2.1. Introduction

Apprenticeships are based on the idea of lifelong learning by highlighting the role of the “social subject learner” in the development of individual and collective skills (Square 2018). Apprenticeships bring training and work closer together during professional life until they merge.

The experience of alternating between school and work, experienced by apprentices, develops in them favorable dispositions to learning in all formal or informal situations, in an experiential or didactic way, self-directed or not, intentional or accidental. As a result, the apprentice, immersed in a 70/20/10 apprenticeship model, acquires a permanent apprenticeship dynamic that will accompany him or her throughout his or her professional life and allow him or her to become a serial learner.

2.2. The apprentice in the 70/20/10 apprenticeship model

The 70/20/10 model is the result of research on the apprenticeship process and skills acquisition conducted by McCall, Eichinger and Lombardo of the Center for Creative Leadership (1996). The model divides our way of learning and training into three distinct areas: 70% of our learning is done through our experiences and practices, 20% through our social interactions and 10% comes from a formal mechanism through traditional training channels.

The interest of the model is in taking into account the environment as well as the employees’ appetite for training. On-the-job training and action-based training, at the crossroads of the old forms of “on-the-job” learning, are gradually incorporating the idea of skills development into the fabric of daily work.

Céreq’s work on the integration of apprentices highlights the dual benefit of apprenticeship. Professional experience acquired during training significantly reduces the length of time before acquiring a first job, regardless of the level of training (Coupié et al. 2018). Apprenticeship also has an impact on the quality and stability of the job obtained and the level of remuneration. In terms of remuneration received on recruitment, the gaps are particularly pronounced for higher-level apprentices. These differences persist over time (Cart et al. 2018).

In the context of work-study programs, the motivation of apprentices and the environment that puts them in a learning situation are two pillars of learning. The quality of the skills portfolio, which provides young graduates with good conditions for integration into the labor market through apprenticeship, is based on the mobilization, beyond the 10% of formal training, on the other two methods of acquiring skills.

On the one hand, the apprentice, thanks to the time devoted to practice and the acquisition of experience, benefits from this 70% of the acquisition of skills that is done through experience and practice. The “70” consists of learning and developing through new or challenging experiences and work situations, that allow to create, acquire or transmit knowledge (experiential learning, workplace learning, action-based learning). During his or her periods in the workplace, the apprentice experiences various experiential learning situations whose effectiveness has been demonstrated in numerous research studies:

• – integration into communities of practice (this tool brings together both forms of social and experiential learning);
• – solving problems related to the entrusted function and gradually extending its responsibilities;
• – research work;
• – participation in change projects.

On the other hand, the apprentice benefits from the skills acquired thanks to the fact of exchanging with his or her entourage and colleagues (the 20 of the 70/20/10 model). The apprentice learns every day in the company, by being around colleagues, managers and, in particular, his or her apprenticeship manager or by observing a colleague carrying out an activity. In companies that have set up a corporate social network or a collaborative platform to “organize” social interactions, the apprentice fully benefits from social learning and knowledge-sharing tools between learners in a collaborative way. The feedback from the manager (and/or the apprenticeship manager), relating to the missions entrusted to the apprentice, has an essential role in the development of skills. The formalization of tripartite appointments between apprentices, school tutors and apprenticeship managers in companies has a significant impact on the development of the apprentice’s skills.

Finally, this social learning apprenticeship also makes it possible to challenge academic conditioning to top-down training methods, from teacher to student. The workers in the formal part of the apprentice’s training are observing a change in attitude. The apprentice becomes an actor involved in the development of his or her skills during periods in a training center. He or she is motivated to acquire the skills that he or she can apply in practice. He or she becomes an active – and demanding – learner in the traditional channels of his or her training (the 10 of the 70/20/10 model). This is one of the explanations for the sustainability of the benefits of apprenticeship in terms of quality of pay, of employment and career development shown by research on the integration of apprentices (Cart et al. 2018).

In the context of work-linked training, the skills’ development of the motivated apprentice, placed in an environment in a learning situation, is based on the two pillars of learning, namely motivation and the environment. Once the apprenticeship contract is completed, not only does the apprentice enter the labor market with a portfolio of skills that provides him or her with real employability, but his or her experience as an apprentice promotes a dynamic of lifelong learning throughout their working life. The apprentice thereby becomes a serial learner.

2.3. Towards a permanent learning dynamic

Faced with the transformations and agility that companies want to implement, employees must continually develop new skills. This new kind of talent has a name: serial learning. A serial learner has the ability to train and learn by moving beyond the company’s traditional areas. The serial learner is an actor in the development of his or her employability. He or she is attentive to developments affecting his or her business and anticipates new skills to be developed. The learner is active and does not undergo training. To be a good serial learner, you need to develop five qualities: proactivity, sociability, learning ability, sharing skills and pragmatism (Frimousse and Peretti 2018, p. 17).

