ABSTRACT
The time-served apprenticeship is one of the oldest forms of structured work based learning. When formalized in England by the Statute of Artificers of 1563 it was already an old practice. Apprenticeship (in the old time-served model) peaked in the mid-1960s and has been in decline ever since. This has been partly because of the shift from manufacturing to service industries and the growth of new technologies. Also from the 1960s onwards there were concerns about the length of time taken to qualify (as much as six years in printing).
