Companies’ assessments in hiring apprentices: A qualitative study in three vocations

The transition to company-based apprenticeships is a critical phase for those pursuing vocational education and training. Nevertheless, there is limited research on how employers assess candidates when hiring apprentices. In this article, we investigate the competencies employers seek when hiring apprentices and how they obtain information about applicants’ skills. The study is based on interviews with employers and training agencies in Oslo and Akershus across three vocational fields: health care, sales, and electrical work. The study builds on the literature on hiring practices and nuances previous research findings that emerge from quantitative studies on apprentice hiring. We find that apprentices are recruited through hiring processes that resemble open youth employment more than hiring in a profession-based labor market. Employers place significant emphasis on applicants’ motivation, willingness to learn, ability to follow workplace norms, communication skills, and teamwork abilities. High levels of vocational competence are not expected, and grades from vocational school are rarely used to exclude applicants; instead, employers make holistic assessments to understand who the applicants are as individuals, their competences and attitudes, to determine if they will fit into the work environment. The processes are inclusive in the sense that many youths get a chance to obtain an apprenticeship, but it requires that they have learned or can adapt to the norms of the workplace they are entering.