The Values of an Apprenticeship Program
For the past 8 years, My blog has always been a place where I can dump my ideas… to “bury my nuts” as my current subtitle says. Back in early 2005, I dumped a quote from Pat Metheny that grew into a book. Actually, that quote grew into 2 books, because Chad used it in The Passionate Programmer too. (We were reading the same blog)
I’ve been fielding questions about apprenticeship programs recently, and after 3 years of apprenticeships at Obtiva, I have some ideas solidifying that I thought I should dump here, in the event I want them later. And in the event they grow into something…
While I was wandering around Copenhagen and Malmö today, I jotted some thoughts down about what I consider are the underlying values of a successful apprenticeship program:
1) Learning over Teaching
The easiest way to sum up my thoughts on this is from one of my favorite authors, Christopher Alexander, in his epic book A Pattern Language:
In a society which emphasizes teaching, children and students — and adults — become passive and unable to think or act for themselves. Creative, active individuals can only grow up in a society that emphasizes learning instead of teaching. p. 100
2) An Opportunity to Work Hard
Again, I’ll defer to a quote. This time by best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers:
These [outliers are] people who were given a special opportunity to work really hard and siezed it, and who happened to come of age at a time when that extraordinary effort was rewarded by the rest of society. p. 67
3) Potential over Credential
This is a term we coined at Obtiva to help us remember how to focus our apprenticeship recruiting efforts. “Credential” refers to pedigree. We don’t necessarily want to go after the top graduates from the top computer science programs. We’re obviously open to talking to them, and have had success with people like Michael Hines from the University of Illinois. But it was Mike’s attitude and potential that set him apart, and resembled our previous apprentices’ pursuit of knowledge and excellence. “Potential” refers to the intersection of passion and an innate knack for computer programming. I’m still trying to come up with a good explanation for “the knack”, but I can speak to passion, and why that has become increasingly important. To put it simply: highly valuable information and tools have become essentially free, and the only thing standing in the way of high potential individuals is the passion to pursue greatness.
