**2. Configurations of sustained dual apprenticeship systems in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland**

The plenty of elements necessary to establish a "quality apprenticeship" [6, 7] have been identified through various steps and discourses since the 2010s. These discourses have taken different starting points for the identification of apprenticeship provisions that can be ordered at a continuum between a modular and a holistic approach. A modular approach identifies apprenticeship as a conglomerate of elements around forms of work-based learning (WBL), whereas the holistic approach identifies complex configurations of interconnected elements necessary for the proper functioning of the system. The various approaches taken over time have been condensed in the International Labour Organization (ILO) concept of "quality apprenticeship" [6] that encompasses ten key features (a tripartite system of governance, remuneration, a written agreement, social security coverage, a legal framework, a program of learning, duration, both on-the-job and off-the-job learning components, a formal assessment process, a recognized qualification) ordered by six building blocks (meaningful social dialog, inclusiveness, robust regulation, strong labor market, clear roles and responsibilities, equitable funding). This demanding systemic approach has been widely adopted in political discourses in the meantime.

A definition of apprenticeship given for the United States (US) draws a basic distinction to internships. "Apprenticeships provide long-term paid work-based learning opportunities and structured educational curricula that ensure the learner gains education and hands-on experience in an occupation, similar to how we train medical doctors with a mix of classes and residency experience. … Short-term workbased learning programs such as internships or staff development programs are not apprenticeships" [14]. In European Union (EU) research the different approaches of holistic and modular structures have been applied. Based on a modular approach an inventory of apprenticeships and work-based learning in the European Union has identified a widespread use of such practices [15].

The full definition of quality apprenticeships follows a good deal of the established structures in the paradigmatic countries analyzed in this chapter. Nevertheless, these structures differ in many aspects. Previous research and documentation have shown that apprenticeship is differently embedded in the overall education structures, in connection with compulsory education on the one hand, and with tertiary education on the other. Germany and Switzerland differ from Austria in both respects. On the side of compulsory education both former countries have gradually increased the educational and competence input before the transition into apprenticeship, whereas Austria has not changed the structure of this transition with the criteria of only reaching age fifteen as the minimum age requirement of fulfilling nine years of compulsory education, without any credential required. Austrian apprentices are therefore persistently mainly of the age 15-to-18-years old age group, and the original idea of building the Fachhochschule sector on top of apprenticeship failed; a vocational baccalaureate was established not before the late 2000s.

In Germany, a medium-level school credential (*Mittlere Reife*) was established with additional schooling time between the minimum compulsory school and the upperlevel academic school that included partly the access criteria for tertiary education. The main access to dual apprenticeship shifted gradually to this medium-level credential from *Realschule*, which provided the choice of prolonged compulsory school time; in addition, graduates from academic schools holding credentials for access to tertiary education also increasingly have chosen access to apprenticeship. Consequently, the age of apprentices shifted increasingly upward towards the age groups for tertiary education; in the early 2000s the average age of German apprentices was already almost twenty ([16], p. 163), and currently, almost half of apprenticeship beginners own the medium level credential, and an additional quarter own the credential from academic school with access to tertiary education ([17], p. 44). In Switzerland, the structure of compulsory education varies by regional units (Cantons) with a range of duration and broader access to academic schools with flexible and mixed access to dual apprenticeship [18–20]. The connection between vocational and academic education was increased through the vocational baccalaureate (*Berufsmaturität*) established in the mid-1990s, and subsequently the creation of the universities of applied science (*Fachhochschule*) in the late 1990s with exclusive access from the apprenticeship system. Consequently, the apprenticeship system is situated at the lowest end of the overall education structure in Austria [21, 22], whereas this system has increasingly shifted upward towards tertiary education in Germany and Switzerland; this creates substantial cracks in the trilogy. The further analysis of comparative data tries to find empirical representations of this crack, in order to explore its depth.

### **2.1 Apprenticeship in overall aggregate education structures: indications about its relationship to low-level and higher education**

This section explores to what extent the educational structures in the three countries with strong paradigmatic dual apprenticeship systems at the upper secondary
