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What do they mean by skilled? A critical discourse analysis of skills policies for apprenticeship in Canada and British Columbia: 1980-2010

University of British Columbia

This study contributes significantly to scholarly debates about skill and its relationship to apprenticeship education in British Columbia and Canada during the period 1980-2010. Apprenticeship has long been viewed as a way of filling gaps for skilled workers in Canada and British Columbia. Political, economic and ideological perspectives of both federal and provincial governments of skills policies in apprenticeship have resulted in dysfunction and disjunctures at both the development and implementation stages. There is evidence that governments and industry play powerful roles in developing skills policies in apprenticeship, leaving post-secondary institutions to implementation while not respecting their role in training and development. This study takes into account the process, text, production, and implementation of skills policy in apprenticeship. It provides a representation of the complex and messy production and implementation of skill policy in apprenticeship. The rationalization and legitimization of skilled labour shortage and skills development discourses are influenced by globalization, technology, economic fluctuations, prevailing and changing ideologies and power structures. Neoliberalism and human capital theory are prominent in the concept of skill, as is power. A critical examination of texts was completed to identify the contexts of specific political periods, resulting in the identification of the central themes of skilled labour shortages at the development phase and skilled workforce development at the implementation phase. Unemployment, return on investment, industry and training, and barriers and perceptions are significant and contributing discursive themes. Overall the texts show a marked divide between the intentions of skills policy in apprenticeship and the delivery by post-secondary institutions. The intentions of skills policy in apprenticeship appear to be in responding to economic, not social, conditions.

Text

2014-08-19

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/50040

Educational Leadership and Policy

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/