McDonald’s apprenticeships: selling young people short
Posted on Thursday 8 January, 2009
Filed Under Society
THE ONE-TIME workshop of the world has transformed into a country content to leave provision of key job skills for young people in the hands of franchisee burger-flippers; McDonald’s will shortly become Britain’s largest provider of apprenticeships. You can almost hear the mocking laughter emanating from Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie HQ this side of the North Sea.
Time was when an apprenticeship meant training to be an electrician, plumber, shipyard worker or brickie. True, leaving school at 15 to take one up was an admission that a kid was ‘not academically inclined’, as we used to say back then.
But that didn’t mean to say they were thick. These are real skills, and in the words of millions of working class fathers – my own included – ‘learn a trade, son, you’ll never want for work’.
That was before Thatcherism criminally destroyed Britain’s industrial base. Instead of trying to regenerate it, New Labour took that as a fait accompli, and embarked on a headlong rush to fill the training gap by dramatically expanding the number of graduates.
In principle, everybody on the left fully supports the idea that university education should be open to all who can benefit from it, and supported by payment of a grant sufficient on which to live, come to that.
But three years of degree-level study just is not right for everybody. It wasn’t right for me at 18, for instance, although I was able to take advantage slightly later.
The trouble is, the ‘all must have degrees’ mentality cruelly dashes the expectations from those with 2.2 in poorly-regarded subjects from poorly-regarded institutions, who have little chance of securing what previous generations regarded as ‘graduate’ employment.
Now, you could argue that the advent of the McDonald’s apprenticeship is simply a sober recognition of where we are at right now. But at a time when the alumni of one school in particular are making comeback in their rightful role of leading the Conservative Party, the reality is that they will simply act as mechanism for reinforcing a massive existing educational class divide. Here’s how the Financial Times reports the story:
Up to 6,000 of McDonald’s 72,000 UK employees would be offered apprenticeships this year ‘providing staff with the opportunity to gain a valuable, nationally recognised qualification that is equivalent to five GCSEs grade A* to C, it said.
Equivalent to five good GCSEs? Leave it out. To the extent that there is any skill whatsoever in grilling patties of reconstituted cattle testicles, the knack presumably doesn’t take that long to teach.
Worryingly, McDonalds already has its own vocational equivalents to A-levels. The thing is, a history A-level will teach you about such themes as German unification, the rise of imperialism, world war one and the Russian revolution. Study economics in the sixth form, and you will get a grounding in the basic question of ‘who gets what’, while sociology will introduce you to concepts such as social class and even elementary Marxism.
The last thing a business built on systematic deskilling – a business such as McDonald’s, in other words – wants is a workforce that thinks critically about such topics as alienation in the workplace.
True, I haven’t actually seen the McA-level syllabus, but I doubt if it goes large on dangerous ideas. I’d also take a modest wager that nobody has yet gotten into Oxbridge on the back of this particular piece of paper, ‘A-level equivalent’ or not.
Equality of educational opportunity will never be achieved while social inequality continues to grow. But palming off teenagers from poorer backgrounds with fourth-rate pseudo-qualifications further entrenches their disadvantage. Is it any wonder that drug dealing starts looking like an attractive option?
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27 Responses to “McDonald’s apprenticeships: selling young people short”
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You haven’t lived till you’ve ploughed through 100 application forms with not one with anything less than a masters already, and a few with Doctorates, for a low paying clerical job…
Precisely. Although the problem remains: how to dismantle the class system when, as our friend Letters From A Tory recently pointed out on here, the Labour Party are unelectable without the support of the middle classes.
I find it particularly interesting – and revealing – that strict anti-discrimination employment legislation has never even been considered as a way of fighting workplace discrimination related to social class. We have legislation preventing unfair recruitment policies in respect of gender, ethnicity, disablity, and now even age – yet social class is, and always had been, significantly more relevant these other things in respect of unfair recruitment.
Also, the expansion of further and higher education to all social groups has, by its failure, illustrated that the true field of class antagonism is the workplace, not the classroom (or the tutorial room, for that matter). We can pass all the anti-discrimination laws we want in the education sector: but such activity remains a way of avoiding confronting the real issue – class antagonism in the world of work. If the current system has one chink in its armour, then it is the possibility that we could start to seriously demand anti-discrimination legislation in the workplace (and, crucially, recruitment to the workplace). That would seriously stir up some noise.
Thanks Dave, I served a 4 year apprenticeship to be an Engineer between 1972-1976, and now I know why, I was ‘not academically inclined’.
So, in the old days, after they’d shown an apprentice how to set up his lathe they handed him a copy of The Communist Manifesto? “As soon as you know how to do the job, lad, go on strike.”
I’d like to hear how the government’s campaign against obesity combines with sending half of these apprentices to McDonald’s.
Without seeing the syllabus or knowing anything about the qualification, I don’t see how you can write this. I think this is a positive development, recognising that workers in McDonalds work just as hard as anyone else, deserve something to show from time spent there and should not be consigned to a dead end.
No offence intended, John. But that was the official euphemism at the time, or am I wrong?
