The merits of apprenticeship can be considered from two standpoints, according to whether it is viewed as vocational education or job training. In the first case, the relevant comparison is to full-time vocational schooling; in the second, to the youth labour market, including employment, unemployment and labour market programmes. Economic evidence on both comparisons is reviewed, based primarily upon subsequent labour market outcomes for participants along the two routes. The statistical and economic obstacles to reaching conclusions based upon such evidence are discussed. International comparisons and studies of aggregate productivity are then considered as additional sources of information. The evidence suggests that in contemporary advanced economies apprenticeship is associated unevenly with economic advantages, primarily as a source of more stable employment for young male adults, and more in relation to regular youth employment and training than to vocational education. The value of apprenticeship for females is low in some countries. Differences relative to full-time vocational education appear to be country-specific and generally only secondary in magnitude. © 1998 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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