trainees--since the trainer is usually training one person at a time. However, if the volume of production is low, so that the personnel and equipment are available for on-the-jobtraining, then it is the most economical method of training to use. It may not be the most efficient at teaching a task, however; this depends on the learner, the job to be learned, and the teaching abilities of the trainer. (http://www.msu.edu/~sleightd/trainhst.html)

In Egypt, craftsmen must have taken on children to learn the skills needed for ceramic, faience, and metalworking, or of sculpture and painting, but of all the paintings that depict the craftsmen in their workshops, it is rare that children are shown. There is documentary evidence, however, about the schooling of sculptors and painters. The inscription of Irtisen initiated his eldest son into his art. An artist had to be familiar with the conventions of representation, proportion, posture, and symbolism. Sherds from Deir el-Medina and other places back to the 3rd Dynasty have survived which show evidence of a learning artist attempting to carve a human face and features, and the deities.

Artists, draftsmen, sculptors, all had to be literate. They had to convert texts written on papyri and ostraca into hieroglyphs on temple and tomb walls, and inscribe them on statues, requiring knowledge of both scripts. So craftsmen and scribes had to master reading and writing, in hieratic and in hieroglyphic.

As early as the 7th century B.C., Indian craftsmen had organized themselves into guilds, the better to protect their special knowledge, and to gain for themselves better working conditions, and finally to ensure a minimum standard of quality of workmanship. In the senis, heredity was the route by which traditional knowledge was passed on through the generations. As soon as a boy was old enough to hold tools, he was set to work on a rough block of stone and so commenced his long apprenticeship. This was the father's sole gift and heirloom to his sons who in turn ensured that his name and style would live on. 
A temple project would often be of such magnitude that more than one generation of master cutters and masons would be required to finish it. So a clan of stonecutters would settle around the building site for years. The temple site attracted young men hoping to learn as well as find work. Thus it became the focus of activity for miles around. Over the years, regional variations introduced for the building of a particular temple led to the evolution of a new style or 'school' of temple building, much like the gharanas that exist in Indian classical music even today. Hence we find distinct schools of art and architecture even within North Indian temple construction - the Orissan, Chalukyan, Gujarati, Kashmiri, and of course, the same situation in the temples of the south, which were further divided into many regional variations and schools of construction. In all these the Vastushastra was the giver of cohesiveness, which ensured overall similarity of form and function, but also, as we have seen, was responsible for fettering the imagination of the craftsmen. 

From: http://www.smw9.org/apprenticeship/

History of Apprenticeship: 

A skilled craft worker has always been respected. These lines from an old story of King Arthur make this very clear

"The knife is in the meat, and the drink is in the horn, and there is revelry in Arthur's Hall; and none may enter therein but the son of a King of a privileged country, or a C R A F T S M A N bringing his craft."

A journeyman or master who had his tools and had his skills was worthy to sit with the King. For many centuries, apprenticeship was the only kind of education a working class youth could get. The word "Apprentice" comes from a word that means "to learn". An apprenticeship was an education that could lead to a secure and respected place in life.

Apprentices in the Ancient World: Apprenticeship can be traced back to Babylon, more than four thousand years ago. Hammurabi, a king of Babylon, developed the earliest written laws, called the Code of Hammurabi. Because apprenticeship was so important, it was covered in this code. According to the code, an apprentice was to be treated as an adopted son:
"If an artisan take a son for adoption and teach him his handicraft, one may not bring claim for him. If he does not teach him his handicraft, that adopted son may return to his father's house."

The early Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all had systems of apprenticeship. The magnificent pyramids, temples, and coliseums that still stand are evidence that there was an effective method of teaching young workers the skills of the drafts and professions. Imagine how much skill it took to produce these great monuments in the days before there was any power equipment or even steel tools.

The Guilds: For thousands of years, such things as shoes, furniture, household utensils, and other essential items of everyday life were produced by families or clans that specialized in making one of these items. By the twelfth century, these craftsmen began to organize themselves into guilds.

The guilds became very powerful. The right to work at a trade depended upon membership in the proper guild. The guilds were the rough equivalent of today's union. These craft Guilds consisted of apprentices, journeymen, and masters. They set the conditions of apprenticeship, controlled working conditions, and set wages for journeymen.

An apprentice lived with the master who taught a skill. The apprentice was taught the complete skills of the occupation. He lived in the house of the master and was provided with food, clothing, and other basic necessities, but was almost never paid any wages. Sometimes he was taught reading, writing and arithmetic. Generally, at the end of the apprenticeship he was given a new suit of clothes and an agreed upon sum of money. Sometimes the apprentice had to demonstrate the skill that had been learned. The apprentice then became a journeyman.

The Masters: The master is the equivalent of today's contractor. Only the master could contract for work and only the master could hire others to work in the occupation.

An indenture was the document that gave the terms for an apprentice. An indenture agreement was written when an apprentice was bound over to a master to learn the trade. The indenture generally covered three areas -- the period of apprenticeship, the benefits to the apprentice, and the benefits to the employer. It often put real restrictions on the apprentice. (This early indenture was much more strict than the indenture agreement you signed.)

Guild apprenticeship usually lasted at least seven years, until the apprentice was twenty-four. Many apprentices were only ten or twelve years when they began their training, so they might serve as apprentices for as long as fourteen years. Compare that with your apprenticeship!

The apprentice was at the mercy of the master -- and the master might be stingy or might be generous. But in those days when a worker had to struggle to obtain enough food and a place to sleep, the apprentice was at least assured of these basic necessities. In addition, he received the best education available at that time for the working class. It was a real privilege to be indentured as an apprentice. It assured the young worker of a respected and substantial position in life. Not only the crafts that we know today were taught through apprenticeship. The arts and professions such as architecture, sculpture, painting, and medicine were also learned through an apprenticeship.

