Dr. Ditte Kimps’s scientific contributions

Apprentices are generally trained at one company during their apprenticeship. But, responsibilities in an apprenticeship can also be shared between different companies, through collaboration and external support, relieving the companies of the risks, time and effort associated with training an apprentice for an entire programme. Sharing apprenticeships is particularly relevant for companies which are too small (SMEs) or specialised to cover the whole curriculum of an apprenticeship, for companies which have a relatively short production horizon, or for those with limited availability due to seasonal or cyclical changes. For apprentices, rotating between different workplaces can be a solution whenever there is a shortage of companies which can cover the entire training programme. Rotation can thus be a solution for companies and apprentices whenever an entire apprenticeship is difficult or impossible to attain. How this rotation is organised is not always the same: there are different ways in different countries, and some countries even have several forms of rotation. This study reports such examples of rotation in different countries and investigates the possible benefits for companies and learners, as well as the issues which should be addressed. From these examples, the study identifies a set of aspects of rotation, such as the type of learner and level of education, whether or not rotation occurs in the same sector, the order of workplaces, individual or group learning, how many companies are involved, what the type of agreement is and whether the apprentices are remunerated. The last aspect, who or what is responsible for the organisation of the rotation, is what categorises the different examples into different types of rotation: rotation where the companies, the apprentices or an external body is responsible for the organisation.