Apprenticeship in the `Golden Age': Were Youth Transitions Really Smooth and Unproblematic Back Then?

Abstract

This article challenges the taken-for-granted orthodoxy of contemporary youth studies that young people's transitions from school to work have become extended and fragmented in comparison to those of people who left school in the period 1945-75. It is argued that the characterization of the earlier period as a `golden age' of smooth, unproblematic, one-step transitions from school into the labour market misrepresents the experiences of people in that period and in particular, fails to understand the specificity of the apprenticeship model of transition which was experienced by around 35 percent of the male school-leaving age cohort. The discussion examines the experience of people in the period 1945-75 by reference to 30 interviews undertaken by the author with people who did apprenticeships in a variety of trades.