We include a report this week on a couple of stand-out apprentices in the UK and it's a reminder of how important apprenticeships are. For those unfamiliar with the concept, apprenticeships date back to the Middle Ages, when master craftsmen employed young people as an inexpensive form of labour in exchange for providing food, lodging and formal training in the craft.
Of course, it's far more sophisticated and better-paid today, and one of the shining examples of the value of apprenticeships is Germany, where two-thirds of people under the age of 22 began an apprenticeship in 2001 - and 78% of them completed the process. By 2003, one in three German companies offered apprenticeships and the trend has continued upward. Some say the entrenched system of practical skill acquisition is one of the reasons why Germany weathered the global financial crisis better than most other countries - and certainly better than its European neighbours.
So, well done to all those involved in apprenticeships - on both sides: the employers and the trainees.