If we want to solve the skills gap issue in the U.S., maybe we should turn to reciprocity (like parts of Europe)

The Context Of Things

“You don’t really know what you get,” she says. “If someone tells you they’re an electrician, they could have just exchanged light bulbs at an amusement park or they could have worked, maybe, at complex problems.”

That quote is from an NPR article describing the difference in training workers across the U.S. and Germany. A German woman said the above to contrast the hiring of workers from both countries. See, the German system is different — there’s a three-year apprenticeship where they work three days a week at a company, and go to school the other two days (this ratio can also be 4-1). Once they’re done, they need to work three years for that company before they can leave (this is relatively akin to a company paying for an MBA/Masters for an employee and making it so that they’d have to pay back a high percentage if they leave…

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