From: http://www.mastermason.com/lodge850/Reading/apprentices.htm

IN EGYPT, Greece, and among other ancient nations, secret and sacred rites formed an agency employed to effect the improvement and enlightenment of men.

Cicero tells us that "the establishment of these rites among the Athenians conferred upon them a supreme benefit. Their effect was to civilize men, reform their wild and ferocious manners, and make them comprehend the true principles of morality, which initiate men into a new order of life, more worthy of a being destined to immortality."

In ancient Egypt the neophyte was presented with a cup of water, and addressed in these words "Aspirant to the honor of a divine companionship! Seeker after celestial truth! This is the water of forgetfulness. Drink! Drink to the oblivion of all your vices - the forgetfulness of all your imperfections, and thus be prepared for the reception of the new revelation of Truth, with which you are soon to be honored."

That spirit, although not the form, of that ceremony, is to be found in ...[many of the mystery schools]..., and the candidate for apprenticeship is directed to close his eyes on the past, to lay aside the trappings and vestures of the outside world, the symbols of traffic and war, all that reminds him of the selfishness and discords of life, and turn his face towards more glorious future.

THE ANCIENT Indian mysteries were celebrated in subterranean caverns or grottoes formed in solid rock by human art and industry or in secret recesses of gloomy pyramids and dark pagodas.

The Cavern of EIephanta is the most ancient temple in the world formed by human agency. It is 135 feet square and 18 feet in height, supported by four massive pillars, and the walls are covered with emblematic decorations. There were four degrees in those Indian mysteries and the apprentice was first invested with the sacred cord of three threads, symbolic of earth, fire, and air.

After passing through the initiatory ceremonies and being instructed in the management of the consecrated fire and told how to perform the holy rites of morning, noon, and evening, the apprentice was clothed in a seamless linen garment and the cord placed over his right arm as an emblem of purification.

He was then placed under the special and exclusive care of a professed Brahmin, who became his spiritual guide, whose special duty it was to prepare him for the second degree.

The training was very severe; the apprentice was inured to hardship, he had to undergo rigid penances; he was inhibited from all indulgence, whether carnal or intellectual, and the whole of his time of preparation was passed in prayer and ablutions. His body was described figuratively as the city of nine gates, referring to the nine modes of exit - ears, nose, mouth, etc.

Much time was devoted to the study of the Sacred Books, and when the candidate reached the specified age, he was, if found upon examination to have made the necessary progress, advanced to the second degree.

IN THE Mithraic Mysteries the candidate was prepared by numerous lustrations with water, fire, and honey. There were many intense and protracted trials in the gloomy recesses of a subterranean cavern and, during his probation, the apprentice was condemned to perpetual silence, secluded from all society, kept in a cold, naked, and hungry condition, accompanied with an extreme degree of refined torture, and not infrequently did probationers die under the terrible strain.

If the candidate permitted his courage to forsake him he was rejected with the strongest expressions of contempt and forever regarded as profane and excluded from all religious rites. On the completion of his probation he was brought into the cavern of initiation, on entering which the point of a sword was presented to his naked left breast, by which he was slightly wounded.

Then he was crowned with olive, anointed with oil of ban (balsam of benzoin), supplied with enchanted armor, furnished with talismans, and purified with fire and water. Finally he was received by the Archimagus, who was seated in the Fast, who entrusted him with the sacred words, and explained to him the meaning of all the mysteries through which he bad passed.

IN CHINA the initiations were performed in a cavern, after which processions were made around the altar and sacrifices were offered to the celestial gods.

In Japan, the caverns of initiations were in the immediate vicinity of the temples and the term of probation before the apprentice could attain to the highest degree was twenty years.

The initiation ceremony itself was regarded as very sacred, and during his period of probation the apprentice learned how to subdue his passions by devoting himself to the lodge into which he was seeking abstaining from every carnal indulgence.

In Freemasonry, like all the ancient mysteries, in which the Eleusinian and Druidical may be included, is a vehicle of regeneration, of which the Third Degree is particularly an illustration. The Masonic apprentice, did he but realize it, has entered upon the regenerative path, or, in monastic and ascetic phraseology, the path that leads to Illumination. It is the Entered Apprentice Degree if rightly understood and applied, that gives the most lasting conception of the worth of Masonry.

IN FRANCE at one time it was the practice for the candidate for initiation to pass some hours in solitude in a wood or cemetery to reflect on the topics which had formed the subject of a conference between him and the Master of the lodge into which he was seeking admission.

He was instructed particularly to meditate on the human passions, hatred, jealousy, avarice, ambition, and all the other causes of disorder in society; then on the diversity of laws and religions in the world which so often prove the unhappy causes of war, hatred, and division.

In France also the candidate, after initiation and entry into the degree of Apprentice had to undergo certain prescribed probations in order that the Master might ascertain his moral character.

According to Masonic tradition, at the building of the Temple of Solomon, the Fellow Crafts took care of their succession by instructing the Entered Apprentices, the Fellow Crafts, in turn, being under the supervision and instruction of the Master Masons.

ACCORDING also to tradition, Entered Apprentices had three virtues particularly recommended to them, viz, a listening ear, a silent tongue, and a faithful heart, in order that they might listen to the instructions of the Master and to the cries of a worthy and distressed brother, that they might be silent in the lodge and not disturb its peace and harmony, but more especially in the presence of the uninitiated, that they might faithfully keep and conceal the secrets of Masonry and those of a brother delivered as such, which might thus remain secure and inviolable.