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Dual apprenticeships combine a strong component of school-based education with highly regulated work-based training in integrated learning plans leading to a formal qualification and have proven successful in Germanic countries. They have been introduced by the federal governments of India and Mexico to raise the quality of current provision of skills, to improve the labour market conditions for young people, and to increase the productivity levels of the workforce.

However, policy transfer across different political, economic and social contexts raise important academic, policy and practice questions: Why and how dual apprenticeships are adopted and re-contextualized by national governments? And, how and under what contextual and institutional circumstances do dual apprenticeships create better and more equitable social and economic outcomes for young people?

Our project will analyse the drivers of the adoption and re-contextualization of dual apprenticeships in India and Mexico; it will evaluate their implementation and impact on inequalities of access, learning and labour market outcomes among young people; and it will provide evidence-based policy recommendations to inform current design and implementation of dual apprenticeships.

The overall aim of this project is to support more effective implementation of dual apprenticeship in India and Mexico and to strengthen the capacity of project partners to evaluate their apprenticeships in the medium to long term.


First published: 4 February 2021