What's the story with apprenticeship in Ireland? Higher education institutions' experiences in implementing a new model 2016-2023

Abstract

This paper reports on experiences of implementation of a new "consortium-led" model of apprenticeship in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Ireland. The findings show differences in understandings and interpretations of how the new model of apprenticeship is intended to work, both within and between HEIs. These differences are not clearly linked to any type of HEI, but they are reflected in different ways of operationalization, which has implications in terms of the ways in which apprenticeships are experienced and of activity and impact in inter alia the higher education and apprenticeship systems. The findings also show that the ways in which new apprenticeship is experienced as different compared with HEIs' existing provision include those related to teaching and learning, assessment of learning, and greater complexity and resource intensity. The research provides a contribution to knowledge in an area that has been explored little in the literature.