The apprentice’s experience contributes to the strengthening of these five qualities. It promotes learning behavior, an ability to develop into a dynamic of continuous learning, to enable people to become serial learners, developing their skills every day and thus ensuring sustainable employability. Some companies have made daily training a concept: “learn one thing a day”. Training is integrated into daily work. Learning becomes continuous, collaborative and informal. Serial learning impacts all three forms of learning: experiential learning, collaborative work and formal training. It allows organizations to respond much more efficiently to the challenges of their environment and of the markets.

The key ability of the serial learner is “learning to learn”. The dual supervision of the apprentice by the tutor, representing the educational institution, and by the apprenticeship manager, representing the host company, leads him or her to “learn to learn” and become a social learner. Throughout his or her professional life, serial learning will contribute to strengthening the learner’s flexibility, adaptability and capacity for innovation through its impact on the entire training value chain (identification of the need, development of a skills development system, implementation and evaluation of learning outcomes). Serial learning leads to action being taken on temporal and financial levers. It develops the ability to act.

2.4. From learning to the ability to act

The apprentice prepares for future work in organizations providing learning and training. Indeed, if employees are unable to act, their performance cannot keep up. The organization is thus led to set up a learning ecosystem to facilitate action, i.e. an adapted managerial approach that can enable employees to act.

The capability approach developed by Amartya Sen (2010) provides an interesting analytical framework for understanding the workings that enable an employee to become a real agent of change. It thereby enables the relationship between the working environment and people’s ability to act. The capability approach examines people’s opportunities in order to act and learn according to the resources they have and which they will convert into abilities (power to act) (Rajaona Daka and Dubois 2008). Conversion factors correspond to all the factors that facilitate or block an individual’s ability to use resources to “convert” them into concrete achievements (Bonvin and Farvaque 2007).

The way work is organized and interactions are encouraged remain key elements in stimulating learning. However, the learning ecosystem is incomplete if it is not “enabling”. The employee is the guarantor of his or her skills, but it is the working group that guarantees his or her abilities. A person’s ability to act depends not only on his or her individual qualities, but also on his or her environment in the broadest sense (Véro and Zimmermann 2018).

The enabling enterprise is therefore a learning organization that supports and encourages individual development projects. It reconciles career and personal development. Capacity requires, beyond opportunities, resources, conversion factors and mechanisms that allow people to identify, to express and to promote what matters to them.

One of the major challenges facing organizations is therefore to appreciate and exploit the learning potential of working environments. Capability sheds light on action in situations. Learning, as part of initial training, allows skills to be activated and to take shape. Such an approach advocates taking into account informal learning in the workplace and various ways of learning within organizations (Cristol and Muller 2013).

Apprenticeships’ success requires an enabling environment that facilitates exploration and exploitation and is wary of the danger of conformism. In an organization, it is necessary to constantly explore new ways of work within a framework of norms and rules. Faced with these challenges and the many paradoxes they generate, employees, in some cases, decide to circumvent collective rules and norms, i.e. to transgress, and therefore to be bold. Olivier Babeau and François Renon (2016) refer to the “Prince’s syndrome”, referring to Machiavelli, who gives the prince the privilege of derogating from the rules. By its very nature, boldness disrupts the order that refers to a set of prescriptions assigning a place to everything. However, boldness is the source of innovation, which causes a disorder, or even a rupture, within an organization structured by a normative mechanism. This transgression is the vehicle for the movement of organizations. Two dimensions are in confrontation: organization and rule, or innovation, audacity and transgression. The challenge for all companies is to mobilize collective intelligence and stimulate their creativity by accepting boldness and positive deviance (Frimousse and Peretti 2018).

Too much formalization induced by too many rules and procedures can lead to stumbling blocks and stagnation. Michel Crozier (1963, 1970) denounced these abuses in his book The Bureaucratic Phenomenon and advocated creativity and non-conformity to fight against a blocked society. He also pointed out that human interactions promote power games that are set out in rules. In short, regulatory activity is a founding principle of social action (Reynaud 1989).

Francesca Gino (2018) interviewed 2,000 employees from various sectors. More than half said they felt the pressure to conform within companies. She concludes that our organizations continue to focus on compliance at work. However, compliance with the standard can be counterproductive for the organization and for individuals. Submitting to a standard can develop a sense of a lack of authenticity and block creativity.

2.5. Conclusion

As part of apprenticeship, it is essential that the organization encourages boldness, a potential source of innovation. This positive deviance or rebel talent can be a managerial act, or even a value that claims the right to make mistakes within organizations (Carpentier 2014). The greatest originals are the ones that fail the most, because they try and learn the most. We need a lot of bad ideas to get some good ones (Grant 2016). Going against the flow fosters trust, sense of authenticity and level of commitment, and translates into higher performance and creativity (Gino 2018). However, deviating from the standard must be consistent with the organization’s values and strategies. Non-conformity at work must be constructive.