Section Fourof their workforce as well as stronger relationships among
workers and supervisors. Supervisors and managers tend to
understand the jobs of their subordinates because many of
them were trained in apprenticeship programs.^79
Unfortunately, there are a number of barriers or
arguments in opposition to the adoption of German-type
apprenticeship programs in the United States. One anticipated
argument is that students will be forced to make the critical
decision whether to pursue a vocational or university track
while they are too young. Clearly, there will be a need for
greater career awareness so that students can make informed
decisions. Another argument is that because of the narrower
focus of apprenticeship programs, students will not have
sufficient breadth in their educations. A counter to this is that
many students are already dissatisfied with school at a
relatively early age and drop out anyway under the current
system. Another argument is that because of the specificity of
the training, the skills learned will become obsolete too quickly.
This is not necessarily true because some skills can have broad
applications. A final argument is that disadvantaged students,
who are more likely to be minorities, will be disproportionately
represented in the vocational track. As a result, they will have
limited occupational mobility and truncated career paths.
Unfortunately, the current reality is that the occupational
outlook for disadvantaged youth is already abysmal and limited