Fellow Traveller,
Yes in the old days the Unions were on the
boards of Training Boards. I remember my certificate of craftsmanship was signed by Hugh Scanlan AEU general secretary and chairman of the Engineering Industrial Training Board. Thatcher abolished the E.I.T.B the only reason I can think of is because she didn’t want Unions involved in training.
> The last thing a business built on systematic deskilling – a business such as McDonald’s
Indeed. Doesn’t Fast Food Nation claim that one of McDonald’s long-term goals was to create a ‘zero-training workplace’ ie the kitchens would be designed so that you could literally come in off the street and start work immediately, reducing training overheads to nowt. Bit rich for them to be providing “apprenticeships”.
Dave,
No offence taken, yes you are correct!
Yes, Dave, you are just wrong – either that or your memory is at fault.
Most of us went to secondary moderns which turfed out at 15, so the notion that you left because you were “not academically inclined” is tosh. You left because everyone else did. (And weren’t we pleased to be at the sec.mod. because the thought of staying an extra year at school when we could be out earning money and chasing girls is what made us laugh at the grammar school bods.)
The grammar school brigade lost a fair few at 15 as well, but the rest did not go on to university. Most of them took their O-Levels and went to work in the same factories that the others went to. It was just that the grammar school types worked in the office and we were on the shop floor.
Dave, stop trying to invent a history because it does make my piles itch.
Have a look at BTEC (or whatever they call them now) to get an idea of what MacDo’re likely to be teaching.
It’s strong on functional aspects, such as the Accountancy in BTEC Business and Finance (this is what it used to be called, befroe that an OND, leading to an HND, mind you’ve they’ve probably chanegd the name again now). But to say it encourages people to think about abstract issues: that is not the intention. They are however extremely valuable for people with a technical bent, and I am proud of those who have got qualifications in this way. I’m sure a lot of could be shown up for our lack of numeracy and technical skills by BTEC graduates. A bloody lot of us.
The problem is that MacDonald’s will exaggerate the worst side. Once described as student centred learning for right-wing ends, that just about sums up what I imagine is the jam-tasting-beef-slop-in-sweet-rolls manufacturer MacDonald’s strategy.
Exile, I did stay on for that extra year because I needed CSE’s(remember them), to get an apprenticeship. But as regards school and my parents an apprenticeship was the best that I could achieve.
The apprenticeship’s that we had during the 70′s were well rounded that enabled you to work anyware in engineering. I believe that was so because the Unions were involved in training at a national level.
As regards the McDonald’s apprenticeship’s I suspect that they will be an employer driven qualification that will not be worth the paper they are written on outside McDonald’s, but will satisfy the ”Investers in People”.
Yes, John, but only vaguely. Weren’t they another name for O-Levels? Or did you have to get a high grade so that they counted as O-Levels?
I agree 100% with your point about the old apprenticeship schemes and how they worked. The problem is today that the employers don’t want skilled workers because they then want more money.
About 18 months ago I was in the UK on one of my trips and I took my laptop into a Computer World shop to have some work done on it. They managed to balls it up and the shop gave me a free laptop and let me keep my old one – I knew that I could get it fixed in Mexico.
Chatting to the manager I asked him why the staff weren’t sent on a City & Guilds course to learn basic IT and why the technicians, who had messed up my computer, did not have a C&G diploma in computer repair?
The bloke replied that it would cost too much money. Give ‘em skills and they want more pay. Computer World cannot compete with all the on-line suppliers of computers unless it keeps its wage bill down. So what they do is employ any old Hungarian on the shop floor and the technicians have a supervisor who actually is a skilled man. The rest are just kids who have picked up bits and bobs here and there.
Here is the wonderful thing: the skilled men at the London branches of Computer World all seem to have problems with their visas. Yeah, they are illegals and are glad of any work at any wage. If they get their problems sorted out they take off elsewhere.
That is the way the UK is across the board. Low wage and low skill for the most part. When the employers do need skilled men, they get them from abroad as it is cheaper – and they don’t have to pay to train them!
Exile, CSE was Certificate of Secondary Education, If you got a grade 1 it was equivalent to an O LEVEL.
“True, I haven’t actually seen the McA-level syllabus”
I knew that the moment that I saw your post’s title. Well said, tim f (above).
Having employer-led qualifications is absolutely the right way forward. These qualifications start fairly basic but end up training people for management positions, such is their content. McDonalds and many other large employers have realised that if they train their staff and look after them, they are more likely to stay – which ends up saving McDonalds a lot of time.
Furthermore, when big employers design new qualifications they often become the industry standard (look at Microsoft’s qualifications in IT and programming) and provide an excellent benchmark to judge the skill levels of new or potential employees. Presumably if you think McDonald’s qualifications are a joke then you think the same of Microsoft?
This post was way below your normal standard. Without seeing a syllabus and understanding the issue, you were always onto a loser.
In the eighteenth century, it was often remarked of the English workingman that he was jack of all trades and master of none. Glad to see that traditional values are being upheld.
