The Apprentice Alliance

An Apprentice Alliance is needed in the UK. In San Francisco, the Apprentice Alliance is a non-profit organisation, which publishes 5,000 copies of its directory annually, matching would-be apprentices with over 200 'masters', people who have 'achieved excellence in their chosen fields' - craftsmen, cooks, gardeners, photographers, computer programmers, book designers, guitar makers, etc.

Masters are evaluated by the Apprentice Alliance for the quality of their work, their willingness to share their skills and for the conditions of their work place. The directory gives a biographical sketch of the master, a description of their work, and the master's conditions for apprentices - length of service, minimum and maximum hours per week and special aptitudes required.

'Matching would-be apprentices with over 200 'masters', people who have 'achieved excellence in their chosen fields' - craftsmen, cooks, gardeners, photographers, computer programmers'

Normally no payments or only small payments are made to the apprentices - labour is exchanged for education. Apprentices pay a total of $125 and masters pay $150 to the Alliance once satisfactorily matched, and the placement is monitored by Lu Phillips, the one Alliance staff member, who operates from a small office at the back of an artist's studio. She reports that 'when you match up someone who really wants to teach with someone who really wants to know, it is one of the finest one-to-one relationships.'

Apprentice Alliance, 151 Potrero Avenue, San Francisco, California 94103, USA (tel 415 863 8661). This scheme was highly commended by the judges in the Social Inventions competition.

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