The Economist mentioned the Sutton Trust on apprenticeships in a report on Britain’s underclass.

NOT much happens in South Shields at nine o’clock on a weekday morning. The high street is mostly empty, with just a handful of commuters at the metro station. The exception is the job centre, bustling with men and women searching for work as forklift drivers, industrial painters and at call-centres. Many have been looking for months, if not years, for paid employment.

Compared with much of continental Europe, Britain is doing quite well. Last year its economy grew faster than that of any other G7 country. Unemployment is 5.6%, next to 10% in France. Although high at 16%, youth unemployment has fallen. The share of youths not in employment, education or training (NEET) is 12%, around the rich-world average. Crime and teenage pregnancies are at record lows.

But in one area Britain still does especially badly. According to the OECD club of mostly rich countries, using data from 2012 and 2013, one in seven British youngsters leaves school early. Those dropouts are also the most likely to be unemployed in the rich world (see chart 1). Britain has the third-highest share of youngsters with poor literacy and numeracy skills, and the fourth-highest share who are bad with technology. And British NEETS are the most illiterate and innumerate.

In all this Britain contrasts especially with Germany, where youth unemployment is only 7% and the NEET rate is 6%. Many point to apprenticeships offered in Germany as one reason why youths do better there: around one in four employers offer them, compared with just one in ten in Britain. European youths often begin earlier as well: in Austria children who take up an apprenticeship may choose their future occupation when they are just 14.

Such systems can seem overly restrictive. But apprenticeships in much of Europe are generally of higher quality, and many apprentices also go on to further education. In Britain, apprenticeships only have to last for a year and their quality is patchy. In Germany most last for around three years, and apprentices learn different skills, says Conor Ryan at the Sutton Trust, a charity. At one fridge company in Munich, for example, a three-year long apprenticeship involves six months in different parts of the firm, from marketing to manufacturing, he says. This makes the apprentices far more flexible.

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