LFT I dunno whether its a fair analogy to compare Bill’s training programmes with Ronnies?
A bunch of my mid thirties mates worked part and full time for some years at McD’s in till monkey/burger mungling capacities and in management in the early 90s. Most are now in the 30-45k earnings in entirely different areas. They all developed strong friendships through it but little else. However, the lack of skill training made no difference to their ability to move on and do skilled work elsewhere though.
I taught my son long ago that the only thing you use McD’s for is the karzee, fingers crossed it goes the same way as Woolworths. The postman and gardener McLibel two put the case against McD way back and (largely) won at the High Court.
http://www.mcspotlight.org/case/index.html
If yr in London or Brighton and want fast food go to redveg.
http://www.redveg.com/
LFAT,
”Having employer-led qualifications is absolutely the right way forward.”
No it isn’t! In my long experience and I’m 53 this year is that in a downturn the first thing that is cut back is training.
Employer based qualifications aren’t much use outside of the firm you work.
I know that the training I had under the old E.I.T.B enabled me to move around in the engineering industry, that is more than I can say for the apprentices today because their training has a far narrower base.
LFAT: “look at Microsoft’s qualifications in IT and programming”
Microsoft’s primary qualification is the MCSE (Must Consult Someone Experienced), which provides a good background in Microsoft technology but not in problem solving generally. Five years or so ago, MS tried to restrict participation in product test programmes to companies that employed MCSEs, subsequently acknowledging that the challenging organisations they needed to work with did not employ MCSEs.
My quick Google suggests that UK school leaving age was raised from 15 to 16 in 1972 (implemented by Margaret Thatcher as Education Minister). So it is the roughly 57 year olds who may have had a shortened Secondary school education. “John” suggests that there was little opportunity post 15/16 years — perhaps forgetting his attendance at an FE for vocational training where they also conducted A-Level classes. From the 1960s, you could always get state education post 15 years — assuming that your parents could afford it.
In the US to manage at McDonald’s, you need a degree from Hamburger University.
Charlieman,
I had a Secondary Education and we were steared towards jobs in factories, I remember the school taking us on a trip to British Steel which is were most school leavers ended up in my area.
To get an apprenticeship was considered the best job for somebody from a Secondary Education. I can honestly say out of my group of school friends only one stayed on to do A Levels and then went to University, but he was exceptionally
clever.
Yes as an apprentice I did go to a FE college one day a week to do City and Guilds for 4 years.
And I must admit I did go to night school later on to do A Level Economics, but that was because as a political activist I felt I needed a understanding in basic economics, but thats another story.
I know this is veering off the original post but my sister and brother who are few years younger than me, both went to University, is that because they had a Comprehensive Education?
That’s it I’m not commenting anymore on this subject It’s looking like I’ve got a chip on my shoulder!
John: Don’t worry — if there is a chip on your shoulder, I failed to spot it.
From the right of politics, Tim Worstall commented today about graduate opportunities:
http://timworstall.com/2009/01/10/hmmm-8/
Perhaps while the world is in such a mess, we could address post 16 year education afresh. For a starter, we might be honest that a university degree in a non-scientific, non-vocational subject is economically useless. Study English Lit or History of Art if it is your love, but not if it is the only thing that you are academically good at. Acknowledge that at 16 or 18, most young people don’t have a clue about what they really want to do (exception: geeky science/maths kids). Create a continuing education culture where you can go to university when you are 30. Oh, and introduce border controls for self indulgent gap year tossers.
Charlieman,
Eh? I am 52 and left school at 15 in 1971, so the notion that you have to be 57 to remember that is just wrong.
And it wasn’t a shortened education, either. It had been lengthened in 1947 to 15 and there was still resentment at that fact amongst my generation. Still the teachers could just about control the 14 year olds, but when the leaving age was raised to 16, that is when serious grief began to be handed out to them. Now that NuLab wants to raise the age to 18 I predict all hell will break loose in the schools.
You cannot force young adults to waste their time providing employment for the thick as pigshit poly-wallahs who make up the teaching trade. People want to be out earning money, not playing silly buggers.
Charlieman,
Eh? I am 52 and left school at 15 in 1971, so the notion that you have to be 57 to remember that is just wrong.
And it wasn’t a shortened education, either. It had been lengthened in 1947 to 15 and there was still resentment at that fact amongst my generation. Still the teachers could just about control the final year, but when the leaving age was raised again, that is when serious grief began to be handed out to them. Now that NuLab wants to raise the age to 18 I predict all hell will break loose in the schools.
You cannot force young adults to waste their time providing employment for the thick as pigshit poly-wallahs who make up the teaching trade. People want to be out earning money, not playing silly buggers.
You’re a stuck up leftie ponce.
Graduate unemployment has often caused social instability. In the Depression, quite a few graduates who couldn’t find work, or at least work they considered suitable to their qualifications, turned to the Nazis. In the 1960s and 1970s, graduates who had trouble finding work were often drawn into urban guerrilla groups. Last week’s “Observer” quoted French concern about such groups arising, although whether it has much substance I don’t know. Education can breed dissatisfaction.